So remember I told you about days getting ready for a fry? Well those days could actually start earlier, when they would go fishing. Norman and Rick fished every spring and fall. Actually, they would line fish for blue gill for bait for their trot lines, set and bait their lines and go run them the next morning. This is about ten am after running a line and getting a lot of flatheads. They would fillet them together and share in the "bounty" after they were done. In this particular instance, Normans' brother "Pap" had gone with them. The folks he'd been fishing with weren't having any luck. These guys sure did!
2004 - Leaving Baptist and moving back closer to home to work meant giving up my weekends and holidays off, it meant going back to night shift again and somewhat of a pay cut but those concessions far outweighed the benefits of being 15 miles from work versus 84 miles from work! And it meant going back to only 3 12 hr shifts in a week instead of 5...(with pay for 8hr shifts). Being closer to home meant more time at home with my family :) December 25, 2006 found me working day shift finally! Whew, nights was about to get the best of me. And to start on Christmas day! You know usually Christmas is pretty slow in hospitals but that Christmas was very busy! Probably the busiest I have experienced in all my 32 years of nursing. We had some sick people in our unit around then.
Our farmers market experiences were wild sometimes. There were days when I wanted to say get real. My vegetables are homegrown. You wont find that anywhere else in this market! Some people would look at my tomatoes and green beans and whatever else I had and look at my "neighbors" next to me and would by from his because his tomatoes were "perfect" and mine were not; there was a good reason for that! Mine were picked fresh off the vine and his were picked green and shipped to an Amish food market where he bought them by the box! Then I had my regular customers who would not buy from anyone but me. It would make some people so jealous, I would catch them staring at me.....oh well! My father-in-law loved to come down to the market and sit and watch and talk with the customers. Many of them knew him from the days when he had a produce stand in Rhoda. (that is between Chalybeate and Brownsville) I will miss the market. Got a call yesterday from a regular customer who wanted to know if I was going to have beans this year. I told her I didn't even set out tomatoes. That part was Rick's and he took care of all of that. Last year I had a lady call me everything in the book because I didn't have a bushel of potatoes for her! I told her I was out and it was first come, first served and I couldn't save them for her. It was the end of the season and there were no more. She said "but I told you I wanted them" I reminded her I'd told her to come early! Many, many times folks would ask for special things and we'd lose them because we wouldn't sell them to anyone else and then they'd be a no show. But not everyone bought their produce that they sold. Amanda grew 100% of hers as did Angie; but they were not there as often as I was. So on many, many days my produce was the only "home grown" produce there. And, just in case you are wondering, if you make a request at a farmer's market and they tell you when to be there.....do it!
Nick had planned on having potatoes and corn, but the early May rain caused the potatoes to rot. It also stunted the corn so he may not have anything! It will be interesting at the market this year to see if anything is really home grown!
Enough on the farmers market!
One thing we really loved to do together was go camping. We bought a camper, sold it and bought another one. Sometimes I wish we'd kept the first one, anyway. We go to Barren River Tailwaters each June and camping with a group of neighbors (yes, we move Wingfield to the lake) in July. We have a blast! One day while we are there we go out for breakfast, and one day while we are there we cook all together and I am in charge of the biscuits. Homemade from scratch and we bake them on the grill! They are so good! We make gravy and cook bacon and sausage, eggs and potatoes. We have sliced tomatoes and jellies. The campground smells great! And every time we go it STORMS the first night there! Last year, my "neighbor" was in a tent. I was up early and had a pot of coffee made. I was the only one from our group up already. (Well, except for Rick, who had to leave early and go sell veggies until 1pm.) Anyway, I offered this neighbor a cup of coffee. He had been in that tent when it stormed, he looked like he'd been soaked. He growled at me and I didn't speak to him anymore. I was just trying to be a neighbor! That is what I do! ❤
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