Timmy

That is what we called him. It wasn’t his real name. His real name was Timothy Bartholemule, but he was never called anything but Timmy. 

Timmy was a burro I bought at an auction back when I was old enough to know better, but young enough not to care. My friend Skip and I decided to go to a horse sale at the Greybull Auction yard. Mom warned me “not to bring home another horse!” Well I didn’t … not really. 

When he came into the ring, it was love at first sight. I knew I just had to have that silly little creature. He was just as cute as a button, and looked so lonely that my heart made me bid; after all, it wasn’t a horse. I paid a whopping 28 dollars for him. I am ashamed to say that I had sneaked a whole bunch of silver dollars from my change jar into my pocket. So I bought the burro. 

But now we had a problem. Skip’s pickup was not set up to haul livestock. We had a horse trailer, but it was at home and I was afraid to go home and get it. I knew that if Mom saw the burro she would fall in love with him just as I did, but I didn’t want to have to tell her about buying him without him there to soften the blow. 

Skip’s boss had a pickup with a stock rack on it and so we went and borrowed it. Of course it was out of gas, so we had to put gas in it that cost some more of those silver dollars. Finally we got the burro loaded, and headed home. I was about half sure Mom was going to kill me, but also half sure it would be love at first sight. What really saved me was my sister-in-law. She had always been afraid of the horses, but she came running out and actually climbed up on the stock rack to love on that burro. She showed absolutely no fear of him. When he started braying, she thought he was dying and burst into tears. 

We got him unloaded. Assuming that every four-hoofed animal was meant to be ridden. I jumped aboard — then he promptly unloaded me. Later I found that he could be ridden by little kids when someone was leading him, but he would not carry bigger people at all. 

It all ended well though because we had a blind mare that we couldn’t put with the rest of the horses because my older mare would corner her and beat her up. So Timmy became Sparky’s companion; they were almost inseparable. She followed him by scent or sound and he took good care of her. 

I was forgiven, Timmy was loved and Sparky had the best companion she could have. All’s well that ends well. 

But I do remember telling Mom, “Well he isn’t technically a horse.”

Pickled Beets

Select small young beets, cook until tender, dip into cold water, peel off skins, and make the following syrup. 

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

2 cups strong vinegar

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon all spice

1 thinly sliced lemon

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Pour over beets and simmer 15 minutes, Pack into jars and seal. A little grated horseradish added to pickled beets give variety. 

Notes. Watch the vinegar now, some of it isn’t 5% acidity. For pickle recipes it must be 5%. 

Also these will have to be processed 15 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. They are so pretty, and a bonus, when a jar is emptied, some hard boiled eggs can be pickled in the leftover syrup.