The Weather

Changes. Today was sunny and cool until the clouds blew in, and now it for sure feels just like rain. Last night after Market I was scrambling to get in the last of the tomatoes (at least they were red instead of green this year) and putting plastic on the rotten porch corner that I didn't get fixed. I would have picked the pears if I had any...not a great year for pears. I'll try fertilizing them more often next season.

Market was so full of people yesterday! Between the UO parents who had dropped off their kids and the Furthur crowd, things were the way they are supposed to be. Busy and happy. I personally did not have any kind of record sales, but it was satisfying enough overall. Some people did really well, even getting big sales at closing time. It's nice to go into the iffy weather season with a really good, hot day to remember. Maybe it won't be the last, but chances are it was.

Looks like the farmers are still working on the 8th St. closure, with a customer petition. I'm guessing they couldn't make the move happen so are thinking about next season and their need to bring in more money, which they can only do by adding vendors, since they have no percentage. They also probably don't want to move to city property, which would cost them a lot more than the county property they occupy at present. I don't get why they still think the closure will be a good idea. Were they not noticing on EC weekend when customers could not get to their market? Do they think any number of customer signatures will make us change our minds? Besides, the petition question is narrow and in the inflammatory language they so seem to love. What about the process of addressing the real objections to the plan with real solutions, if there are any?

But this is just another part of the continuing saga. I have resumed shopping over there, of course, but certainly not at the supportive level of last year before this all started. I used to go out of my way to support them, spending a ton of money every week, and counted so many friends among the farmers. Some of that is still in place, of course, but that synergy of two organizations working as "sisters" is certainly not there. We don't even speak to each other as organizations about our common issues, as far as I know. They didn't help at all with the plaza situation, even though they will of course benefit as well. It is sad to me that because we had different opinions about one issue, everything was permitted to hinge on that. After working to support them for decades, I don't feel good even going over there now. Guess I will work harder on finding ways to settle it for myself, and appreciate the friendships I do have, and be patient.

And frankly, I can't afford the prices any more. I've even been compromising my strict choice of organic only just to be able to eat seasonal fruits. At the same time the Kiva seems to have fewer local choices, not sure why. So instead of increasing my food security, this need for expansion of theirs has restricted mine. Feels ironic.

If I could afford a CSA, that might be a good solution. Maybe I will look into half-shares or something. It would be tough to commit though, since food spending is one of the few ways I can be flexible when times are lean. I will have to get more creative about trading, maybe, or gleaning. I do not want to get food stamps. I do not want to be a poor person.

Getting smarter about selling my products to increase my income is probably a better place to put my energy. Guess when the rains are here it will be a good time to work on my website, and get some online sales action. Except my silly cat knocked things off shelves last night and the period and comma keys on my laptop got broken off. They still function, but if I keep typing my two fingers used to hitting those keys are going to get sore.

So I'll just write long run-on sentences that don't use periods or commas even though that will surely annoy my readers and make them stop checking my blogs and avoid me altogether and turn me into a crazed old lady just needing attention and increasingly irrationally trying to fix things that can't be fixed and make progress in areas that don't allow progress and make more products that won't be taken seriously or can't be turned into money without offering them for peanuts and that will just pile up in the shop until I can't work in there anymore and will have to just set it on fire and start over which might be a fun project since I could borrow lots of money and build another dream house and this time remember to write enough things down in detail that I can write a compelling book about it like I always wanted to and buy a new laptop with all the features I need to do online sales transactions and solve all my problems at once! At least I will always have exclamation points! Bye!