Re-entry

Yup. No pics from PA. My camera acted like it was fine and then took exactly one picture before going back to the blindingly bright outputs it was giving me a coupla months ago. We brought Les's mom's camera, but we don't have her cable for downloading anything. Weather was meh the whole time anyway, but still would've been nice to take more pictures. We got a pile of 'em on the ride back; hopefully some of them came out.

The fair...when you build up a trip like that in your mind, it turns out to be everything and nothing like what you expected. But it was awesome. So much good being done there. Such a great vibe, even with as huge an event as it is becoming. It poured rain for most of the day Saturday, but people's spirits were undaunted. Some folks rearranged their workshop schedules and piled into the indoor classes; the rest of us nuts braved the wet to the outdoor tents, and most of the vendors were real troopers, staying open amidst the downpours. The resort was pretty good about shoveling fresh wood chips in places where the mud threatened and keeping drainage areas open. The animal smells near the live tents were never more than a light scent. Any tech issues with TVs and Powerpoint presentations were sorted out within 5 minutes. Really good management all around.

So much to think about and reflect on...it'll likely be dribbling out of me in the next couple of blog posts both here and at Dark Meadow. How much we learned. How much we want to learn now. How we know we are ready for a dog, ready to purge more, ready to start saving. How neat it was seeing Ed Begley Jr. and Joel and Daniel Salatin in real life. How pretty the Pennsylvania farmland was, and how nifty it was to mingle with Mennonites. How gorgeous the West Virginia mountains were. How much we both look forward to learning more about herbalism now, and creating a home apothecary. How we're already excited to re-attend when it comes to Asheville next spring.

If you're interested at all in sustainable living, homesteading, or farming, it's worth a trip. The selection of workshops is borderline overwhelming, but that's good, because it forces you to pick and choose carefully and they repeat some classes, so if you can't catch it during one block, there's a chance you can catch it (or something similar) at another block. So glad for our cell phones, because Les and I attended a lot of workshops separately and then met up intermittently throughout the day (and that's a common theme with couples). I spent so much of the weekend grinning like I'd just moved to Asheville again. These were my people.

More soon...gotta get to work.

Image from here.