The Trouble with Labs

A weekend ago I picked almost the last of my green beans as the garden winds-up for the season.  From those beans I culled the largest and straightest specimens so I could put-up a batch of pickled dill beans - colloquially known as dilly-beans.  I figured I had enough for three or four pints.

  Yesterday I ventured back into the garden and picked the balance of the yummy Blue Lake green beans - including enough additional long, large and straight ones to make a larger batch of dilly beans.  And I discovered this...

click on image to enlarge

Evidence of dog damage.  Chomped-off green beans with just the end attached to the bush.

Our Labs love green beans.  They'll do just about anything for a green bean and when you find this in the green bean patch you know they have been filching green beans when nobody is looking.  In any event the dog damage was not substantial and it's certainly not the end of the world.  It's the end of the season.  Who's going to begrudge a Labrador retriever and her soulful, big brown eyes a green bean or two?  Besides, I picked enough green beans for several meals and I figured enough more to make two to four more pints of dilly beans.  

After picking the last of the beans I pulled the plants and moved them to the compost bins to return to the earth.  I left my LL Bean tote (pardon the pun) partially filled with fresh green beans on the driveway at the entrance to the attached garage and went about my business working in the garden.  Leaving the tote there constituted mistake #1.

At some point Jill let the Labs out of the house to wander about and play in the yard.  Not an unusual move - but this was mistake #2.

At some point I went into the house to check day job email.  Mistake #3.

Jill returned to fix herself something to eat - unaware I was in another location in the house.  Mistake #4.

The dogs were now officially free-range and unsupervised.  Responsible adults in the house - unsupervised dogs outside of the house.  Mistake #5.

Said Labrador retrievers eventually found their way to the garage entrance and discovered the canvas tote with the green beans unattended and available for their dining pleasure.  Opportunistic feeders that they are this was like stumbling-upon the Mother Lode.  And they gleefully commenced to help themselves from the LL Bean green bean feed bag.

Jill eventually returned to her outdoor tasks and discovered the girls finishing their ill-gotten repast.  She sought me out to inform me that the dogs had discovered the bag which she promptly placed beyond their reach.  Her observation was that there weren't many beans in the bag so they probably didn't get much.  She was half right.  This is what was left...

The bag had previously been almost half-full.

Long story short I put-up two quarts of dilly beans.  And won't repeat that mistake again.