This past week while on vacation, it occurred to me how amazing it is that Little Man is able to grow up in a community surrounded by incredible people; one composed of complete strangers and close friends. There were all these little things that happened, that brought me to this realization and I am grateful for each one.
For starters, complete strangers can be a blessing from God and the source of warmth on a cold day. On two separate occasions, I was given a free cup of coffee on cold,rainy days by complete strangers. The first instance occurred on Tuesday, when myself and a few mom friends decided that we were going to slog through the rain and wind to see the animals at Shelburne Farms. The walk from the visitor center to the Children's Farm yard is about a half mile, and about half way there it started to rain/sleet. Thankfully there is a bakery just off the courtyard that just serves wonderful baked goods. As we all huddled inside, we asked the nice gentleman baking if there was a place that we could get coffee. Since the farm is not officially opened for the season yet, the location at which we could have secured a cup of coffee was not open, however, the nice baker had just made a pot of coffee and pulled out three coffee mugs for us on the condition that we brought them back when we were finished. In the shelter of the courtyard, we drank hot coffee and chomped on various freshly baked goodies. The second instance occurred in the rain and hail at a track meet on Wednesday when a mother who had been sitting in her car watching myself and fellow coach run the girls long/triple jump brought us two warm cups of hot chocolate. After standing in the rain and hail for almost two hours, this woman was my hero.
In addition to complete strangers, Vermont farmers are incredible people and worth every minute you are able to spend with them (I am slightly biased because my grandparents were Vermont farmers). Little Man wanted to see where his milk comes from this past week and not only did one of the gentleman who worked on the farm show him where it came from, we were also able to check out the new baby calves on the side of the barn. The man who owns the farm was on the other side of the farm at the time we were picking up the milk, but later took time out of his date night with his wife (both incredible people) to come over to me in the restaurant, to let me know he was bummed that he had not been around, because he wanted to give Little Man a ride on the tractor.
Finally, Vermonters take care of each other. Most Vermonters I know are not trying to make a profit, but take care of each other. A couple I work with, also runs a therapeutic farm and posted on the local forum that they were giving away aged manure (an amazing and sometimes expensive thing for anyone who owns a garden- we spent $140 on compost last year for two raised beds). While I was there, talking to them, they had said that not only had they offered to give away the manure, they were delivering it by the truckloads to people who could not transport it. In addition to this, one of our good friends also made sure that we left her house with some wonderfully tender asparagus right out of her garden. Fresh greens never tasted so good.
As you can see, we are blessed to live in an incredible community; and it is even better knowing that most of the state we live in is like our little town.
Activity: 5 miles yesterday (not as long as I had wanted) a hike in the woods with little man and 3 miles today.
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