First Solo Canning

A box of pears for $3 finally gave me the final push to try canning. I bought two. There's still one left, and I have 8 beautiful jars of canned pears. All have sealed, the dishes are done, and it took just under two hours start to finish. What fun!


Now I'm the type of person who is happy to do things like this for the pure joy of it, and for the satisfaction of learning a new skill (and perhaps a little for the knowledge that if the world as we know it collapses, I have one more skill under my belt to feed myself). I'm the type of person who will knit a pair of socks that, if I were to take into account the hours of work and the cost of the yarn, would be worth $100. And I won't mind. I will enjoy it, and I will do it again.

However, I am curious about the economics of these pears. Lets do some calculations:

Jars: $0.75 at GIRO
Lids: $3.50
Pears: $3.00
Labour: $20.00 (2 hours at $10/hour)

Total: $27.25
Divide by 8 = $3.40 per jar

Not bad! Aside from the joy of it, I think it's economically worth it too. Perhaps not a savings, but definitely less ridiculous than the socks.

A post for cute things

I present to you my latest find at the G.I.R.O. : One-cup coffee percolator. Cost 25 cents and makes fantastic coffee. And have you ever seen such a tiny, cute little percolater? For those who are already percolator users, you may have a knowing smile on your face now, remembering when you switched to the percolator and how good the coffee tasted. I have joined the ranks of percolatarians. And to think of the fantastic camping coffee this will make!

Speaking of cute, here are some little spider plan babies I have repotted. There were seven in the litter to start, and I've given away three, and taken one to my office at work. Now I'm propogating some little rosemarys from the huge bush in the yard, and have a wee mint on the go that nearly succumbed to mealy bugs but I think it will pull through.

To top off the cuteness, I found this tiny little feather in the driveway. My camera refused to focus on it, but I think this fuzzy picture is still rather cute.

Since my project isn't cute at all, I'm not allowed to talk about it in this post.