Farmers Market!

Note to self: put new batteries in camera before next Saturday.


My friends, canopies that advertise themselves as 'easy up' are LYING to you. LYING. They say you only need two people, and you just get it out, jiggle it until it opens, put the top on, extend the legs, and voila! a canopy. But that is not how it goes. First you get it out. Then you pull with all your strength, switching off legs, until you think it is out correctly. Mostly. Then you extend the legs. Then you realize that you should have put these tent pole things in the circle thing before you extended the legs. Then you borrow a stepladder and try to put the tent pole things in the circle things. Then you contemplate calling the aunt who loaned you the canopy and insisted it would be a snap to set up. Then you give up and lower the legs. Then all three of you (did I mention there were actually three people there, not the normal two? So this should have been easier than claimed, right?) take turns trying to put the tent pole things in the circle thing without breaking them, and by some miracle the last one to try manages to do it. Then you extend the legs again. Then you realize that the top things extend too, and exert some muscle there as well. Then you have to position it where you want it, since it has traveled considerably from where you put it to begin with.

Then you spend the whole day shifting yourself and/or the canopy to try to stay out of the sun.

Sigh. Well, it did keep me from getting sunburned, I suppose, and it kept Tucker from dying. Note to self: remember to bring a cooler for the food so Tucker can't eat it. And it protected poor Dano, whose medication makes him very susceptible to sunburn. And it provided shade for the few customers who came to our booth at the Farmers Market.

Ah, we made a few dollars. Enough to treat ourselves to SubZero ice cream after, and still have enough to buy more supplies. I am a little sad that no one wanted to buy the roses... but Lissi did say, when she finally came, that she wouldn't have put most of them up for sale. My knotted bracelets were a big hit... but that means that I have to work hard this week to make more. Ah well. I got myself into this.

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that y'all should come down to Pioneer Park next Saturday between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm (the earlier the better, if the heat is anywhere near that of last Saturday) and pay us a visit. I won't even make you buy anything!

Love,

Bob, maker and seller of friendship bracelets, illuminated pages, and hot pillows; teamed up with Lena, maker and seller of crocheted things, and Lissi, maker and seller of cross stitched things and wish bracelets, and writer of signs because she's much better at calligraphy than I am.