Finished the Pears

 We finally got through all of the pears.  Four processing sessions and a result of 28 quarts!  That's fourteen quarts a piece for my neighbor and I.  The first canner full was a little intimidating.  We didn't really know what we would be up against.  Once we got our routine figured out, and could estimate our yield, the second batch was sort of fun.  It was taking us about three hours to process one batch at a leisurely rate.  One person would have had an extra hour of peeling on their own.  The third batch we delayed one day for weariness, but proceeded with resignation.  That one turned out the prettiest with our pears pure white and our syrup clear.  We were getting good at this.  

The fourth batch... well, we still had a lot of pears and told each other we'd come this far, we weren't going to quit now.  We'd better finish what we started.  The fourth batch took us the least amount of time because we knew exactly when in the peeling process to start the water bath pre-heating so it was ready exactly when we got the jars packed.  

While we were peeling the fourth batch, one of our other gardening friends happened to call.  Neighborlady put the phone on speaker and set it on the counter as we peeled.  

Friend: "Well, I just got out of the garden and I wondered if you would like to come over and make Salsa?"

Us in unison: "NOOOO!"

She hadn't, at that point, realized that she was on speaker phone and we were both there up to our elbows in pear juice for the fourth time this week, so she was a little taken aback at first.  You don't usually get a resounding Hell No! to an offer like that.   It really wasn't an off the wall idea.  We all have tomatoes and peppers and onions lying about and the past two years the two of them had made pretty nice batches of fresh salsa together.  We were just tired of peeling and chopping and rinsing.  And our fingernails are a funny color, and our legs are aching from standing at the counter.  We're done.