As you can see, I haven't posted anything on here for a while. I'm trying to decide if I want to be totally done with this blog or not. However, since I haven't made my decision yet, I'll post a few pictures of Dorothy and Aaron. Aren't they getting so big? They are a cute pair!

Hmm, toys at the table. When I was a kid....

Ah, what a studious little boy!

What a dear! Dorothy is really growing!

In the beginning of October, Karen and I went with the Pheros on a trip to the Midwest. Here are a few (compared to the number that were taken of course) pictures from the first days of our trip.

 

On Saturday, Oct. 4, we drove to St. Louis, MO. It was a long drive (14ish hours), so over dinner we stopped at a living history farm in Ohio. It was nice to be able to walk around the farm and see how things would have been done years ago. The farm really had a feel of the family just moving out and leaving all their stuff in place.

We stayed with the Zes family from Saturday night to Monday morning. Here Rebekah is mixing up some yummy popcorn for supper.

Aaron couldn't wait to get his hands on it!

The lovely Zes girls--Hannah, Sarah, and Rebekah.

Aaron and Hannah--aren't they adorable? Monday morning we went to the St. Louis Zoo, but because we were dropped off about 45 minutes before it opened, we spent a while walking around the Art Museum's grounds which were beautiful.

Karen and I by the fountains with the Art Museum behind us.

A huge statue of St. Louis outside the Art Museum

Aaron and this Chimpanzee were hilarious. They stared at each other for a long time. Aaron talked to it, waved, and knocked on the glass to get its attention.

It looks like someone isn't in the mood for company! When this Orangoutang saw that we had arrived for a visit, it covered itself all up with its blanket. Is that inhospitable or what?!

Hey, Mom, can we take that one home with us?

When is the show going to start? It was so funny when Aaron saw this little theatre at the zoo and plopped down for the show....

On Wednesday, we began our sight seeing in Kansas. Our first stop was the tiny town of Cottonwood Falls. We walked down the street, went into one of the little shops and talked to the owner, and generally got the small Kansas town feel. Here's a view of the street:

But then you have no sooner turned around and you come face to face with this impressive building. How did such a tiny little place with a brick main street come to have a building like this?

The Chase County Court House.

After our little stop in town we moved on to the vast prairies...a national tall grass prairie preserve in the Flint Hills. Even though this kind of barren, emptiness isn't exactly the location of my dream home, it was so neat to visit it and attempt to take it all in. Visiting the empty prairies was a highlight of the trip for me! 

How's it going, cowboy?

Unfortunately, our camera batteries died when we were out in the middle of nowhere. And the backup set won't work either. So there we were with dead batteries and a useless camera and thus we were unable to get a picture of Karen and I out there to prove that we'd visited the lone prairies. But that's when our favorite brother-in-law stepped in and snapped this picture of us. Ah, what a rescue! Thanks, Nelson!

The tour bus

I guess this is how you get a bank barn when there aren't any banks. Pretty neat.

Time for lunch! For our only dinner out, we decided to go to this historic restaurant. It was built in 1857 along the Santa Fe Trail and is the oldest continuously operated restaurant west of the Mississippi. What stories a place like this could tell...though only the good ones, please! 

They served some fine food at the Hays House. We took pictures of our food so that the ones back home could see how good it looked. However, we left the lid on in this one.

We had some serious lighting issues on the trip when it came to pictures--blazing sun or pitch blackness and not much in between! But in spite of that, here is most of our group with the Hoffman family who were kind enough to put us up for 5 days at their home. They were wonderful hosts and hostesses and we had such a blast with them! Thanks so much, Hoffman family!!

The last stop of the day on Wednesday was the Kaw Indian Mission in Council Grove, KS. It was very interesting!

Come back again for part 2.

Yup, that's right, your eyes do not deceive you...there is a new post up on Itsstillgreektome's site. This blog isn't dead. Maybe it is just gasping for breath. So here I am at long last. I have emerged from under a mountain of fair and vegetable related jobs for the moment and actually find myself sitting in front of the computer long enough to write this entry. Then it's back to the chores. Probably extra chores at that. But be that as it may, we're working with the present here as we look back into the past at one of my semi-recent adventures. Namely, running a vegetable stand at a farmers' market, with my fellow conspirator Philip, while it's owner was away. Sound scary? Maybe not half so scary as you might imagine....

A little after 6:00 A.M. the other Saturday, Jon, Philip, and I loaded into Jon's truck and off we went to market. There were a few stops to make beforehand though. First it was for Swiss chard at the Pheros'. In the still gathering light, Jon picked a fine basket of chard. (Let me tell you, that veggie sells. A little slow at first, but if you create your market with a nice item and then keep it coming and throw in a recipe, well, it can be a success. Thus it was with chard.) So while Jon was working, Philip and I remained in the truck so packed in that it wasn't worth the effort required to get out. From there it was over to the field and storage area to pick some vegetables and load the ones that were already prepared. Once that was accomplished, we again started off for the market. On the way, Jon gave his volunteers a pep talk.  For one thing don't, may I repeat, don't sit on chairs and refuse to serve the customers. (If I may poke something in here, this problem is handily taken care of by the fact that Jon doesn't bring chairs along. Thus we're always on our feet and ready to go.) Be cheerful and helpful. Always be ready to serve.

We finally arrived at market, on a morning that looked like it was going to turn out to be a nice day in spite of the doubtful weather predictions, a little after 7 A.M. We set to work right away to unload the truck, put up the canopy and table, and begin stocking it with all kinds of veggies. Our inventory today consisted of peppers (green, orange, and red, plus jalapenos and sweet bananas), tomatoes (2 kinds of cherry and regular size tomatoes), Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, green, wax, and purple beans, kale, sugar peas, acorn squash, butternut squash, and sweet basil. By the time the table was ready it was so packed that we could hardly get another thing on it. Better start selling. Jon had to leave about the time the market opened for business, 7:30, so it was just Philip and I against the world. There can be some real characters that grace the market with their presence. Some make it very clear who they are supporting in the upcoming election. However, the air space above vegetables is declared to be neutral and business continues. One customer stepped back behind the table, apparently to check out the amount we had of a certain vegetable, before making his order. Things went very well though and several times we were swamped. It was all Philip and I could do to wait on the customers and refill a few things. After such an afore mentioned wave, we were nearly wiped out and had to do some scrambling to fill the table with an accepted amount of produce. Other times things had dropped off sufficiently for us to take turned sallying out for a walk around and a chat with the other vendors. But generally we stuck around and supervised the stand--there must always be one person with their head up if the other is down behind getting something ready--and enjoyed the snacks that two ladies down the way a bit had so generously bestowed on us. Time passed on. Jon returned. More time went by and the market closed for the day at noon. We packed up the little bit we had left over and departed to sell a few peppers to a local store. Then we returned home, rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord Who had blessed us with a wonderful day of sales.

Philip and I had a blast!

Note: The following pictures are from a previous week. We failed to take the camera with us this time, but I wanted to give you an idea of what the stand looks like.

A full truck

Setup time!

We are ready and open for business