It Was Supposed to be a Productive Day

With the cooler weather we’ve been enjoying, I was looking forward to having a productive Saturday. The plan was that Oscar would go into town to get a haircut and purchase more bedding for the chickens while I stayed home and processed pickles from the cucumbers I bought at the Farmers Market last weekend. He would get home about the time the pickle project was completed. Then we would join forces to put the plastic on the hoop house and make it into the greenhouse it is intended to be.

Plan in place, Oscar left to do his stuff (though I don’t know how he managed to make an hour and a half errand take four hours), and I started the pickles.

If I say the words “Mandolin Slicer,” who will know how the rest of the story goes?

That’s right, I looked away as I was finishing slicing the Second cucumber and sliced off part of my thumb.

By the time I got the bleeding slowed down enough to bandage my thumb, clean up the blood I had tracked from the kitchen to the bathroom to the kitchen to the bathroom, and re-sanitized everything, I had lost nearly an hour – almost the amount of time the original project should have taken.

The good news is I finished the pickles (with a vinyl glove on my hand) and am now the proud owner of 5 pints of bread and butter pickles. Even better, I successfully processed them in my Nesco Smart Canner – my first success using it! I had leftover cucumbers and vinegar/seasoning solution so I just put a lid on 2 additional pint jars to see how it all works out as refrigerator pickles.

Someday I will master the fine balance between having the contents float and “do not overstuff the jars.” Today was not the day though. Nevertheless, I’m counting this as a win.

Nothing else on the list was accomplished. It’s rather difficult typing this with my wounded and sore thumb. Yes, I have put cut-resistant gloves on my Amazon Wish List to wear when I use with my Mandolin Slicer.