Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Monthly Archives: July 2011


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Our tiny little farmer's market

I live in a tiny little town, and this summer the township decided to start a local farmer’s market.  It’s every Sunday morning out at Katie’s favorite park.  So far I haven’t taken her there but this morning I saw several dogs, so maybe next Sunday we’ll both go.

It’s a tiny little market with a half dozen vendors.  I don’t think they’re really local to our township, other than my neighbor who was there selling his crafts.

But the corn and tomatoes were from a farming community not far away.

And when the heritage tomato lady’s bigger tomatoes come in I won’t care where she’s from because they will be delicious!  I bought green beans from her this morning.

I think as more vegetables come into season we’ll see more people stopping by.

I hope so, because there’s nothing better than fresh Michigan corn and tomatoes.  And I wouldn’t want our local market to have to end for lack of participation.

Cause August in Michigan is corn eatin’ time!

 

 


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Weighty issues

I have struggled with weight for many years.  Took a few pounds off, gained a few pounds plus a few more back.  So in May I finally broke down and joined Weight Watchers.  It’s been OK…I’ve lost 10 pounds, but I’m falling off the wagon again.  The last two weeks have been small gains in weight and I’m discouraged.

This week I really thought I was being good…though I failed to write everything down, and when I do that I know I’m probably eating more than I realize.  But still.  I managed to get out to walk 4 out of 5 work days, and Friday morning when I weighed myself I was down.  I went to bed feeling pretty good about today’s weigh in.

Which is why I was so distraught when I woke up this morning and was heavier by four pounds!?  Four pound?  In one night?  Come ON!

I decided I wasn’t going to go to weigh in, no need to do that when I already knew I was up.  I wasn’t going to sit through a meeting where our leader fancies herself somewhat of a stand up comedian and often just annoys me.  I left the house early, took my WW stuff with me…just in case, and a book to read.  I drove aimlessly looking for a place to sit in the car and read and found myself up at the mall where I used to walk every morning in the days before the full time job.

Well, I said to myself.  I’m here, it’s morning – maybe I can just go for a walk and then I’ll read for awhile.  And maybe eat something really fattening just because what’s the use anyway.  The mall was pretty quiet; not nearly as many walkers as in winter.  I started out and immediately remembered why I enjoyed walking there so much. Energetic music playing, at a tempo perfect for walking, pretty shop windows to look at, carpet and hardwood underfoot.

I did two miles, then hopped back in the car and went to my WW meeting.  Facing reality I stepped on the scale.  I wish I could say I was down, but I wasn’t.  I stayed for the meeting which was  in full swing when I got there.  The topic was not to let little things like the number on the scale get you down and off track.  Today is a new day.  Respect yourself.  Make commitments not excuses.

I was proud that I hadn’t gone off and eaten a fattening breakfast and sulked.  I was proud I walked the two miles and then went to the meeting even though I knew the number on the scale wouldn’t be what I wanted it to be.  I’m glad I mustered the strength not to give in.  Because today’s a new day.  This is a new week.  Next Saturday I KNOW will be a better weigh in.

Meanwhile I think I got a couple pounds off of Katie just by brushing her.  She is not as appreciative of my efforts.


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Adventure dreams

Katie and I need a real adventure.  We need to travel further, maybe stay overnight somewhere, explore new places, sniff new smells.  But all my creative juices seem to have dried up with the heat.

Katie says she’s willing to go anywhere.  She’s always ready to go Go GO! It’s Mama that can’t figure out where we should head.  And when.

We have company coming in a week or so…and he’s staying for three weeks, so really all adventures will have to be after that.  Katie won’t mind, she’ll have more company to play with her, to heap adoration on her pretty head, to jump at her every whim.  But after that?  Well, she’s going to want to go Go GO!

A princess has to be catered to don’t you know.  So Mama here is open to suggestions.  It needs to be somewhere we can get to and home from in a weekend so Mama doesn’t have to spend any precious vacation days that she is oh so slowly accumulating.

Suggestions?

 


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Too hot

It’s too hot for excellent adventures.  It’s too hot to play.  It’s too hot to go on a walk.  It’s just too hot.

So Katie would like to remind all of us that it wasn’t that long ago that we thought it was too cold out to play.  Or go on excellent adventures.

Just saying.


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Talking about scale

I’d been thinking  how to complete the latest assignment over at Scott Thomas’ blog Views Infinitum. Scale is a funny thing, and sometimes I’ve been surprised while looking at photos how little you can really tell about the size of something.  For example, we take so many close up photos of our dogs that it’s hard for everyone else to see how big or small they really are.  But for this assignment I wanted to do something totally different.  So Katie is off the posing hook.

Most of you know I went to the county fair this week. I expected to find some things to photograph at the fair that would show scale.  You know, typical over the top fair stuff.  But out there is one of Michigan’s biggest barns.  I hadn’t thought about the barn when I was considering what to photograph for this assignment, but as I drove by it that evening I knew it was something I should try to capture.

The 14,000 square foot Ellis barn was built in 1848 and used to sit out on our main road next to it’s farm house.  We all drove by it every day and mostly didn’t think about it until the property was sold to a developer for a subdivision.  Then everyone wanted to know what would happen to the structures.  The house was moved toward the back of the property and became part of the new subdivision.  The barn was too huge to move in one piece so it was dismantled in 2004 and rebuilt, board by board, on the Oakland County  fairgrounds.  I hadn’t been to see it in it’s new home before, and I have to say it’s even bigger when you’re up close!

Friday night there were lots of people around to give you some sort of context.  Here’s a shot of the front of the barn.  Can you see the person standing in the doorway?  Or the people sitting under a canopy on the right?  It was difficult to photograph as the sun was going down, shadows were creeping toward the barn, and it was just so darn big!

Here’s a different angle…from the end of the barn, looking up another ramp.

I grew up visiting my grandmother’s farm, hanging out inside barns and I can attest…this is one huge barn!  Perhaps my favorite way of showing the scale of this immense building is to show you the inside.

Even more fascinating than the exhibits inside is the structure itself.  You couldn’t help but stand in awe and gaze up at the giant beams, the height of the roof and the cavernous room that once housed dairy cattle on a working farm.  Thank goodness it was saved, because we won’t see the likes of this again.

And for a more intimate look at scale, do you see the newborn calf curled up underneath his mama?  She’d just given birth to him the day I was at the fair.  I’m sure he didn’t feel all that small to her, but he’s tiny compared to a full grown cow.

I had lots of fun looking for ways to show scale at the county fair.  I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride!

 

 


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County Fair

One of the favorite summer events growing up was heading to the county fair.   It’s a place that kids get to show off their 4-H projects, be it an animal they raised or a sweater they knit, or fruit they canned.   We’d win ribbons, ride the carnival rides, watch tractor pulls or musical concerts and eat fancy junk food.  Grown ups can ride and eat too;  I think it’s really a place for kids of all ages.

I have fond memories of excitedly deciding which rides to spend my limited amount of tickets on, and checking out the barns where all the animals were, not to mention perusing the other project displays areas, to see if we won any ribbons that year.  Mostly I have memories of lights and colors and sounds and smells.

Well it happens that my tiny little town has the fairgrounds and every year for a week in July we host the county fair.  It’s just a couple miles up the road and though I’ve lived here almost 20 years I’ve never been.  Somehow it comes and goes and I always think I’ll make it next year.

This year I marked my mental calendar and Friday night after work I headed up the hill to the fair.  I got there around 7 and had to park in the far far far away lot, back several farm fields from the fair, but it was a nice walk.

And as I got closer I could hear the sounds of my childhood.  Someone was singing, there were monster trucks roaring, hawkers were selling their wares and people were squealing on the rides.  Awesome!

I took my camera because I thought that maybe I’d find something for Scott’s photography assignment, or maybe Karma’s August photo scavenger hunt. You never know, and the county fair has endless possibilities.  You’ll have to wait to learn how my search for appropriate shots turned out.  I do encourage you to visit their blogs and check out the assignments, because this is just so much fun.

I have a feeling I’ll be sharing more stories of the fair in future blogs.  Stay tuned.  (Remember to click on the photos to make them bigger and easier to see!)


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Come on now.

Anyone else out there want to walk into the conference room where Democrats and Republicans are supposedly working on a compromise to fix our deficit problem?  If you could get their attention, what would you say?  I think a lot of us would tell them to stop posturing, stop drawing lines in the sand and get to work solving the problem.

If I could command their attention for five minutes I’d tell them to settle down.  To recognize that most of us regular people have challenging problems at work too.  But we go to work every day and we make the tough decisions;  we come to the best conclusions   given the information we have.  We make those decisions, then we move on and begin to solve the next problem.  We do it every day, and we don’t even get health insurance for the rest of our lives.  Nor salaries anywhere near what they are earning to sit around and talk in circles, insult each other, and vie for television sound bites to make their views heard.  Their main purpose seems to be getting reelected – rather than saving the economic health of our country.  Which is sort of what got us into this mess in the first place.

Time is ticking people.  The talking heads on the TV say that if we default we’ll head into “another recession.”  Well, maybe they haven’t noticed that we’re not out of the current recession yet.  Not by a long shot.  So if we’re heading for another recession on the heels of  this one… well… lots more people are going to be unemployed.  Lots more homes will be defaulted on.  Lots more homeless people will be looking for help from government agencies that won’t be funded.

Sounds bleak doesn’t it.  So you people up there in DC, the ones that are supposed to understand all this, the ones we voted for to get us out of the jam we were in, the ones making the salaries, getting the glory, the huge retirement, the health insurance, the pension, you people need to get moving.  You need to open your minds and open your hearts and figure out something that will save us all.   Because the rest of us out here are watching.  And we’re taking names.

Sorry.  I’ll get off my soapbox now and return you to the regularly scheduled blog.


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Heartland

Those of us with a bit (or a lot) of wanderlust sometimes feel trapped; we ache to get out and explore.  We’re envious of those that live in some other, greener, hillier, flatter, wetter, drier place.  Sometimes we forget to look around at the place we are, forget to notice the pretty things right here.

I was thinking about that during last weekend’s adventure with Katie.

Thinking about how pretty the farmland is around here – especially this time of year when the corn is just higher than our knees and the wheat is coming in, the fields are being hayed.

This is the heartland of America, a place you can feel comfortable no matter who you are.  Where people are just pretty much plain folk.

Not to say there aren’t just plain folks everywhere else.  But still, this is a very nice place to be.