Today started at 4:45am and I was working by 5. It was cold enough for a vest over my long sleeved shirt this morning which is a nice feeling to be getting all snuggled up again. That is one of my favorite parts of winter is that it opens up a whole different section of my wardrobe! But the cold mornings lead to really beautiful time between 9am and 11am and after 3pm till about 5pm. It's still blazing hot during the mid day though. It was pitch black till about 5:30 but I took this short video of my field of vision while in the cart, so you guys could better understand what chores are like.
We were really late leaving the house today because of variables like kids and washing eggs and loading coolers. We arrived at the market around 7:40, and we usually get there at about 7 so we have an hour to set up. We were pretty rushed and from about 7:40 to 7:55 it was just me! Jim had dissappeared! I was thinking oh man, Am I going to have to run this market all by myself? But Jim turned back up, he just been dropping the kids at the babysitter.
We ended up getting everything set up and ready to go by 8:20 which was pretty good time. It was, as to be expected now, a fun day of meeting unusual people and eating delicious food baked or cooked with love. I had my usual blueberry muffin from the french bakery and then a foot long hot dog for breakfast, and then another foot long hot dog for lunch! They are so good! I was asking the guy how he cooks them and he said he smokes them raw over pecan on hickory smoke for about 30 minutes, and then steams them when he gets to market so we get the flavor of a smoked dog! And man are they good!
At one point we had a really negative individual come up to our stand and just start talking to me and Jim. He was talking down about people who have there dogs in public places, and all sort of things like that. Just a very negative guy in general. I guess there is a rotten apple in every bunch. Or two.. Because later that day I rang up a lady for two onions and it was 95 cents, and Jim and Tina always say round to the nearest quarter. 90% of the time this means we are round down and saving people money, but when it is a matter of saving someone five cents and costing us 20 I rounded up. But the lady could see the read out on the scale at 95 cents and called me on it. At first I thought she was joking because, honestly who cares about a nickle when you are already getting two onions for a really good price. Anyways I said, "Oh my mistake I'll give you the exact change." So she gives me a $5 and I gave her back $3.95 because I was flustered. She left and in kind of a bad mood. And I just shook it off and moved to the next customer. Then 5 minutes later she comes back up to me and says you gave me the wrong change, you should have given me $4.05 back, you owe me 10 cents!" I apologized again and gave her a dime and sent her on her way. The whole thing was so confusing to me because it all started over a nickel! Anyways, besides her and the one negative guy, it was a really fun day!
The reason today's post is about "Movin' Meat" is because that what Jim kept saying, "Man, we are really movin' some meat today Ben." He said that because we had a really productive day selling beef and chicken, which is much more profitable then selling produce. I think by the end of the day we had made $947. I felt pretty good through out the whole market, the last two I felt pretty on edge because it was a new experience and I didn't want to mess anything up. My first time out, the Nickle Lady would have been my worst nightmare, but after having two markets already under my belt she was really no sweat. I also felt I could answer more peoples questions with out having to direct them to Jim instead and I was do more proactive selling! Retail is fun in small doses, and maybe in bigger doses too, but all I know is that by the end of the market, I'm ready to get back to the solitude of the farm.
On the way back home we had to swing by the Baby Sitters house, but on the way there Jim and I got to have a good talk about business and where he is planning to take things with the farm. It was fun to see the business side of things!
I found this picture today, I took it yesterday I thought it was worth posting, even if it was a day late. Something about dads shoes for little kids (sons in particular) is very tempting! I'm not sure whether it is a symbolic thing of literally hoping to "fill big shoes" some day or just a silly thing that kids do, but I remember doing the same thing in my dads boots, although Colm has more style than me, because my style at the time was nude, he at least has on a backwards and inside out muscle shirt! He also has taken on a rather suave pose, where as I was probably pretending to be a monkey or something wild of that sort.
Colm O'connell McManeus 2011 Ben Summerlin 1995
For my next story, about Colm, it requires a little background info. Colm likes to steal things, things of mine, or Jim's or Tina's, he knows he shouldn't take them, but he just want's to play with them so badly, but then he forgets where he leaves them. As Jim put it, One night he was tucking Colm in and Colm says, "Daddy, now, when I wanna steal your stuff, I try really hard not too, but I still do sometimes, sorry." So now bearing that in mind the next story makes a little more sense. After Colm was done trying on the boots he left with one, I didn't see him go, otherwise I would have stopped him. But when Jim came in looking for it, and asked if Colm took it I said, "Oh, yeah, he must have, sorry I didn't see him.." (I was sorting veggies at the time) Jim goes, "Ah, well, we'll see how much he likes that boot up his ass!" It cracked me up, Jim is always making jokes like that, but they are totally harmless, he just says stuff like that because he knows I think he is funny. Like when he called his cows bastards. I want to be clear though, Jim is an extraordinarily loving and tender father with his kids, he was just frustrated about him stealing the boot, but he would never do anything like that. He doesn't even joke like that when Tina is around, he was just saying it for my benefit! It was just a joke between two friends rather than an actual possibility! But it definitely amused me!
Evening chores had a little bit more excitement added to it by the goats today! This was more of an adrenaline rush than frustrating excitement though. Since I put the Momma goats and there babies in the fenced pasture today, we let Hershey, the billy goat roam around so he could stretch his legs. We normally don't un-pen him because he gets a little to frisky with the girl goats if you know what I mean. He is just trying to do what billy goats do. So today for chores I had to put him away first before I walked the girls back to there pens. But Hershey wasn't having any of that, his focus was on the girls, I couldn't even get him to follow me when I had the grain bucket or anything. He happened to be on the other side of the girls fence as close to them as he could be, but not able to actually get to them. So I decided to fence him into the pasture he was in, and walk the girls back first, so at least I could get that done. So I did that and then when back for Hershey. I brought him out of the fence, and the next thing I know, I have a rather large, sexually frustrated goat charging at me, rearing up on two legs (at which point he is taller than me) and coming down noggin first, trying to headbutt me!! I jumped back from his first attempt at skull bashing me, and with out thinking, just reacting to a threat, punched him in the side of the head then he swung his head back and tried ramming me in the thy, but I raised my knee and deflected his blow. At this point we were still a good 150 feet from his pen. He reared back up again to his full 6'4" hight, and came down again head first, I dodged this blow to and decided that if I at least run in the direction of his pen maybe he'll chase me, I did that but was to slow at accelerating and he caught up to me (maybe because he had 4 legs and bigger strides) and started head butting me in the bottom which didn't hurt at all but surprised me and offended me because after all, I was just trying to feed and water him, and here he was taking out his frustration on me. So I wheeled around and popped him again, harder than the first time, in the side of the head. Hitting him square on would have been fruitless and just left me with a busted knuckle because they have really thick bones for the exact purpose of head butting on the front of their heads. My second right hook made him stop and think for a second, he actually had to stop chasing me and shake his head for a little bit. During that time I gathered my thoughts and realized I couldn't keep fist fighting this goat, at this point I was no longer reacting to him as a threat, now I was in control. I went from boxing mode to wrestling mode and the next time he came at me, which was a much feebler attempt than his first few, maybe because I rung his bell or maybe because he recognized me as the more dominate, he came at me head down, no more rearing up and just kind of pushed on me. In wrestling there is a technique called "Heavy Hands" which is essentially where you just keep your hands all over your opponents neck and head, pulling him down, shaking him from side to side, just putting weight on him to tire him out and keep him from thinking straight. The technique doesn't really work on good wrestlers because there is a couple of easy counters to it, but I took my chances on the fact that Hershey had zero wrestling experience. So I did just that, I heavy handed him, for about the remaining 75 ft to his pen, I was back pedaling the whole time, and every now and then he would give another hard heave against me as an attempt to push me off, but I just bared down on him harder then. Finally we arrived at his pen and I had to fend him off one handed while I opened his gate. I had to push him in and close it quick but it all worked out in the end. Similar to my philosophical insights, this took place in about 20 seconds, maybe closer to 45, I'm not really sure, but I took much longer for me to capture it in words.
So that was how my work day ended, brawling with a billy goat! I proceeded to shower, because I smelled like Goat, I think that will have to be my last out door shower, it is getting to cold! I then reheated some rice and beans for dinner. I'm looking forward to what is going to feel like a sleep in tomorrow morning after these last two mornings of pitch black chores at 4:45am, tomorrow I don't have to be up till like 5:30!! Woo hoo!
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