Cherry jammmm

This year for the first time I decided I should store some of my fruit instead of just eating them all. I myself am completely clueless about how to bottle things so I asked Jenny if she would teach me how to make jam in exchange for half of my cherries. She said she would so the week after the 4th I started picking my fruit. The first day I picked for 3 hours and filled a big blue tub full of cherries. I thought it would be smart to fill the tub with water and save me having to rinse them later... anyone who cans is saying "oh no" in thier head right now. I got busy and left the cherries, went to billy's double header fast pitch game in monticello and when we got home at 11:00 pm I had forgotten about them. The next morning I went out to pick some more. I found them rotten!! The whole tub foamy and brown and stinky! I called debbie so mad and on the verge of tears. I wasted all that food that could have become a part of my food storage. I picked the rest of my tree that day and filled the tub one more time. I didn't put them in water and I took them imediately inside. I was sure that now I had barely enough cherries for my jam. The next day I went up to Jenny's and we began. We made 7 batches of jam and still hadn't used them all! I was there for 5 hours! Needless to say I learned alot! I called Debbie today and told her that I decided it was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father that half my cherries had spoiled!!