Talk about tough feet! Whoa Hoe!

Well, Hello there! Won't you take the time to read this looong post? It's been a looong day and whew! I'm tired!

Wasn't I talking about my tough feet a couple posts ago? Wait to the end of this post. Okay, let's start at the start of the day because this day was wonderful from beginning to end!!

As soon as we got to the market, I don't know why but I was really grumpy. I'm just going to be honest with ya. Every last little thing was getting me bothered. There was nothing to be getting me upset but yet I was. I finally just went out and took a little walk and a bunch of pictures but I was still not happy. . . I was not really upset but I just wasn't happy. Grace asked me if I wanted to go outside with her and we could take some pictures and we did.

I asked God to help me get over what ever was bothering me. I felt better after me and Grace were having a nice time together but it wasn't until I got the wasp sting that I told you about in the previous post that I actually felt really happy! It's kind of funny, right after the wasp stung me I was really happy :D

So after that little crabby time the whole day went great for me!! Thank you God!

But let me tell you all about it :)) (big double smile!!!)

Grace and I's greens and other wild edibles did really well I thought for the first time. We sold half of the greens we brought, 3 cattail stalks and 3 ounces of watercress.

Grace and I bought us a little lunch for on the way home (cold sweet tea and a bag of rosemary olive oil potato chips). I gave a bag of our greens to a lady there who sells milk and yogurt. She kindly gave me a quart of peach yogurt smoothie and a quart of chocolate milk!!! Wasn't that SO sweet of her?? Oh God, please bless Mrs. Shetler!! One of my dear friends works for their dairy in the winter. The milk is not raw, but it is as healthy for you as pasteurized milk can be.

After we left the market, we were driving away when we remembered that we had wanted to take some of our things to our favorite restaurant: The Cooks House. Go here if you want: thecookshouse.typepad.com they are a totally local sustainable restaurant. Chef Eric who is the owner cooks AMAZING food!! I have never eaten there, but I know he does!!! Mama and Daddy have and they really like it. Anyway, Chef Eric's wife Teresa was having a birthday today so we took her a gift. This is what we gave her:

2 bags of mine and Grace's wild greens

3 bunches of wild leeks

A big bag of wild watercress

an onion

and 3 goose eggs

She seemed pretty thrilled with it all. I'm so glad :)

The reason I love the Cooks House is because they are all so like family. The house only seats 14 and the kitchen is really tiny and cute :)

Here's an example of what I mean how they are all like family:

Okay, we all walk into the little house and there is no one there at the moment. The two young guys cooking in that back smile and say "hi there! Can we help you with anything??"

"Is Teresa in?"

"Uh, she might be, whata ya need?"

"Oh, we heard it's her birthday and we wanted to giver her something."

"Just a minute."

He goes out of the kitchen and comes back with Teresa.

As she is looking through the goods, one guy goes "What kind of eggs are those?"

"They are goose eggs."

"Whoa!! This is going to make a great meal!"

One, two, three, Teresa picks up each egg.

One guy reaches for them and says "That's a omelet, that's an OMLET!"

Teresa: "Uh, no! This is mine!" :)

Forget fast "food" (food???). . . you gotta love people like this and you gotta love local sustainable organic yummy food!!!

The Cooks House has a little store across the street. It's like a little deli and they sell other local foods there too. We each got a cookie there-- let me tell you they were SO GOOD!!

Oh, my! I forgot to tell one of the most important parts of the day!

As we were coming out of The Cook's House, mama saw the pizza place right next door.

"Can we get some pizza? It sounds really good."

"Noooooo.. . .!!!"

"Eeww!"

"Mama! I took out some chickens last night. We are going to grill those when we get home."

"Yum! That does sound really good."

We did not know this, but Mama prayed at this point Well God, I would really like pizza so if you want us to have pizza make that possible. Then after racing each other across the street and to the truck, we roar off. You wonder why that little ordeal was one the important parts of the day- right? Keep reading!

Now we go back to the Marcato to pick up the vase of flowers that we forgot and then head off in the direction of Menards to get paint and tile. We passed a Sherwin William's Paint store that had a huge banner outside advertising their 40% off sign Saturday only!!! Wow! I saw the sign as we past and told Daddy about it. We went on to Tractor Supply Company though first. There was some people trying to get rid of (sell) some cute (ugly) puppies (dogs). There were two cute puppies but I'm sure they'd be ugly when they grew up :D

David got some mineral blocks there. Enoch and Nathanael were looking at the scooters, six wheelers and go carts, Grace and I were looking at the horsy clothes and trying on cowboy hats and cowboy boots. Wanna know somethin we found out? We don't fit into Ladies cowboy (girl?) boots :P I was looking at these really pretty ones and I found Grace's size--size 10 (it was the biggest size there) and she tried to put it on but it did not even fit her. I knew better than to look for ladies 11's for myself but I did anyways. Then we found some other really nice cowboy boots and I started looking for my size- again. "Hey! They have my size! 11-D!" I tried them on and they fit. Grace found her size but did not try them on. Then I looked at the sign, "Oh, I know why these fit, they are men's size 11!" Now that I think about it, they did seem a little on the big size. I think if I get any, I'll get men's size 10.

After tearing ourselves away from a very funny book called "You know your a readneck if. . ." (and also deciding yes, it's confirmed we are rednecks.I always knew we were.) we headed down to the paint store. Daddy, Mama and I all go in. This guy walks past with a plate of pizza right as the lady says "Hey, can I help you guys?"

"Yeah," Mama says, "Uh, do you have some pizza I could have?" She said it in a joking way, referring to the guy and his pizza. "Oh, sure she said" (in all seriousness) "take some please" She motions to her left at boxes and BOXES of pizza! "We were just going to give some away and throw the rest out." Of course Mama told her that she was just joking about the pizza but the lady really did want us to get some! So Mama got four partially filled boxes and I took them out to the truck. Talk about rednecks! Whoa! Of course the truck was filled with lot's of what's. What? What? WHAT? I go back in the store. Somehow or another, I don't really even remeber how but we ended up with 9 boxes of pizza most of them were not even opened and they gave each of us a pop too. Wow Lord, you really answer Mama's prayer!

thumbs up for pizza! what happened to sustainable food David???

it tastes. . . alot different that milk and water. It's sweet.

it's goooood!

who would'da ever thought?

I founda mountain dew!

pepsi is my favorite.

"To many sales at Sherwin William's!!!"

A certain maroon pickup carrying 7 hayseeds from the tall timbers was driving around town all 7 hayseeds were laughing and eating pizza and drinking pop as though it was really rare-- the back of the pickup was loaded with tubs and totes and tables. . .those people from the tall timbers!!

Okay what's so interesting about 7 hayseeds? Get on with your blog post.

Sorry.

We stopped at Menards next. After loosing Daddy and the boys Mama and I were running around until we found them. I'm afraid after reading the redneck book at TSC and laughing out heads off, we were a little (a little?) on the silly side. The pizza ordeal just made it worse. But believe me, you'd rather see us that way than the opposite. Whew! Don't even go there!

Mama and I were making plans as were running around. But we had to talk to Daddy first. We talked to Daddy and he said "Sure!" So I went up to the front desk and asked to use a phone. I got a hold of our friends and told them we'd stop by with dinner-- pizza and salad. They said that'd be great. All of us who were in the store planed on keeping it a surprise for David and Grace. It worked and they did not know what was up until we pulled in our friend's drive.

We have know these friend of ours since I was a baby, so we are all like family around each other. They totally loved the pizza story and we were all laughing SO hard!! The pizza was great and we all had a fun time eating it together while discussing how the different farmer's markets went for each of us that day. After dinner, all of us young people went out for a walk in the woods and down by a little creek.

It was really fun.

I was walking back through the creek to go get my shoes when I felt something stab really deep into my foot. I yanked my foot out of the water and yelled "OW" really loud. It hurt so bad. I was sure I had a cut on my foot. I went up onto the bank and looked at my foot. It was gushing out blood. I slammed my fingers onto it to stop the bleeding while the rest of everybody ran over to see what I yelled ow about. Olivia asked me to pull my fingers away so she could see the cut. I did, and it started pouring out blood (like a little spring at the start of a creek was the way Olivia described it and that is exactly how it was.) It hurt so bad.

photo credits: Olivia A. thanks :)

I kept my hand pressed on it while Grace A. ran up to their house. The rescue squad came a couple minutes latter. It was Mr A. in his truck, Daddy, Mama and David in ours. The cut stopped bleeding so much and we could see that it was a triangle shape. I still have no idea what I stepped on-- all's I know is that it was sharp. Daddy gave me a towel that I bound around my foot and secured it with my hair tie :) Then Daddy lifted up my arms, Grace F. and Olivia each got a leg and they carried me over to the truck. Mr. A. went ahead clearining away branches and stuff. David was taking pictures for bloggers sake, but they all turned out blurry because he forgot to flip the flash up. And in every picture it looks like I'm screaming when really I was laughing my hardest. We all were.

They had to cross a ditch that had a bunch of mud in it. It was so scary, we almost all fell into it because they had to jump over it and scramble up a little bank onto a driveway that the truck was on. We did stumble but did not land in the mud :D

After settling me in the truck everyone except Daddy hopped in the bed of the pickup and we went up to the house. After we got my cut all cleaned out and it stopped bleeding for the most part we left for home. Before we left Mr. A. told me, "remember things always stop hurting when the pain goes away." And then I heard him mutter to David "The things people do to get out of doing chores. . ." We all piled in a rored off to our neck of the woods. . .

Ah! Home sweet home!

Tomorrow there is a plow days thing where a bunch of people get together and plow with horses (I think that's what they do, I've never been there so I don't know for certain). We might go there. I hope my foot is stepable :P by then even if I do have to hop around a little I guess that's okay :) Like I said, this is how I get my feet so tough!!! hahaha!

Here are some just for fun pics of me and my friends: