Today was market day, and the original plan was to be there for the usual 10-3, then stay for the 4-8 special event. In the wee hours, I got a response from the rescue mentioning that we were the only ones talking about being there for the 10-3 part, and that they were closing to tours from 2-4 to prepare for the event. So I decided we’d skip the first time slot and just be there for the event.
Which make for a more relaxed morning. I got up to feed the outside cats in my nightgown and tried to go back to bed for a couple more hours, instead.
It didn’t work.
I can’t complain, though, as I started getting messages from my SIL, and I always enjoy a chat with her. After a while I got up and headed outside to water the garden before things got too hot.
*sigh*
Yes, I found some deer damage. More of the Jet Black hollyhock leaves are gone, and then there was this…
The first image was the single self seeded Jabousek lettuce I had meant to leave to go to seed. It was starting to bolt, too. Nothing left but this stump. This type of lettuce has survived deer damage before, though, so I’m leaving it and expect it will sent up new shoots fairly quickly.
The second image is a purple cabbage that also got eaten. Just one. Apparently, the deer liked the lettuce better than the cabbage. It’s unfortunate the wire mesh cover had to be removed to make room for the seed onions. Now there’s nothing to protect it from the deer.
Thankfully, that was the only deer damage I spotted while watering. Once that was done, I had plans to finish mowing areas of the lawn that I’d finally cleared of other things, so I only needed to move some garden hose out of the way. Since we were going to be out, I was planning to do it tomorrow, but cleared what needed to be cleared in advance before going inside.
I’d been inside for awhile when I got messages and photos, letting me know…
… my brother had cleared the old tire from around the stump! It’s now ready for the tree guys to come back with the stump grinder. My brother had to move several patio blocks to get the job done, which I had expected might be necessary. Once the stump is cleared out, we’ll be able to level the area and reset the blocks that the roots had heaved out of place.
I was stunned that he’d gone it. I hadn’t heard a thing! Neither had anyone else in the household. Meanwhile, he’d been concerned he was making too much noise!
The above photo was taken much later in the day, though. After we’d come back from the market.
Set up time was from 2-3:30 if we wanted to unload our vehicles on location. After unloading, we were requested to park in another area to make room for families coming to the event. When my daughter and I loaded the tent, folding chairs and table into the box of the truck (everything else has been staying in the back of the cab all month), my SIL was out mowing the outer yard with their big zero turn mower. When I opened the gate before we drove out, she took advantage of it and mowed around the driveway on the other side of the gate, which was handy. My daughter and I left early enough to stop at the general store first, where we picked up some canned drinks in two sizes to use as part of my display, along with a couple of sub sandwiches and drinks ourselves, since we’d be having our supper while at the market.
We were the first vendors there. I found someone to let us know where to set up, since it was no longer going to be in what is otherwise a parking area.
Happily, we got to be next to the emu and chicken enclosures.
Emus make the most remarkable noises. !!!
We had started out as the end of the row (or the beginning of it, I suppose), but someone set up their display a bit closer to the emu enclosure, while others set up in the other direction. Enough vendors showed up that a couple of displays were set up across from us to start a second row.
It was hot for the first couple of hours, and the poor vendor that set up closer to the emus hadn’t been able to bring her tent. She only had a patio umbrella, and the wind kept trying to blow it away! She ended up spending quite a bit of time in the shade of our tent, and we had some wonderful conversation with her.
In the end, though, we didn’t sell a single thing, and she sold only one thing – and it was to another vendor! A couple of others we spoke to as we were packing up did have some better sales, and the hot dog guy who was set up in a concession stand near the petting zoo shelter must have done really well. The rest of us did not do well at all. The people were there for the event and the animals, not the market.
This is a major fundraising things for the rescue, so they went all out. They had mascots from popular children’s shows and movies wandering around. There was a bouncy castle, face painting, pony and horse rides and, of course, the petting zoo inside a shelter where admissions were also processed. They had three new baby donkeys in there, plus the kittens that are up for adoption.
They weren’t doing tours, so no one was going into the large animal enclosures, but they did allow people to go into the chicken enclosure and coop.
Which was fine, at first, but near the end we started becoming very concerned. Some kids were chasing the chickens around too aggressively. These chickens are also rescues. Some of them still having visible red patches where their feathers had been pecked out. The parents were in the enclosure, too, taking video of their kids trying to catch the chickens.
It kept getting worse. There was one little black chicken that two kids were chasing around. I saw the girl catch it several times, only to let it go, so she could chase it again. Then kids started chasing the chickens around the back of the coop, where there is a narrow space between the coop and the enclosure fence, with a kid at each side of the coop, trying to trap the chickens. When we started seeing a little boy running after the chickens, stomping his feet and flailing his arms – and the adults just watching and taking photos and video – it was too much. I went over to the shelter where the petting zoo was and found a couple of the volunteers who help run the rescue and manage the tours. I started to say that there were kids getting out of control in the chicken enclosure and one of them immediately turned and headed for it, before I even finished.
This is not an uncommon problem.
I explained a bit more to the other person before returning to our tent. The woman who’d left to deal with the situation was inside the enclosure and working on getting the kids together and away from the chickens.
As my daughter and I continued to chat with our neighbour, I could see the volunteer in the enclosure, looking like she was supervising the kids for a while.
The next time I looked over, everyone had been removed from the chicken enclosure and the volunteer was latching the gate (a wooden frame with wire mesh). She then left and came back with a lock and chain to wind around the latch and gate handle. She left again, then came back to staple a sign to the gate. After a while, I decided to go read the sign when I saw one of the kids from earlier – about 5 or 6 years old – that had been chasing the chickens, going to the gate with an adult I presume was the father. The kid immediately began trying to open the gate, pulling on the chain, the handle, the latch… The dad then told the kid it was closed and started leading him away.
The kid promptly began screaming and crying and having a major tantrum because he couldn’t get back in to torment the chickens.
When I got close enough to read the sign, it said the chicken coop was closed so the chickens could have a rest, adding a “thanks for understanding” at the end.
That one little black chicken that was being chased, caught, released and chased some more, was sitting on a step into the coop, not moving. All the others were moving around, pecking and drinking and clearly looking much calmer, but that one little chicken just sat there. The poor thing must have been so exhausted!
By this time, it was getting close to the end of the event, and the crowds were starting to disappear. Some of the vendors were already packing up. We waited a bit longer, since I could see that our truck was blocked by another vehicle, so there wasn’t much point in rushing things.
Our neighbour was done packing up at about the same time we were, and my truck was no longer blocked, so she and I walked over to our vehicles together. The family that owns the place had said we could drive to the vendor area from where we were parked, but it is so rough, we both took the road and went around the other way. The section of fence we’d gone through before, though, had been boarded up again, and we had to wait for someone to come with a driver and take the boards off again. By the time she was done, there were four vehicles, including me and our neighbour, waiting to come in, and one vehicle on the other side of the fence, waiting to leave!
My daughter and I were able to pack up very quickly. While my daughter was in the box of the truck, strapping it down, I went over to help our neighbour. I figured the least I could do was bring her packed bins closer to her car, but in the end, my daughter and I were able to help her load things in, too. She did not have a particularly large car. No wonder she didn’t have room for a canopy tent!
As far as any of us know, this is the last market day at the rescue. They had brought up the possibility of extending into August, but no one had heard anything about that actually happening. It was pretty disappointing for the vendors in general, but we also understood that this was the first time they’d tried including a market, so no one knows about it and people coming in for the tours were probably not expecting to shop at a market, too. With how busy it was, I hope the rescue had a good fundraising day, at least!
While we were at the market, I got some messages from my brother and SIL. They had loaded up one of their trailers and were planning to go to the dump while it was open. I have the card needed for that, but was able to just send them a photo of it and they were able to show that to the attendant. When we first moved here and were cleaning 40+ years of my parents’ stuff out, we found a lot of paint cans. Some of which had never been opened, but where so old, the box they were in was degrading. We took all the pain cans we could find and put them in one of the stalls in the barn. Today, they took all the pain cans to the dump! The dump has an area set aside for paint cans. This will have opened up quite a bit of space in the stall we’d put them in. That’s also where we put all the batteries we’d been finding. They will be taking those to a scrap yard. Taking old batteries to a scrap yard is something the yard will pay for, like when we take in our aluminum. When a large number of batteries are brought in at once, they pay extra. There are more than a dozen old batteries to take in, so that should work out rather well. The scrap yard isn’t open on the weekends, though, and that’s when my brother and SIL can make it out, so they’ll have to figure out when they can do that.
After we got back from the market and brought some of the stuff into the house (we’ll unpack the inventory and display items tomorrow), I immediately did my evening walkabout while it was still like. Much to my surprise, I found that my SIL had not only mowed the outer yard, but the inner yard, too! I had done much of it not long ago and there were just the smaller areas I’d cleared – including where I’d finally cut up that big maple branch that had fallen – that still needed to be done, and the grass doesn’t grow quickly there, anyhow. My SIL had mowed those areas, and in the main garden area we’re slowly trying to reclaim, too! It looks amazing!
My nasturtiums, I found, also look amazing.
So many blossoms!
I took a peek under the net over the high raised bed, with the bush beans. I might actually be able to start harvesting beans tomorrow! I might wait an extra day, though. It’s looking like we’ll have quite a few beans! The yellow beans seem to be ripening the fastest, but I’m also seeing the green and purple beans starting to look ready to pick. I am so looking forwards to having our first fresh green beans!!
I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, though, so I didn’t stay out for too long. We did find the can of bug spray in the truck, though – it had rolled under the seat! I made sure that got brought to the house.
So that’s where we are at tomorrow. It was a good day, in that we enjoyed being at the market, had a great time chatting with the vendor next to us, and had some nice surprises at home. The only disappointment was the lack of sales, and not just for ourselves. It should be interesting to see if the rescue will do this again next year. I suspect not, but you never know!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 