Poor Farmers Market

06/08/2026

Yesterday on The New River

I never go to the river on weekends because I work weekends but my granddaughter wanted to go run there yesterday so I tagged along with my bike. She RAN 10 miles. I biked 10 miles. I don’t understand how anyone can run 10 miles, or would want to. But my kids are preparing for a Marathon or half Marathon in Asheville next weekend. I don’t get it. I couldn’t run a quarter of a mile if a bear was chasing me. To each his own. I’m just glad she channels her intensity in such positive directions. She and her 16 year old friend met at the coffee shop last week to develop a website for the catering business they want to start. I said ya’ll better practice on family first before you launch a catering business at 16. I might start throwing big parties again and let them cater, for the practice. I also let her pierce my ears last week, for practice 🙂. What a grandparent will do. I kinda did want my ears pierced because we have fantastic earrings at both stores. We really do. We tend to order every line of cool jewelry we find and then have to figure out where to put all that jewelry. We have too much jewelry at both stores.

We stopped at Sheetz for lunch. I have evolved towards preferring to eat at a gas station instead of fine dining. I don’t like spending a lot of money on food and I don’t like being formally served. I can report that Sheetz cinnamon pretzel, $3.99, is as good as the famous cinnamon rolls at Dollywood. Make sure you add the dipping icing for an extra 90 cents.

It was also confirmed for me yesterday that my better Trek bike that I bought at a bike shop for five times more than a Walmart bike was worth every penny. After switching bikes with Casey and riding the bike I bought for Rain at Walmart years ago I realized the difference, and I will never go back to a Walmart bike.

Biking is something I enjoy doing, but only on the trail. I don’t want to ride on the road in traffic. We need things we enjoy doing so we will keep moving.

Keep moving friends. Use it or lose it.

06/07/2026

We have fantastic plants and need to sell them. Hydrangea bushes. Butterflies bushes. Blackberry bushes. Hanging baskets. I had ordered them all for Memorial Day and Memorial Day was a washout. If you want several of them I will cut you a deal.

06/07/2026

The Swan Saga

Oh my goodness. They worked it out themselves. On May 28 I brought a male mute swan home after being afraid to have one here for all these years. But all my swans are gone now besides Daenerys Targaryen, the female mute. She is alone. I am not prepared to talk about what happened to my last black swan. It hurts too much to talk about. It is tragic. But it lead to John Snow.

I thought they would fall madly in love upon first sight and Daenerys would be thrilled to the core to have him. Instead, she was mad as a hornet and would have run him off had we not built an enclosure for him on the pond where she couldn’t get to him, to protect him from her.

I noticed him studying the gate yesterday. He was intent on opening the gate. He can’t open that gate. This morning when I got up John Snow was not in his pen! John Snow! Where did you go! I saw them together on the back side of the pond, preening. Preening together is like holding hands for humans. I don’t know how he got out but he found a way. He knew where the gate was and pondered how to open it. I saw him studying it.

I want to understand swan behavior, swan psychology. The Saga continues. The Swan Saga.

06/05/2026

Aww. Look at the tote bag Liz Whitely made for me with Blue and Tony’s pictures. I love it. We are at Star Brook Gardens eating great food from H’s BBQ and enjoying ourselves. Liz has her Hulks Helping Hands Rescue tent set up. She plans to be here regularly. She is a marketing genius . I love her towels and totes that say , Meadows of Dan Traffic Report. One Buggy. Two cows and a Farmer Looking for his coffee. Why didn’t I think of that? Look at her candles that say “This candle is lit in memory of precious souls who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge. She has soap for dogs, soaps for humans. And, rescue puppies. I think they are chihuahua mix. I love Liz. Come to Star Brook Gardens just west of the parkway bridge in uptown Meadows of Dan. Live music. Fridays and Saturday. Find them on Facebook.

06/05/2026

06/05/2026

I found this to b true. Some of the most spiritual people get into addiction. It is often just a minor turn to turn in the right direction. Repent means to turn. A hunger for the infinite. We all have it and feed ourselves on junk food and drugs and alcohol and all kinds of things trying to satisfy that hunger.

We often treat addiction as a simple lack of willpower, but it is more accurately described as a hunger for the infinite.

Carl Jung famously noted that all addictions are a low level search for god.

Jung was the Swiss psychiatrist who broke away from Freud to explore the deeper, mystical layers of the human mind. He lived a life deeply immersed in the study of alchemy, dreams, and the collective unconscious. He believed that the human soul has a natural drive toward wholeness and transcendence. When this drive is blocked or ignored, it manifests as a desperate craving for something—anything—that offers a temporary feeling of release or connection.

In a letter to Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Jung explained that the Latin word for spirits is the same as the word for the highest religious experience. He argued that the only way to defeat a lower-level search for the divine is to replace it with a higher, more authentic one. This insight ultimately provided the spiritual foundation for modern recovery programs.

06/04/2026

I like it when she puts me in the laundry room. It is relaxing. I can choose to lay on a pile of rugs and blankies , or I can choose to sprawl out on the cool tile floor. I get nervous sometimes if she leaves me in here too long though. Mostly because I have to go potty and I’m afraid I can’t hold it. I don’t like it when she posts unflattering pictures of me on Facebook, like this one

06/04/2026

Headed up to Deborah Webers yard 🙂🙂