Meet the Bloggers …
With Sarah working, and me not, I have become both Keeper of the Flat (aka House Husband) and de facto dog walker. I get up when Sarah does, and while she gets ready for work, I take the dogs out for their morning walk, feed them and then have breakfast with Sarah before she has to run. I take the dogs out individually, mostly because they are difficult for one person to control, but also because they seem to do their Duty faster when their colleague is not around. And with winter approaching, getting them to go quickly is a good idea.
Today I had the pleasure of running into two local bloggers while on the individual walks. When I was walking Haley I bumped into JDS, and later while walking Mickey I met Morgan. Both apparently recognized the dogs first and then asked me if I was the guy behind this website. I must admit I was surprised it took so long for us to run into other locals who maintain websites, but it was neat to run into two people 30 minutes, or so, apart.
Hopefully, with Cathy’s help, there will be an area meetup in the next month or so, but in the meantime, please feel free to stop me—and whatever dog I have in tow—and say hi. As JDS and Morgan can attest, none of us bite.
Hunger Mountain Weekend …
This weekend was all about Hunger Mountain CoOp. Saturday afternoon we visited the Coop-sponsored “Food and Wellness Expo” at city hall, and later we stopped by the CoOp to do our weekly shopping. Sunday we attended the CoOp’s annual members’ meeting, which was also held in city hall’s auditorium. The auditorium is also the home of the Lost Nation Theater. It’s a nice space.
The expo gave us a chance to meet the nice people who grow and make the yummy food we eat, and the annual meeting showed us our first glimpse of Vermont democracy in action.
Both events were interesting, and we met lots of nice people. The expo was attended by representatives from all sorts of places. We chatted with Nick of Shelburne Orchards about apples and ginger, and about daikon and herbs with Richard of Cate Farm. The Annie’s folks were real nice and even fawned out back over Mick before things got started. We were surprised that we didn’t see Nutty Steph, but she ended up going to her usual Montpelier farmer’s market gig on Saturday. She set up a table at the annual meeting the next day. She’s a trip.
As for the democracy, the biggest issue this year is whether or not to offer a family membership as opposed to requesting (not requiring) that each adult in a household have a membership. The vote was so close that a movement was made to table the motion and immediately seconded. Not unusual. What was unusual was that once it was seconded, it was voted on, and it was nearly unanimous that the item be tabled. Neither side seemed all that interested in fighting it out or anything. And without going into details, the compromise is already sort of in place, so it is something that can wait until next year to try to be decided.
* Every product getting a link is getting one because Sarah and I actually use and like the product. Although we haven’t been to the theater yet.