Pears anyone?

So I'm out in my back yard today because I? am home sick again. I've walked all around the yard and I come to the pear trees. These babies are so loaded with pears that the branches are very weighed down, some even touching the ground. Now, just what in the hell am I supposed to do with 500 lbs of pears? I've eaten all i want to eat. I've made pear sauce, I've frozen some for a pear tart later (when I'm not so sick of pears) and I've given so many away that people are sick of them at work too. It kills me to see good food go to waste, but I've had my fill.

I know, how about if you all send me your addresses and I'll ship you some, you know, like the fruit of the month club! It will be great! Right? Hello?

Okay, so not so much, but any suggestions? I'm going to can some, but how many jars of pears does one family need? If I don't get some ideas soon, y'all are getting canned pears for Christmas. (Y'all? What is that? Where am I, Texas?)

I had the same dilemma with crabapples but I didn't stress too much about that one as they're not really good for anything except crabapple jelly and who really wants that anyway? They've all come down off the tree. Wee G is happy about that as he is the designated fruit picker-upper. Soon he'll be picking up pears.

For some reason I've been having Grandparent flashbacks/yearnings lately. I miss them so much and I wouldn't want them back on this earth because it would mean they would have to suffer with horrible debilitating diseases, but if I could go back to when I was 9? before either of them got sick, before Grandpa got in his accident, I would go in a heartbeat. There was nothing like curling up on the couch next to Grandma, or helping her clean out the decorating tubes, or sampling the cake scraps to make sure they tasted okay. There was nothing greater than Grandpa giving me white tic tacs at bedtime and telling me they were sleeping pills. How about using one of Grandpa's t-shirts as a nightgown (that right there tells you how long ago these memories come from.) Grandpa always used to come home from work and set his lunchbox on the counter and pretend to be preoccupied with something. We would sneak out and dig through his box looking for leftover goodies, usually Fig Newtons. Sometimes he even had Wrigley's Spearmint gum in there. Not sure if those were planted there for us, but I wouldn't doubt it. God I miss them.