My New Job

I have had part time jobs over the years since I got married, but they were all work-at-home jobs. For the first time, I "work away". I was hired this summer to work at a produce auction. I'm doing it for the fun of it, not because I need a paycheck. Truth be told, I'd do it for free, but 'someone' told me I'm not allowed. 😆

I love, love, love working auctions, so it was a tough decision when I was offered this job ...because for years & years I didn't know how to say no and our home life was out of control. We reached a point about 2 years ago where we agreed something has to change -namely I have to learn to say no and be a 'keeper at home'. It took some doing to break the habit of saying yes to everything I was asked to do, but we all reap the benefits of a more calm home life. So I questioned my sanity to accept this job and upset the apple cart again.

The auction is twice a week, but I only work one day a week, Mondays. I would love to work both days, but I just can't find the time. Even though my children are quite capable of fixing themselves something to eat Monday nights, I still feel a little guilty about not being there when they get home from work. On the other hand, I often walk through the door with fresh produce ...and homemade doughnut balls that are pretty popular around here. 

It's kind of funny how I got the job. My name was given as a reference to the auctioneer, unknown to me. We kept getting these calls from ------ Auction Service, but we screen our calls heavily so I wasn't answering. I did look up the location of the area code, but we don't know anyone from that area so we figured it's probably not a legit call. R said "You should answer it sometime. Maybe they're calling to offer you a job." We both laughed, we really didn't think that was the case. The poor auctioneer finally tracked down our landline number and left a message on the answering machine. Lo and behold, it really was an auctioneer offering me a job! It's a wonder he didn't give up on me.

The produce auction is sourced and run largely by the Amish. They do not have/allow electricity in the building. Our office equipment is run by generator and is restricted to the office -they do not allow computers on the sale floor. Instead you will see Amish men with clipboards writing down everything by hand, then the clerking sheets are brought to the office and I enter everything into the computer. It can be educational & entertaining to decipher handwriting (anyone want to guess what "orbs" is? I was stumped for awhile on that one!) And the real pressure of the job is speed. Many people are used to auctions where clerking is done electronically, so your purchase is instantly in the system and you can walk up to the cashier & pay immediately after a successful bid... not so at an Amish auction. I am in the office frantically entering data because people come to the window wanting to check out and leave, expecting their buys to be in the system instantly.
Another interesting aspect of working in an Amish establishment is the lack of a/c. On warm days I think I'm going to melt into a puddle before the last "Sold!" is uttered. 

Being an introvert, I like the obscurity of clerking better than cashiering. It takes more people skills to cashier. But I do jump in and cashier when needed. I'm learning a lot about the auction software. And produce. And then, of course, one of my favorite parts of the job is counting stacks of cash at the end of the day. 😊 

Yesterday 3 special ladies came to visit me at work. Made my day! 

If you are ever in my area on a Monday, drop by and get yourself some farm fresh produce.

Camping

This past weekend we went camping. It's something we enjoy and don't get done often enough.

Here's the thing about camping- I used to think it would get easier as our children got older. 🤣 While it is easier to pack with older children, it's much, much harder to get them all rounded up simultaneously -when everyone has a job and their own social calendar.
Every year we say "ok, now this year we're going to go camping more often. No sense in having a camper [taking up space in the shop] if we don't use it." But it wasn't happening. Last year we didn't go camping at all. We kept waiting for a weekend it suited all of us, which never happened. So this summer I decided we are going to camp when it suits "mom & dad" and the kids can kinda show up if/when it works out for them.
This time we went to a local campground, to make it more do-able for the kids to come & go since they were both scheduled to work. Because the sites get booked up in advance, the only way to snag a site on short notice is to do a walk-in reservation prior to the weekend (the park keeps about 20 sites as walk-in only, first come first serve, not available online for advance reservations) -I managed to get one of the last sites on Thursday afternoon.


Can we talk about camping food for a minute? We LOVE camping food! Mountain pies [BBQ chicken, Philly cheese steak, chocolate-peanut butter-marshmallow, or breakfast ones are our favorites] tin foils, dutch oven recipes, s'mores... YUM! Almost anything cooked over a fire. I think we'd go camping for the food alone!

 Tinfoils cooked to perfection- 20 minutes on the bottom, 7 minutes on the top. 

And no cabbage leaf on the bottom, thank you very much. 

 Jeremy took his kayak out on the lake

 There is a cave at the park that I had never hiked to, so that was on my bucket list this weekend. 

About 15 years ago a girl fell to her death from above this cave so there are many warnings posted and the trail ends here (a distance from the entrance)...

 but you can hike on back into the cave, at your own risk. 

 Walking for a mile in Crocs is ill-advised. May cause blisters the size of a quarter on one's heels. 

But a foot spa -especially with Lemongrass Spa products- is prescribed.

We had a friendly butterfly visiting our camp site all afternoon & evening Saturday. 

My camera shutter speed and the wing movement of said butterfly were not compatible. 

 Madam Butterfly was especially attracted to Josh 

 Our favorite little person came for a visit 👏

 She likes foot spas, too!

 Having the whole family together makes this mama a happy camper! 

    I'm of the opinion that it's the people who profess to hate camping that should be the ones to own the campers. It makes camping infinitely easier. Our camper contains all the bedding, towels, paper supplies & assorted camping paraphernalia we need; so all we need to gather up is some clothes & food. We can camp spur-of-the-moment if we want, with minimal fuss. We started out with a tent when we were newlyweds, then moved up to a pop-up camper for about 10 years, and currently have a 22' travel trailer for almost as long. Each upgrade made camping a little more convenient. We didn't spend much on any of our campers -just doesn't seem justified for something you use a couple times per year. This one was resurrected from a field and took considerable elbow grease to clean up [and removal of a snake skin under one of the beds! 😦], but for all it's redneck qualities, it has a great a/c unit. We're not yuppie campers with the latest & greatest gear, but considering we have a knack for camping on the hottest weekends of the year, that is our one creature comfort we're shameless about using when we're "roughin' it".

It's a good thing we weren't far from home, because the pickup brakes gave out just when it was time to pull the camper home. The man of the house made it safely home, but we won't be camping again until we get the pickup fixed. This wasn't exactly traveling, but remember we are drama-magnets when we go away, so the weekend wouldn't have been complete without a little excitement like that. 😄