Yesterday at the Cattle Sale

The plan was: wake at 6:30am, eat something quick, feed animals, leave for cattle sale at 7:30 with all 4 kids in tow.

Yeah. That could happen.

At 8:30, we are all in the car waiting for Daddy to finish with the quails. We arrived at the Cattle Sale at 8:40, and it was already HOT out there. It was the first time for the kids to go there in about a year, and they were all excited to see baby ducks and rabbits.

I didn't really NEED anything, but I had $20 cash and high hopes as we started out. The first booth I came to had a boy selling big peach baskets full of yellow squash for $5. The boy was about Noah's age and I wanted to encourage the boy in the booth for working so hard, and I wanted Noah to start thinking of ways to work and earn money. I told him I would be back and I'd buy a basket of his squash.

Next booth, there was a lady with 9 clean quart-size mason jars for canning - 20 cents each. YAY! Bought those and asked her to hang on to them till I came back.

We saw baby ducks for $1.50 each. CUTE little yellow fuzzballs with little yellow bills, but I wasn't ready to buy because I had questions about how ducks deal with gardens and what space and water they need.

Found another box of mason jars, this time 9 qt jars and 4 jelly jars for $3. Bought 'em, asked them to hold 'em. Moved on.

We were DYING of absolute heat drain and were dragging our tails up and down the rows of vendors of all varieties of junque when I spied the MOTHERLOAD. At the end of a table, a guy had several nice looking pieces of very tarnished silver. Jessica walks up and loudly says, "Hey, Mom, is that silver???" I said, "SHHHHHHZZZZZZ!" in one of those yelling whispers you do to your kids. I looked at the footed silver bowl with lid, the silver teapot, the silver coffee pot with warmer stand, the creamer and the sugar bowl all matching except the first bowl. I casually walked the rest of his table where Noah found an unopened ship model still in the box and Monty found me an unopened Soap-Making Kit with a book of recipes and instructions and supplies. I took those 2 items and asked the guy what he'd take for those silver pieces and those, and he said, "Let's see, that's 1 and 1, and 3 and 5, and 3, and 2 that's $15. I handed him $15 and he handed me an empty box to put it all in. What a HAUL!!!!! I didn't care it is was silver plate or what, it was BEAUTIFUL and would look so pretty at Thanksgiving and Christmas! Or, I could eBay it and see what happens. YAY!

I went to the veggie vendors and bought 2 big ol' baskets of yellow squash (each filling a plastic WalMart sack to weight capacity) knowing I was going to make squash pickles, 5 BIG onions, a small basket of jalapenos, 2 seedless watermelons, a bucket of blueberries, a basket of peaches, 5 humongous rutabegas, and 2 clusters of garlics. WOW!!! We picked up our mason jars and bought ice cold drinks for everyone. We had to get OUT of that heat and rush home to unload our booty and change into dry clothes to continue our day.

Today, my dear friend Rachel responded to my desperate plea for veggies of color that she might have on hand because I forgot that my squash pickles were pretty because of the beet stalks and baby carrots (which I didn't BUY at the cattle sale). She told me to come on over and she'd load me up. She had baby beets (complete with stalks and greens - I've got PLANS for those!!), weird purple carrots with orange insides - only a couple, yellow with green-marbled patty pan squash, and 2 humongous cabbages (not for the pickles, just for fun) and non-veggies including 5 big mangos, cherries, and blueberries!!

The plan: invent a recipe for peach salsa with jalapeno peppers and onions. Market it as a local delicacy. Write down the recipe for these fabulous squash pickles that also have beets, carrots, zukes, onions, and maybe green beans this time. Get ALL those blackberries we picked made into jam before they go bad. Pit and enjoy those cherries - maybe with some homemade yogurt. It's 5:30, though, and I'm still keister-sitting and typing on this blog. I gotta get BUSY!!!!! Later.