in a pickle

When do we make pickles?! It's actually not that complicated to get at least the dill pickles done, but it takes a good bit of time and a lot of space (and mess). Also sequencing, which I'm bad at—with the last batch I was already to get started only to find we were almost out of dill seed, and this time I needed to make a trip to the store for lids. And worst of all, it's hot! Having a growing collection of pickling cukes in the fridge is a background stressor that definitely makes me feel increasingly uneasy as time goes on, so yesterday at the farmers market I bought six or seven more to force the issue. And this evening, even though it's "excessive heat watch" hot and I was tired and it was the boys' bedtime Zion, Elijah, and I got it done. They were delighted, and I'm relieved. They also wanted to make bread-and-butter pickles, but that's an entirely more complex process that we're going to have to save for another day. Or maybe even another year...