kayaks and cantelopes

Got a little bit of reading done today. I keep finding themes of ethics and morals involved in teaching and in environmental education. So be it. I will teach people how to be good people. I dig that.

Long walk along the coast again this morning. To the Farmer's Market where I spent quite a bit more time than I had expected. Stopped past the Co-op first because the F.M. still wasn't open and got some good fish, per my usual requests- Coho and a whole rainbow trout again (more expensive but they went and got it for me specially... it's also bigger than the last one!)

Upon returning to the Market, I went straight to the lady with the best melons in the joint (excuse the crude humor) and proceeded to buy $17 worth of melons. Only one honeydew in the bunch of 12 that I bought in total. Later on why I bought so much of this particular fruit.

Then I saw a box of tomatoes and thought about making sauce. Well, long story short is that the entire box was for sale... so I bought the whole thing (22 pounds). Then I bought huge onions, garlic aplenty, basil, celery and carrots so that the sauce can happen. It turns out to be about $50 worth of stuff now that I think of it. I'll get some ground chicken which should set me back another $25 and then I'll have $75 worth of homemade, organic, healthy tomato sauce for pasta. My goal is to dehydrate it and have it ready for camping.

After reading this afternoon, I had some daylight and space on my patio. So I cut all of the melons and prepped them for dehydration:

They averaged about the size of a shot put "ball"

One of eight trays. About one melon per tray.

Here are the honeydew slices.

Then I got word from my landlady that the local garden was closing for the season. I rushed over there 30 minutes before close and just went for it. A 30 pound box of red potatoes to get my through the winter and for all of the experiments I want to try. A 20 pound box of honeydew apples for drying and eating. Garlic at $0.10/head. And a couple of those scrumptious donut peaches. We'll see if they are any good.

All in all, I probably spent $200 today on 100 pounds of food including items like: grapes, turnips (never eaten one before-it'll be a fun experience), a whole chicken (from a different local farmer) and eggs from a sweet little old lady (who told me that she won't name her chickens because she doesn't want to have to worry about anything bad happening to them). It will be nice to prepare all of this food eventually and eat like a king in the following weeks as well as on the trail months from now. I'll have to make sure my products last!

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The sun was setting and I didn't think I'd get to the gym. With the weather being so nice, I decided to go for my first excursion in the kayak. I am still missing the spray skirt, but thought the effort would be worth it.

The wind had slowed down, but it was still rather wavy on the water. After towing my kayak for 15 minutes, I got to the water, and nearly went into it! I have a long way to go with my balance yet. The water was gorgeous and my kayak didn't leak. So everything is cool. Really cool. I got rather wet in the process of loading and bigger waves crashing over the dock.

I decided to turn back after only 5 minutes to make sure I could get out with sunlight left. After all, this was only a test run. Well, I struggled getting the boat out of the water and tweaked my back. Lugging it back uphill didn't help either. A long day of lifting and awkward carrying: fruits, vegetables, kayaks... and I finally had it. I even dug in the soil to bury my compost... so, my back has told me that enough is enough. I am icing my lower back, after sustaining a small strain perhaps. I plan to take it easy and let the body re-coop from a lot of work. On to some reading and resting.

The last picture is from the maiden voyage.... it was really pretty out there!