Farmer's Market

I went with Hannia to our local Farmer's Market this morning. First of all, I had every intention of getting there around 8ish. That didn't happen. But we did make it there by 10. I was a little disappointed that there was not more veggies, but its still a little bit early for a lot of the things that I was hoping for. I wanted some fresh corn. There has been some pretty corn at the grocery store, but I guess its too soon for the local corn. Hannia wanted peppers, and none of those were to be had either. There were lots of beautiful tomatoes and squash. And lots of greens, too.

What I wasn't expecting was the ton of other stuff there. OMG!!! Hannia and I went to find healthy foods...LOL. But there were stands with ALL kinds of homemade baked goods. Breads, cakes, pies. So much yumminess under one roof. We bought fried Mango turnovers for breakfast. How healthy does that sound? Those were pretty tasty though. There were some local strawberries, but we just had a ton of those last week. I went with the blueberries this time around. They were grown on a farm just a couple of miles down the road from us. And peaches. Those were brought in from SC, but they look really delicious. Oh, and I FINALLY found local honey there. I was so excited. It is hard to find, and I have been told that a small amount of local honey every day will help alleviate allergies. Your body builds up a tolerance to the pollen. I have no idea if it really works, but I want to try it. My allergies have been wicked this year. I also bought goat milk soap and mint plants...(for Mojitos-I figure if the honey doesn't work, I will just drink my ailments away. Sounds like a viable plan, doesn't it?).

Anyway, I was surprised how much that market has changed. It used to be a few local farmers selling veggies. Now its full of stuff...seafood, jams and jellies, fresh eggs, roasted nuts, and gourmet coffees....I can't even list it all. And it was really packed with people, too. I had trouble finding a place to park. But it was a nice experience. I definitely will go back. And maybe soon the corn, peppers, and melons will come in. I look forward to that!

Erica participates in a local produce co-op program up there in her town. Its really kind of cool. She pays a set price per year (I think its $400 for her), and twice a month she goes to a certain location and picks up her share of what is available at that time. She got lucky that her pick up point is literally just at the end of her street. And she gets some yummy locally grown foods, including local honey. Lately, she says she has been drowning in greens like spinach and kale. Things have been a bit delayed due to a really rainy spring. But the other veggies will be coming in soon. It sounds like a really nice way to promote local food producers and I wish we had something like that here. I guess the Farmer's Market will have to suffice.

Made me LOL

STILL Sleepless in NC.....

I still didn't get much sleep again last night. There were no cops or commotion going on, Thank God, but it still got a little weird around here. For starters, I have done something to my knee. It doesn't hurt to stand or walk, but things like deep knee bends or kneeling sends shards of pain up my entire leg that feels like somebody just struck me with a searing hot branding iron. And I decided to ignore that and go to the Ab/Core class yesterday afternoon. There was lots of kneeling involved. I did it anyway. And last night my knee ached like a bad toothache, even after taking as much ibuprofen as safety allowed. It was impossible to get comfortable. I saw midnight on my bedside clock. Then 1 am. I think I finally fell asleep around 2. And then....

The doorbell rang at exactly 3 in the morning. I woke up halfway thinking I had dreamed it. But then it rang again, and this time the dogs started barking so I knew I wasn't imagining things. I slid out of bed and tiptoed across the hall to peek out of the front-facing windows in my daughter's room. Of course, it was pitch black outside so I couldn't see anything. But standing there in the dark, my brain still groggy from sleep, I started thinking about the guy who was running away from the police on our property. Why in the world a guy running from the cops would be standing on my doorstep, ringing the doorbell at 3 am I can't tell you. But I got a little freaked out. The doorbell rang again while I was standing there, and suddenly I began thinking of all the reasons anyone would be at our door at this time of the morning. None of them were good.

I managed to work myself up into full scale panic, and the bell....oh yeah...it rang again! I am pretty sure it was exactly the same as every other ring, but somehow it sounded more insistent this time. I started down the hall. I have NO idea why because I am fairly certain that I wouldn't have the nerve to actually open the front door to face a stranger. Not at 3am, in the dark, wearing my nightgown. But I was heading that way like my feet weren't attached to my brain. Halfway down the hall 2 things occurred to me simultaneously. First of all: Our doorbell has been broken for a while now. WTF? And secondly: There was an ominous electronic buzzing in the hallway.

I tracked down the buzzing sound to the doorbell "box" (I have no idea what to call it). It sounded like it was about to blow up. I decided that I would have to wake up my husband, because this was way beyond my area of expertise. Plus, I didn't want to go back to bed only to have the thing explode and burn the house down. Of course, despite the ringing doorbell, the barking dogs, and impending doom and destruction, Bruce was sleeping like a baby lamb. Somehow he managed to get up, locate a screwdriver, disengage the buzzing doorbell box, and drift right back into peaceful, lamb-like slumber all under a minute. Sigh.......I was left feeling really nervous, and twitchy, and nowhere near ready to sleep. I saw 4 am on the clock, and then 5. I think I finally calmed down enough to sleep around 5:30.

And thats when our adorable, living, breathing, cute and furry alarm clock cat, Omen, decided to make her morning visitation. Every day, like clock-work, Omen jumps on our bed at 6 am. She sticks her nose against our faces and meows loudly.
She parades back and forth between the 2 of us, climbing on top of Bruce, then me, then Bruce again. She kneads us like a bread-maker, taking great care to be sure that her sharp little claws pierce through the top layers of our skin. She has taken it upon herself to make sure that we are aware that our alarm is going to go off in half an hour. Just in case we miss it or something. She doesn't think that last half hour of sleep is necessary. Plus, if we overslept she might not get her breakfast on time, and that would be a tragedy!

Oh well, hopefully nothing weird or crazy will go on tonight. Wish me luck! I am in desperate need of a decent night's sleep.

Sleepless in NC

Around 9:30 last night, while Bruce was chatting on the phone with his Dad, we heard a whole bunch of police sirens going off like crazy. It was so loud that I actually got up to see if one of the dogs had pushed opened the back door (Shep does let himself in like that occasionally. He hasn't learned how to close the door behind him after he comes in though). It sounded like the police were right in our backyard. But after a few minutes it all died down, we never saw anything go by our house, so we forgot about it.

About an hour later, I walked down to our bedroom to get ready for bed, and my room was lit up like a disco with blue flashing lights, and all kinds of commotion going on right outside. WTF? I came down the hall, yelling for Bruce, and told him to check out the front door because something was going on right out there in our yard. We were both so surprised. He walked out there and discovered that there had been a hot police chase, and the wayward car had somehow ended up stuck right on the edge of the deep ditch that runs along the edge of the woods right beside our house. Then the guy took off on foot and was supposedly running around out there in the woods, warranting at least 7 cops cars, search lights, and police combing the woods with flashlights. They never found this man. And all that they would tell my husband was that it was something "domestic".

They finally gave up, had the car towed, and left around midnight, but I couldn't sleep. They were looking in the woods beside the house, but it wouldn't be that hard to clear the ditch and sneak off into the 17 acres of pine trees right behind us. Nobody ever looked there. And just what the heck did this person do to wreak so much havoc? Would a simple domestic dispute be worth a car chase and manhunt? My imagination ran wild with all the heinous things that MIGHT have happened. With all the places on our property (barns, outbuildings, trees) where this person MIGHT be hiding. Chances are he was long gone by then, but still.....It kind of scared me a little bit. I don't enjoy having crime take place right here on my property. My husband assured me that everything was fine, the police knew the guy's name and address, so he wouldn't be able to get too far. But I couldn't help but notice that he took special care in locking up all the doors last night. Sometimes, and I KNOW its terrible, but we actually forget to lock up. Its rare, but it does happen. Not last night, though.

The strange thing is that I can't find out anything about what was going on. No reports on our local news websites, nothing in the paper. Weird. I just hope I don't think about it all night tonight, too. I am tired and sleepy today!!!