Farmer's Market

Every Saturday in the summer and into the fall, the Marquette Commons hosts a Farmer's Market that starts at 9:00 a.m. and honestly I don't know when it ends. 

I've been before in the fall but had been told that it was much more amazing in the summer.  I asked my friend Ginger if she would go with me, otherwise I would forget. And at 10:00 a.m. we met at her place and walked down with her roommate Stephanie.

The first thing I saw was this huge sign for freshly picked, locally grown Strawberries! Oh this was going to be a fabulous experience!

There were wood carvers, butchers, fresh fruit and vegetables, plant vendors, pictures, handmade jewelry, bees wax candle stick makers, a homemade soap vendor, a Birch bark artist, the list goes on.

All of the food was local (within the UP), this one vendor was talking about how she grows her vegetables outdoors, but has some indoor plants to extend the growing season. But she doesn't use artificial fertilizers (only ones that occur naturally).  I bought some rather delicious looking lettuce from her.

The honey was delicious!  I needed some more because I have a bit (an impossibly large bit) of a sweet tooth. For five dollars you get ten ounces of raw unprocessed organic honey.  Before I even bought some, the honey vendor let me sample some!  She was so sweet, dressed in black and yellow with honey bee wings on her head band.  We had a nice chat about long skirts and how she had just made herself a shirt that went perfectly with hers.  And before I left, she made sure that I knew to simply warm the honey with hot water on the stove if it crystallizes. Do not microwave, was strongly emphasized.

The atmosphere at the Farmer's Market was just joyous!  The vendors were friendly and the customers were ecstatic to see the merchandise and the other customers.  I ran into a number of friends there, some who are spending the summer up here like I am or others who are just up for the weekend.

Though I did happen to overhear some other Farmer's Market virgins, who were remarking on how it was were all the old hippies went.  It was said without malice, but I hope that it wasn't going to deter them from coming back again or just enjoying the atmosphere.  Some of the vendors definitely had a hippie vibe to them, but they were all really nice and I didn't even hear them speak a word about "Saving the Environment."

I can't wait 'til next week!  Though I still do have to go grocery shopping, not everything can be gotten at the Farmer's Market unfortunately.  But it certainly makes my day much more charming.

Dirty Kitty Litter Box + Pudge Sulking = Bath

My cat has recently developed this habit when she is sulking: sitting in the semi-dirty kitty litter box.  Talk about gross.  Ergo a bath was necessary.

Now if you've ever given a cat a bath, you know that it can be anywhere between World War III and the cat shutting completely down.  Thankfully Pudge is the shutting down type, at least until the end of the bath when she's finally had enough.

I used Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap, lavender scented because that's what I had.  It's certified fair trade, biodegradable, vegetable based, the packaging is 100% recycled, and certified organic oils were used within the solution.  I made sure to thin it out with water.  Which would insure less time rinsing her out which in turn translates to less stress for the both of us.

Pudge was such a good girl.  She didn't scratch, and hardly growled (although washing her rather large tummy wasn't appreciated).

Once the rinsing process came, she began to lose a bit of her patience.  And once I began to towel-off the water, she immediately had had enough and escaped.  Pudge took her revenge by drying off on my bed. 

I tried to get a decent picture of her but she wouldn't smile for the camera.

Now that she's dry, she's so clean and soft. =^.^=

Moving...not so Green.

I've recently moved apartments, just five blocks away but financially feasible for my remaining year at Northern.  Now I intended to be as green throughout the process as possible, and in the beginning it was good.  I recycled last semester's notes (that I have no intention of looking at ever again), I was packing at a slow pace seeing what all I had and making a mental list of what needed to be donated since it hadn't been used in two years, etc.  Considering I had a little over a week overlap between my two apartments I didn't really see the point in rushing to get everything done.

The downfall of my green efforts began with the remain effects of my former roommate, that moved out two and a half months before myself.  She had left countless of open food containers hidden throughout our kitchen.  Items consisting of flour and cereal and everything in between.  And when I say hidden, I mean hidden; on top of the fridge, behind our food containers, in the freezer, etc.  Any open food was deemed roommate's and was immediately pitched, regardless of whether it seemed okay or not.  Over two months of being open to the elements of our apartment wasn't a chance I or my current roommate was willing to take.

I had never been so disgusted with my former roommate as I had then, at least in the cleanliness department.  It took me forever to clean up  the food remnants on top of our fridge.  And yes, the classic cleaning supplies came out.  The green cleaning supplies just couldn't handle my desire to get my full security deposit back.

The walls were dusted paper towels were exclusively used, and washed but a magic eraser was used.  The windows washed with Lysol all purpose spray.  The floors were scrubbed and vacuumed.  And the grand total was three city trash bags and two boxes of recyclables, and very disintegrated fingernails (furthering my goal of reducing the harsh chemicals used to clean my apartment regularly).  Not bad in comparison to my friend who cleaned out her apartment and had twelve trash bags.

And we got our full security deposit back!

Cleaning the new apartment was much greener.  Almost used exclusively were the Seventh Generation Anti-bacterial wipes, which work amazingly just FYI.  Though the intense cleaning wasn't mandatory for this apartment since it had just been cleaned by the previous tenants so they could get their security deposit back.