Market Day in Wolfville

October 11th 2019.





Up early for the market today. Indian summer but it's still chilly here at dawn. I'm dressed in layers sitting here at the keyboard, nettle tea at my side. Its a big old keyboard that Darkmirror brought me and Papa Pan awhile back. Its rigged to our cellphone. Something they forgot in the quest for small and portable was that eyesight fails as we get older and fingers stiffen with age (and the cold!). Frankly I could never get used to typing on a cellphone the way the kids all do. The shorthand they use drives me nuts and I was never a text messenger to begin with. Mum will not give up her laptop even though its expensive to power.

It's getting closer to the holidays so I've paid to have a booth until the end of December. The kid's old toyboxes are filled with my wares, and I've got an old rubbermaid bin filled with stuff we can trade when we do our own shopping.

Market Day has been a constant in our lives for oh...almost 12 years now? Since the very first day we moved to Wolfville. Then it was housed in the Acadia Student Centre during the winter. It had already outgrown the space when we arrived and there was always talk of a permanent structure but no one could really figure out where to put it, or where to get the cash to build it. Three years ago they got the school when it closed. We'll stay outside until the end of October though. My booth is right next to the playstructure. Fitting for the toymaker.

Market Day is our big family social outting each week. Its a place for social networking the old fashioned way - face to face. When I'm not running my own booth I volunteer to sit at the EDUCYCLE table. Papa Pan has a gift at the market - his version of one of those flaky "intention boards". Before we arrive he meditates on something we need to find out about and picks a spot to stand. Then within five minutes he'll meet someone who can help or has a connection or something. So when we were deciding where to put the EDUCYCLE info table we let Papa Pan divine the spot for it.

Its always been an informal homeschool meet too. In the old days all the kids got together and swarmed the public library. Ironically today they swarm the school and a few classrooms are set aside for them to use. Fuel costs mean they don't get the opportunity to meet in the flesh nearly as often as we'd like. It's been an interesting transformation - the homeschoolers being in the minority just a few years ago and now everyone is. Sprout LOVES this more than the apple cider popsicles. Wild Thing is a bit too old for the mob of kids but he always takes advantage of being in town to hang out with Darkmirror and his roommates. They're teaching him how to build his own drone.

We need wheat, honey, nuts, sourdough starter, potatoes, soybeans, a bit of coffee. We should see if we can afford some pork for Thanksgiving on Sunday; it'd be such a treat for everyone. I'm bringing wildcrafted soup mix, acorn flour, beeswaxed paper, liquid laundry soap, and the toys.

After the market I'm teaching a class on wildcrafting with Nature Chick for the EDUCYCLE and Papa Pan is doing a "teaching maths is easy" workshop with some nervous parents. I think Darkmirror and a few of his crew are coming back for the holiday weekend too.