Tuesday, August 27: Market Day!

Now that I have described the typical day, my posts will be more about what made this day different.  

I slept until my alarm this morning, so I think I was pretty tired.  Once again it was very cool before
dawn, and I had a few goose bumps by the time I went to the kitchen.  It is such a refreshing feeling
compared to the hot mornings I had left back in Richmond. Late August sunrise here in BC happens
just as I finish setting up the lunch table, so I have the opportunity to step outside and watch the sun
come up for a couple minutes.  I think back to my 2006 bicycle ride across the US, and once again
start my day by mentally singing “I owe the Lord a Morning Song” which I did for 48 straight days
on that venture. It gives a really good focus to my day.

In Grand Forks they have a nice Farmers’ Market every Tuesday and Friday of the local produce
season, which is still in full swing.  After clearing up breakfast, Connie and I drove downtown to
where the market is held, and browsed the vendor tents for some of the produce we hadn’t been
given by generous supporters.  They also have vendors selling arts and crafts, which are fun to
peruse.

We then drove west out of town to a small market which usually has good produce and found a few
things not available at the farmers’ market.  We also got some flypaper to help stem the burgeoning population of fruit flies which has tormented us.  All this fresh produce setting around draws clouds of the pesky critters, and the compost bags are even worse.  After finding more items on our shopping list, we headed back by the church to drop off what we had bought. On the way, we went by a small farm that has a lot of little goats, hens, ducks, geese, and peacocks that are in pens that kids can go to and feed.  I took a bunch of pix there.

After dropping off our produce, we drove to the big supermarket across the highway from the church to get the remaining items on our list.  We managed to fit it in one cart. We bought items with which to set up a taco bar for Wednesday dinner. It is really nice to have the grocery so close, which means we can do smaller trips more often. At some MDS operations the cooks might only get to go for supplies once a week due to their remote locations.

Tuesday is also a special day for the cooks, because the local churches take turns providing food for the evening meal. Tonight it was our host church, the River Valley Community Church. Since we did not have to prepare dinner, it was a good time to do some baking. I made two peach and two apple pies, all crumb-top. We weren't sure if the church would bring dessert, so the peach pies were for that contingency, and the apple pies were for Wednesday after the taco bar dinner.

Careful viewing of this picture will show 5 pies. The 5th is tradition of mine in which I "overestimate" the amount of both fruit and crust, and somehow end up with what I call an "Auxiliary Pie" This one was peach.

After the pies were out, I was free for about 3 hours until I had to help set up the dinner that the church folks had brought. It was stuff for a taco bar. . . and two apple-crumb pies for dessert. Connie and I just looked at each other and laughed.

The dinner was enjoyed by all, and we told everyone in our group what had happened, We were pleasantly surprised when many of them told us they would like taco bar again Wednesday as originally planned!

Before turning in for the evening, I got out my little telescope that I had carefully packed in my carry-on luggage. I hadn't been sure if Jupiter or Saturn would be high enough at this latitude (49 degrees N) to make it above the mountain you can see in the pictures of the church. The mountain is right on the Canada/US line. As soon as it got dark enough after supper, I spotted Jupiter, big and bold, and easily high enough to catch with the scope. Unfortunately, the only platform high enough to place the telescope on for viewing was the dumpster. It is really not that bad, very clean on the outside, but the smell makes it less than pleasant to be around while spotting and focusing. We viewed Jupiter, and then found Saturn as well, with plenty of altitude for decent viewing,

Jupiter and 2 of the Galilean Moons, poorly photographed

Then, off to bed!