Every time I fill the canner, I say out loud; "This is the last batch!!" Step away from the jars, Sandy! Then I hit the farmers market and see all the pretty colors and the prices because the gardens are doing their last explosion before the snow flies! Decanting the hot coffee at O-dark:30 on a cold Saturday morning; I think what can possibly be left to sell at the market? I pull on my boots, grab my bags and push off to one of the last farmers markets. Fewer stalls for sure but the abundance is still there! Squash, peppers of all varieties, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, kale, garlic, onions, shallots, herbs; be still my heart. This week I have company, Butch! I ask him what he is looking for this week and he gets excited; "Hope the meat girl is there!!" Insert eyeroll.......
I spent a little over $26.00 and I love when the farmers throw in extra stuff because it's the end of the season and you chat with them every week!
Last stop, "meat girl". Butch usually indulges in sausage or one pork chop ( I'm just not much of a meat eater) and if you're gonna eat meat I would buy it from this gal who loves her herds and does it the way I wish all animals were raised and harvested. Plus she drives over from Pennsylvania lugging a freezer. This is what he pick out:
it's $18 a pound and worth every penny but he is the only one eating this pork tenderloin. I try to steer him to his one pork chop or maybe some sausage in a cute little bag but I see him drooling as he hands her a $20 and she says; it's $38. I am standing by with another $20 and I see the shock on his face. Clueless just clueless. This is the guy who refers to cucumbers as zucchini and garden herbs as smelly green things. Walking to the car he keeps asking why is this so expensive? Ahhhhhh the lessons of good farming practices. Meat is a luxury and in this house eaten very sparingly, if at all. Chicken stock is about as far as I go in the fur and feather category. And always fish ....... from anchovies to halibut. We have decided to keep it, the tenderloin, frozen and haul it out to Colorado for family Christmas festivities.
And my garden is still producing too. A few tomatoes, loads of peppers, potatoes, swiss chard, cucumbers, dill, parsley, well loads of herbs and of course KALE. We are finally getting badly needed rain so the garlic will go in tomorrow along with a few flower bulbs.
Yard clean up is upon us too....... the cucumbers are gone!~! happy dance! I just could not look at one more cuke. There is a major side out rotate coming to the garden too and it needs to be happening now! Speaking of cleaning out..... they are still coming; cucumbers and groundhogs, what a year!
the parade to the basement continues.....and bread season :)
Scarlet runner beans. I love these beans! I took these out to my middle school pottery class last week. The brown dried pods are not so attractive but when cracked open an incredible surprise! I gave each kid a bean and watched their faces. This is what I want to see in your creations, the element of surprise. Something that makes you smile!! Life is too short for boring pottery :)
The pottery is busy too. Although I cancelled one of my biggest shows I have been busy with orders and holiday shoppers already!
My little gallery is cleaned and open for business and I have enjoyed people stopping by.
I did my books last week and was surprised at the amount of work that had sold. My little nest egg was growing but knowing how my life seems to go I said to Butch; the universe is filling my bank account because I'm gonna take a hit. I never seem to have abundance of cash or fat bank account but I almost never come up short and get my bills paid. But the cushion is such a luxury! I used to marvel at how things worked out but now I just think it's a balance. I always seem to have what I need when I need it ....... my definition of a miracle.
Thursday morning I woke up to this face:
Panic at the disco!! Call the vet...... "well it's worrisome but since he is already blind, not an emergency." Excuse me? In my humble opinion sir: THIS IS A FUCKING EMERGENCY! Yesterday we were off to the canine ophthalmologist.... again. Ya, last time it cost me $350 to let me know he was blind. But I love and trust this guy and he is really good, scary good! We sat in a dark room, they stained his eye, puffed his eye and found out the cataracts are so bad the lens of his eye had detached and was now laying on the floor of his eye. The pressure in his eye had tripled too.
Next Tuesday he will have his eye removed, silicon implant put in, the other eye accessed and hopefully stabilized and my little nest egg/cushion will cease to exist. But I had it and it's enough to pay for his surgery and all the vet bills. And why didn't I go into animal care instead of pottery? Hey Bernie Sanders does medical for all include my dog? Can I put glasses on him and pass him off as my kid? When it's all said and done it will be over $3,000. I drove home asking myself so many questions..... and here are some of the answers. I spend more time with Kirby than anybody else on the planet, he has never left my side in 3 years, he has had some pretty shitty humans in his short life and I need to be the good human, I shop on craigslist and at Goodwill, work way too many hours and am quite frugal. I don't have closets full of clothes or shoes and my underwear is pretty holy so I feel pretty good about the choice I have made. He will just be a somewhat expensive alarm clock and the alternative sucks.
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