August

Triskaidekaphobic? Are you? You probably don't even know what that means. I didn't. It is fear of the number 13. I just read that in the paper today. Learn something new every day! I have phobias, alright enough. Friends who travel with me are well accustomed to my claustrophobia. Although I do think I am getting somewhat better with that. Motel rooms MUST have windows that open. I sleep with the bedroom window open all winter. I like air moving in the car. I am fully convinced I breathe through my feet and that is why they are bare all the time. I really don't like the closing in feeling of socks. Those who receive this letter for any time, know I only own one pair of socks, and they are old grey hunting socks. Not attractive, and way big. Aunt Sepia always gets a hoot out of them.

Besides, just how would you feel the coolness of the grass in the early morning or after a rain, and haven't you ever stood in a rain puddle in summer with the warm mud squishing between your toes? Those thoughts keep me going all winter, when it becomes apparent that I can't leap between bare spots in the snow to get to the mailbox. I can manage if the snow isn't too deep, but it does eventually get to no bare ground, so I have to drag out the Arctic packs.

And of course, I don't like snakes. I am not sure that is a phobia, just plain a pure dislike. Thankfully I have only seen a couple this summer and those weren't close up. I really hate tomato worms. One summer, when the resident farmer had planted enough tomatoes to feed the entire county..I was no longer my sunny disposition in the garden after having to kill so many tomato worms. The farmers method of ridding the garden was to pick it off, put it on a rock and hit it with another rock. While effective in killing the worm, it always sends the entire worm, now pulverized, all over the bare legs of anyone within shouting distance in the garden. Pulverized worm innards closely resemble some green glick you would see in some horror film. Having this happen enough years, I learned to pick the worms by myself, without the farmer. One day, with my coffee can full with these disgusting nuisances, I could not bring myself to smash them..so I devised a great plan. I took the can down to the road, and poured them in the dirt. Then I ran the truck over them back and forth several times. Voila. My gardening chore done. I now buy my tomatoes from the farm market and don't have to deal with the worms anymore.

I suppose you could say I have a phobia about raisins. YuK. And I am not particularly fond of flying. But that stems more from my claustrophobia than the flying itself. I don't have a real good repoire with dentists. I, of course, think I am pretty normal. What are your phobias? OH, one major one, I don't like sleeping bags or tents. I sleep with at least one foot out, preferably both...breathing, you know.

My political campaigning is done. We won! I ended up with a nasty blister on one finger from all my putting out signs, and apparently was sought after by the chief of police in one town. Godfrey! Good thing I didn't know that. I was not doing anything illegal. Honest! I didn't know about my "APB" until after the fact. But I am keeping a low profile in that town now. You know my experience with my 'truck phone', the one that I don't know how to use, and thought perhaps smoke signals in the event of an emergency would be as effective...WELL, had I had that in operation, the election headquarters could have warned me of my status with the police chief. It came over the scanner and I was the lady "in the white truck". Everything goes easier in life, if you don't have a clue whets going on. I would have been stressed all day had I known.

Michigan weather more closely resembles October than August. Most days we are having trouble even getting to 60 degrees. This has not been one of those long hot summers that finds you drinking lemonade on the porch. I find myself wondering what fall will bring. No matter, it always comes. I ignore it as long as I can, but it always finds me. Usually with a long list of things to do that I have been putting off.

I have been working on Halloween stock. www.crowsoup.com comes out on 8/15. We are showing some pumpkins, pumpkin spool folks, and black cat spool folks. They will be available on 8/15 at

http://www.crowsoup.com/Market586.php . They will be up tonight or tomorrow on our website under ranting raven. http://www.highbuttonshoe.net/itemson and are available for purchase early to those of you who receive our newsletter. Take a look. I have witch makedo's all over the harvest table too, in their undone state of finished. I ran out of time. They will however be on our website next week. Halloween is becoming a big holiday for decorating. I used to about only get a pumpkin carved. But I have started doing more decorating now too. With this fall like weather, I have my collection out already. I know. Don't you hate that??

BrunieMae (www.saltboxfarm.com) and me ran off to Indiana last Sunday and spent a delightful day gathering treasures. Our only misadventure was eating at McDonald's instead of dining on cucumber and salmon little sandwiches with the crust cut off, that was being offered at the sale we went to. Free, too! And they had crispy cremes. I have never had a crispy creme. (Small town girl, you know.) Well, then there was my inability to figure out the ice machine at McDonald's. Brunie (smart alec) is worldly and knows how to work stuff..... she even knows how to work her car phone.

I just don't know WHY I take her anyway with me! She probably wonders the same about me, sometimes......

Okay, Ronnie is standing here with his tongue hanging out, looking for some supper. So I best get at that. Cooler temperatures brings out the cook in me. Of course, cooking means buying groceries, which in turn means cleaning out the frig. Geezzz, what a vicious cycle. Grocery shopping and cleaning the frig ranks right about on the same level as picking tomato worms. NOT one of my favorite things...

Thanks for asking to be a part of our farm. I truly appreciate you all. Check our new offerings.

Until next time...

In fond regard,

Miss Clotilda