Today was a long and successful day! It was a good note to end a long week on! I can't believe it was the beginning of this week that I was working on the Egg-Mobile, it already feels like a long time ago. As I said yesterday, the work day ended in the dark and today began in the dark. It is really an interesting feeling to be up and active before the sun rises, we were just pulling out of the farm as the first couple rays peaked the mountains in the east! Needless to say, it was gorgeous!
Once we arrived at the market it was the usual routine of unloading and shuttling everything to our corner of the market, where we set up our tents and spread out our produce. We settled in and I bought a muffin from the French Bakers, and then some crepes from the crepe ladies for Tina and I she got the basil, tomato, goat cheese crepe, and I got the Farm fresh scrambled eggs, cherrywood smoked bacon, tomatoes and cheddar cheese. It was basically a breakfast burrito in a really good tortilla. Then later I bought another blueberry muffin from the French folks.
It was a pleasant market, many interesting people! One of the top contenders for my favorite people of the day was a man who was walking around with a cat in a basket stroller, and then a dog, that was smaller than his cat, in one arm. Both pets were bejeweled and bedazzled with bows and colorful collars. It was a funny start to the day. My other favorite person, pet combo was a little girl and her dog Lily. I was just listening to Tina talk with some CSA members during a lull in the waves of customers when out of the corner of my ear I hear, "Lily! No, stop! Come back!" followed by the soft jingling of a belled collar headed my way. I turned to look and saw a super cute puppy about the length of my outstretched palm and the width of chipotle burrito with not enough rice and beans in it! It ran under our tent into our stand and right at me, veered right and started to head for under the table cloth. At this point my newly developed "animal on the loose" reflexes kicked in and I scooped her up! The little girl rounded the corner and saw her tiny puppy in my arms and her eyes got real big, I'm not sure if she thought I was going to be mad or what but she looked frightened, "Thanks.." she murmured, as I handed Lily over to her, and ran off. On the subject of the "Animal on the loose" reflexes, I should specify there are different types of animal that I have developed a reflex for and each have their own catching method, with little creatures like chickens or puppies, you must be very fast and quick as though you are just trying to karate chop it, but then at the last second slow your hand speed down so you don't break any brittle bones, where as with billy goats (Hershey) on the loose you have to punch them in and then slowly back them up into there pen. And for the female goats you must run them down until they seek the refuge of there pen to escape the "big bad intern" as Tina and Jim call me, but only ever in reference to my goat catching. Just because one time they were by the pool watching the kids swim when they heard 30 minutes of my heavy, booted footfalls sprinting around in circles and the constant bleating of goats! But I digress, the point is there are different types of styles for catching "animals on the loose" and for this puppy, I used the fast yet delicate approach!
At one point Tina and I were discussing my upcoming travels to Thailand, I was picking her brain because she went traveling to Ecuador when she was 17 or 18, I asked if she had a plan before she went, she said, "Nope, I just showed up, and I paid for it in some respects, but I was young and it was all part of the adventure for me." I asked what she meant by she paid for it, and she said that she didn't always have places to sleep and that she has slept in many unimaginable places like park benches, train stations, and janitors closets. I was amazed! Anyhow, we got on the topic of how I would be needing a nice big back back to travel with and she said that she has one that she used for Ecuador. I asked if I could have it and she said, "No, it wouldn't fit you, it's meant for a woman's back, like a smaller back than yours", I jokingly replied, "I dunno Tina, I can have a pretty small back if I try hard enough!" She laughed and said, "Ben, the only thing small about your is your ego!" I smiled and thanked her for the compliment, but I guess I am actually in violation of that compliment right now and tooting my own horn by telling that story in the first place, so that's all I will say on that. We continued to talk and she said that Jim might have a backpack I could use but that even that one might be to small, fingers crossed that it isn't!
The last noteworthy person of the day was a nice lady who was the opposite of the "95 cent lady" from last week, the one who was a stickler for her change. Today's 95 cent lady was nice though! When I told her the cost of her onions was 95 cents, she said, "Here's a dollar keep the change sweetie." Such a more pleasant way to handle the situation. I found out some news as to why the lady last wee was so cranky from Tina. It turns out she is a lesbian and just doesnt like men in general, or at least she doesn't like Jim and I and we were the only ones at market last week, this week however she was chatting Tina up quite a bit.
The rest of the market passed by in a regular fashion, and around 12 we packed up and headed for home. The tour of the farm was still going on untill about 6 so we wanted to get back to relieve Jim for a little while as well as try and sell more produce and meat. It went well we sold an additional $200 dollars of produce on top of the $750-ish that we made at the market.
I broke off from the home farm stand to rest for a little bit on Tinas orders, not by choice, doesn't mean I didnt appreciate the mandatory rest though. I recooped for about 40 minutes before starting chores. During chores I had people watching me bring the goats in from the pasture and I was praying that the goats would behave and accept my bribery of grain with out me having to chase them into their pens. They obliged me and corralled up fairly smoothly. After goats, I had to feed the hogs and dogs, and now the new chickens in the pig pasture. Jim actually opened the Egg-Mobile up today after only 1 day of mental relocation for the chicks. I was surprised because he said ideally you do it for 2 weeks. But none of them seemed to be heading back to their old coop so I guess it worked out alright. While I was resting in my room apparently, Jim and Tina spotted Asher in the Egg-Mobile and ran over to remedy the situation. As Tina tells it, Jim threw Asher out of the trailer and then they both jump on him, pinned him and started biting him everywhere that they could, on the neck, ears, cheeks, etc. they let him up and started to scold, and he went for the chickens again, so they pinned him again and repeated the process, essentially establishing themselves as Alphas, and declaring the chickens as under of their protection. After the second time, Asher got the message. I was bummed that I missed out on the excitement and didn't get to gnaw on Asher a little bit, but I guess I can't be there for everything. Asher is a really good boy though, he just needed to be shown that eating chickens is not allowed. He is still a puppy, albeit a biiig puppy. Tina said that they probably scared off a few of the Tourist's who watched both farmers pin their dog and start biting it, and that it wouldn't have looked any better if a third, larger person joined in on the disciplinary fiesta.
During and after chores I noticed that 3 weeks here is starting to manifest change in my physique. My pants are all falling off me, even the pair that I found here when I got here, and they are a smaller waist than I usually wear. And my shirts are all much baggier on my then when I got here. Tina also told me to start eating more protein because she doesn't want her "pack mule wasting away to nothing" which is a backwards compliment I guess! :)
After chores we waited for the sun to go down a little more, so the chickens would be more inclined to go back into the trailer, at least that was the theory, and then we went out to corral them all. They weren't that willing, and it took about 25 minutes to round them all back up, and often, when we would get some herded into the trailer and then leave to go heard others, the ones we had just herded would hop back out! Eventually we got them all though, as with many things on the farm it just took a little persistence!
My work day ended at this point, but Jim had to drive back into Tucson to go to that benefit dinner that we supplied the beef and chicken for! Poor guy probably won't get home till 10!
That's all for now!
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