Hamilton Market Day

Crawled out of bed at six to make it to do chores and make it to the market on time. 8:30 seems to when I roll in and that's okay. Customers are coming in but vendors are still setting up. Kelly and her daughter, Lou, met me there. Kelly makes country primitive crafts which really compliment my things, so I invited her to join me. It's a nice time to relax and make new friends after unloading and setting up. Taking down is another matter, and I am always the last one. I have to pare down my booth so loading up is easier. I took the big truck so I won't have any more flying table incidents. The caterpillar invasion was still in progress and they were dropping out of the tree over my area and onto my head all morning. They crawled into my tote bags and up my legs. I had some duct tape so I wrapped it around the tree trunk. I explained to curious onlookers that it prevents the caterpillars from crawling back up the tree to gorge on the leaves after they fall down at night. I watched as the few that were going back up stopped at the tape. I should have done it as soon as I got there, and put tape on the trees around me. You would think somebody at a farmer's market would have some simple solutions to a caterpillar problem. You don't need sprays and poisons. It was a glorious day weather-wise...I made more money than some, but not enough to make it really worthwhile. I still like to do it because I meet so many locals, and today I actually met some Academy Road neighbors whose homes I pass every day. Yes, they had heard about me living behind the silos in the trailer that froze up all the time. I told them I was about to move into the barn and their eyelids raised. I explained we were building an apartment in there and they relaxed. For a minute I guess they thought I was crazier than they had previously heard. Candy, my friend from Hamilton Whole Foods, helped me load up and met me for lunch afterwards. I reward myself every Saturday for doing the market with a falafell pita with yogurt sauce and a real organic ginger ale. We had a nice talk while she filled me in on the store's history. It was one of the first places I went to when Matt dropped me off last August with 100 sheep, a trailer and a garden hose. I don't like to eat out alone but when you are living totally alone with minimal conveniences, it comes in handy. People marvelled over my bags and I sold some shaving blocks, bars of soap, socks and one note card. Can't believe nobody bought that cute little flowery bag, or the purple snap frame bag. They petted and stroked a lot, but no takers. That's okay, bags eventually turn into money in the cookie jar for winter.