Gone batty (son of a beet!)

Long weekend. Nice. I spent most of it brooding on the book. Gotta do that once in awhile or the writing seems to go the wrong direction and I’m a helluva lot longer making things right. But it’s right as I can make it on this pass and the search for a buyer continues.

Gram has been having bat problems at her house. Young or sick bats find their way downstairs from the colony that lives somewhere in her attic. Gram is terrified of bats, but has gotten better at killing them in the years since Grampa passed. One was in her bed one morning and she trapped it under the covers, beating it to death with a badminton racket. Then she swept up her sheets and stuck them in the washer. Go Gram. Not bad for 86. The last two bats she hasn’t been able to find. Maybe they found their way out or back upstairs or the little dog got them and ate them. Gram spends a lot of time in blissful ignorance about what her dog eats. I spent way too much time knowing exactly what they eat and end up with images of calf spine burned in my head. Knowing which dead animal the dogs are chewing on and having a memory of the animal alive or at least being birthed is just too much information.

On a less gross note, I learned to can this weekend. Kind of. We’ll see. Gram wanted beets to can this year so we planted three rows and she used maybe a third of them, enough to make seven quarts or so, and said she was done. So I’ve got beets out my… ears. I’m not a big fan, but figured I’d pickle them and make relish and how bad could they be? The brine smelled pretty good and it was a good experience canning the first time only having to do a hot water bath to seal the lids. My dad’s ex-girlfriend blew up a canner once and I’ve been kind of leery about the whole process ever since. Of course, she’s eating the wallpaper paste, the wallpaper paste does not eat me fucking loony, so maybe I’m worrying for nothing. All together, about February, we’ll probably be really into all the food I’ve put up and will put up.