Blessings Aren't Always Apparent at First (Monday, Nov. 22)

The Lower Pasture had nothing for the horses to eat, and with freezing weather coming, we could no longer use the hose we needed to fill their tank.  The Back Pasture had grown some nice grass while it was resting, and with rains coming, there's water in the pond.  The horses needed to be in the Back Pasture, but we had a problem--rotting pears on the ground.  The horses love them and run straight for them, and that is just asking for a bout of colic. 

So the pears had to go.  We drove the tractor near each of the four pear trees while we picked up rotten pears and threw them into the loader.  Some of them were mostly dried, which gave me an idea for next year (1).  They smelled like pear vinegar, which reminded us of a wonderful road trip we took from Bangui, C.A.R. to Obo in 1986.  As we rode through the jungle atop the high load on a big truck, our noses were assailed by the vinegary smell of rotting mangoes.  It may sound like an unpleasant memory, but it was really a magical time, and the smell of the pears brought it back (2).

We started finding pears that were mostly or even completely fine, so we piled them up on one side and saved them for pear pies (3). We ended up getting enough for four, so I baked two pies and froze two batches of chopped pears.

Herb dumped the loader-full of rotten pears on the compost pile (4) to make more good stuff for our garden next year.

The chickens and Sara got to enjoy some of the pears that weren't quite nice enough for pear pie (5). 

And that's my story of how an a-pear-ant nuisance turned into lots of blessings!