Pedestrian Perils Become Too Perilous – Walking or the Bus to School?

I have been walking my kids to school for three years now and I have always been excited that we lived close enough to the school to be able to do this. It is a seven minute walk from our house. Very close, but not very safe. We have to cross a major road to get to the school, and up until this year we did not have a regular crossing guard. I had a number of close calls with the kids where cars would keep going when we were in the middle of the cross walk. It would make my blood boil each time it happened. And it would really scare me to think that the kids and I might get hit by a car trying to get to school. We walked in all kinds of weather and all year long. I was determined that we should be able to do this and I wanted to teach my kids the value of walking places.

A few weeks ago we were on our way to school, and just as we were about to cross the street, a car stopped at the crosswalk was rear-ended right in front of us. I was totally shaken by it. The crossing guard was right in the middle of the street when it happened. Luckily I had waited to step into the street, because so often cars go around each other and have a hard time stopping. I got the kids to school and spent the rest of the day high on adrenaline trying to get over the experience. My first inclination was to change my younger son over to the other school which we can walk to safely. But that did not sit well since he has been in class for two months and he has a great teacher. My other options were to try and walk a different route where there is a stop light (although I have to cross two busy streets on this route), put him on the bus, or drive him. I decided that the bus would be the safest and greenest option, although I wanted to try walking the other way to make sure. In the morning the bus takes him to school in about 5 minutes, although it feels kind of silly when we live so close. The afternoon the bus takes 30 minutes for him to get home. This seems really silly. I tried walking him the long way yesterday, and just as we are about to cross at the crosswalk, a car almost rear-ends the car waiting at the crosswalk. I couldn’t believe it! So, that is not going to work either. I put him on the bus again today, which he was very excited about, but I feel defeated. I believe in walking and that the kids should be getting the exercise and not using fossil fuels, but I cannot make them walk when it is not safe, just to prove my environmental gusto. So we are no longer walking to school in the mornings for sure. I may still try in the afternoons at times. The drivers seem to be a little less aggressive in the afternoons. It just makes me so sad that our culture is so car focused that kids cannot even walk to school safely. Sometimes I really think we are going to end up like the people in the movie Wall-E, fat and riding around in motorized chairs with TV screens on them.

Updating the Woodstove

Last year I wrote about our new woodstove. We used it all of the last heating season and it was really effective in reducing our use of gas heat. It bothered me all that time that it was an older stove and not EPA approved. It just did not feel as environmentally responsible to be using a stove which was not clean burning and efficient in the way that it burned the wood. The first year was really a trial for us though and a way for us to see if it would reduce our use of gas for heating. Since it was effective and Aaron likes doing the whole building a fire thing, we decided to upgrade this year. We looked into getting a new stove so that it would be EPA approved this time. Aaron did the research and found that the Jotul Oslo 500 was the best stove for us. He wanted something a bit bigger than the Vermont Castings Resolute, hoping to heat more of the house this winter. We learned that we could also qualify for a substantial tax credit with an EPA approved stove. After selling our old stove on Ebay, we were able to purchase the new one for a very reasonable price. The most difficult thing was getting the thing off the truck we borrowed to pick it up with, and into the house. It took five men to haul the thing into the house! Once it was in the living room it took us another several weeks to figure out what we needed for a hearth pad, how to do it economically (we used some pieces of sheet metal) and then how to position it. Luckily my father-in-law is a very smart physicist who thought of using a lever system which allowed only two men to lift the stove and position it correctly. Now we have the new stove in and we have begun to enjoy the increased heat it puts off as the nights get colder. Aaron has gone outside to see if he can see any smoke coming from the chimney – none! Very exciting! It seems to be a great stove so far.

An image of the stove from Jotul's website

Schools, Recycling, Greening it Up

The kids are back to school and I have been revved up to get the school recycling this year. Spencer is at a new school, that does recycle, but Graham is still at the older school which has not recycled in a number of years (I am not sure past three years). At the first PTO meeting I brought it up, and the possibility of creating a “green committee”, to the group and the new principal. There was a good reception of the idea. It has been four weeks now and we are finally getting the recycling off the ground. The biggest challenge has been the custodian. He did not want to have to collect it all these years, and didn’t. The new principal told him that he has to, so now he is! The teachers have two students from each class come down to the front of the building on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then they take the bins out to the recycling dumpster. The custodian stands at the dumpster and helps them empty their bin. So far this seems to be going well, although it is not snowing and cold yet. I am curious to see what happens on a day with inclement weather.

The city of Haverhill is implementing a single stream recycling program right now and the school is being encouraged to do so as well. There are some issues with cleaning out bottles and plastic food cups to put them into the recycling bins. One of the teachers said that she is going to have a bucket of water in her classroom to allow the kids to rinse out their plastics. When I approached the cafeteria head about recycling, she was very resistant at first, but seemed to open up about it some. At the moment there is no plan for having the kids recycle their waste in the cafeteria. Now that we have the classrooms doing it, hopefully we can get the cafeteria to find a system for doing it too.

Spencer spent three years in the school with no paper recycling and it was really eating away at me. I am so pleased that Graham will not have to repeat the same experience. He is now a part of a school that is helping to reinforce the importance of taking care of the environment. All it took was getting a new principal who was willing to stand behind it. Good leadership really is important.

Setting Limits on Electronics for the Kids

Starting last May I decided that the kids were spending more time on the computer and watching television than I was comfortable with. I am not very good about being consistent with rules. They had been able to watch an hour and half each day, but it kept going over that. So, time for a change.

We have always only had basic cable with the local channels, and the kids were only allowed to watch shows on PBS, but Graham was watching the same shows over and over again. He would talk about them constantly too. I love the shows on PBS and I think that they teach some really wonderful social values and lessons, but Graham was watching them so often that he would see the same episode once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. It seemed to me that his time could be better spent. Both of the boys had basically stopped playing with their toys in their rooms, stopped going outside to play, and whenever they were not allowed to go on the computer or watch TV, they would complain that there was nothing to do. I wanted them to get their creative, exploratory spirit back. I wanted to see them interacting with each other and playing with their toys again. I talked with others that I knew who had similar values and issues and decided that the best thing for us to do was to make a rule which only allowed them “multi-media” time on the weekends.

So, Monday through Friday they are not allowed to watch TV, go on the computer, or play with their Gameboys (not that these are a big problem anyway). On the weekends they can choose which they want to use, but they can only use it for an hour and a half a day. Spencer chooses to use the computer to go to the Lego website and sometimes he explores some of the other websites we deem appropriate such as PBS, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, NASA, and a few others. Graham sometimes chooses to go on the computer, but more often he likes to watch a movie or choose a TV show to watch on the web (like a show from PBS’ website). When we decided to make this new rule for the kids we also decided to cancel the cable all together. Aaron really only watches one show and we like to stream it from the website. I watch a couple of shows, but I also like to stream them over the internet, so that I can watch them when it is convenient for me. We figured out that we can hook the television up to the computer and watch our shows on the television screen. We also found that Netflix lets you stream an unlimited number of movies so we do that too. Back to the kids…

It has been really great since we made the rule in May. The kids complained a bit at first and told me how bored they were, but after a few weeks they settled into the new routine and we have not looked back since. They play together all the time now. Graham told his class this fall that his brother is his best friend! So sweet for a mother to hear! They fight with each other a lot too, but no more than they did before. Spencer used to wake up as early as he could, just so he could rush down to get on the computer in the morning. He would get into a foul mood while he was playing the games on the computer and make all of our mornings really awful. Now he sleeps in later and he is much more cheerful in the morning. Graham used to come down and plop himself in front of the TV until breakfast, then complain about having to eat breakfast, and head right back to the TV once he had eaten. He would also complain bitterly when it was time to turn it off to leave for school. Now he comes down and eats without an issue. He plays with Spencer, sometimes he goes back up and rests on his bed, sometimes we play a game together before school. In the afternoons we play at the playground for an hour, come home and get homework done, the kids play while I make dinner, then after dinner we all play together as a family and then they go to bed by 7pm (Graham) or 8pm (Spencer). On the weekends they often forget about having their TV or computer time.

Sometimes I worry that they are missing out on popular culture by not getting to watch television shows like their friends do, and play endless games on the computer. Maybe my parents felt the same way about the shows I watched, but other than PBS, the shows on ABC Family, Cartoon Network, Disney, and Nickelodian, just seem like trash to me. I don’t see them getting anything other than lude jokes and rude behavior from them. So, for now they are enjoying playing with their toys again, playing with each other, playing with their parents, going outside, and finding enjoyment by creating activities for themselves. I have only seen positive changes in my children since we put limits on the electronics in their life.

Home Milk Delivery in New England

I am going to attempt to put together a list of Dairies who deliver in New England. It seems that there a many people out there who could use one place to view the options in their area. If you know of one that I did not put on this list – please let me know so I can add it!

Massachusetts

The Little Milk Man – out of Portsmouth, NH – delivers Hatchland Farm Dairy Products and an assortment of other products from local sources.

Shaw Farm Dairy – Dracut, MA – Their own dairy products. Delivers to Dracut, Lowell, Chemlsford, Tyngsboro, Westford, Dunstable, West Methuen, Tewksbury.

Munroe Dairy – East Providence, RI – delivers to entire state of R.I. and towns in south-eastern MA (Assonet, Attleboro, Bellingham, Berkeley Blackstone, Dartmouth, Dighton, Fall River, Foxboro, Freetown, Lakeville, Mansfield, Millville, North Attleboro, Rehobeth, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton, Westport.

Crescent Ridge Dairy – Sharon, MA – delivers to the Boston area and the South Shore. They have a delivery area map on their website.

Stillman Dairy Farm – Lunenberg, MA – not sure of the delivery area. Check out the website for contact info.

Mapleline Farm – delivers in the Pioneer Valley of MA. Towns of Amherst, Deerfield, Easthampton, Hadley, Hatfield, Northampton, South Hadley, Sunderland and Whately

Hornstra Farm – Hingham, MA – delivers to – Cohasset, Braintree, Duxbury, Hanover, Halifax, Hanson, Hingham, Hull, Marshfield, Norwell, Pembroke, Plympton, Scituate, Weymouth.

Maple Farm Dairy – Mendon, MA – call for delivery area.

Maine

Harris Farm – Along the coast from Saco to Kittery.

New Hampshire

The Little Milk Man – out of Portsmouth, NH – delivers Hatchland Farm Dairy Products and an assortment of other products from local sources.

Catamount Farm – Allenstown, Alton, Amherst, Auburn, Barnstead, Barrington, Bedford, Boscawen, Bow, Brentwood, Brookline, Candia, Canterbury, Chester, Chichester, Concord, Contoocook, Deerfield, Derry, Dover, Dunbarton, Durham, Epping, Epsom, Exeter, Gilmanton, Goffstown, Gonic, Hollis, Hooksett, Hopkinton, Lee, Litchfield, Londonderry, Loudon, Madbury, Manchester, Merrimack, Milford*, Mont Vernon, Nashua*, New Boston, Newfields, Newmarket, Northwood, Nottingham, Pinardville, Pembroke, Penacook, Pittsfield, Portsmouth**, Raymond, Rochester*, Strafford, Stratham*, Suncook, Weare

Vermont – none that I could find

Rhode Island

Munroe Dairy – East Providence, RI – delivers to entire state of R.I. and towns in south-eastern MA (Assonet, Attleboro, Bellingham, Berkeley Blackstone, Dartmouth, Dighton, Fall River, Foxboro, Freetown, Lakeville, Mansfield, Millville, North Attleboro, Rehobeth, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton, Westport.

Connecticut

Marcus Dairy – Danbury, CT – Home delivery is offered throughout most of Connecticut and Westchester County, New York.

Trinity Farms  – Enfield, CT – no website – call (860) 745-0751

CSF – Community Supported Fishery

One day when I was picking up our CSA share I saw a flyer for joining a CSF. I had never heard of this and it sounded really neat. It said the fish would be caught by local fishermen and that it would only cost about $3 a pound. It also told us that we would get a variety of fish and shellfish each week. It sounded really great. Another family we know wanted to be a part of it too so we decided to do a half share and split the cost between the two families. I have been picking up the fish now for a month and I have to admit it is not as great as it sounded originally. I do love that we are supporting local fishermen and that it is allowing them to fish in areas that the commercial boats are not in. I am not wild about driving twenty minutes every Friday to pick it up, and having to fillet it right when I get home so it does not go bad. We have also had very little variety. Only cod, haddock, flounder and grey sole. Apparently this is what is running in the area that the fishermen are allowed to fish in. I am not really in the mood to eat the fish after filleting it, so I have been freezing it to eat at a later date when the memory of filleting is out of my mind. On the plus side, I have learned to fillet! Although it makes me feel sick when I am doing it. Much like butchering a chicken. It just takes all of my appetite for the animal away. I don’t know why and I wish it did not. I would be in a pickle if I was to survive in the wild, because I might be able to skin and butcher the animal I caught, but then I would not feel like eating it anymore! I am actually dreading the pickup each week now, because I don’t want to have to fillet.  Aaron has expressed an interest in maybe taking over the job for the last three weeks of the share. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will be renewing. I really do love the idea of it, but I think I would rather eat a vegetarian diet than have to fillet fish every week. Oh, I am such a wimp!!!!

If you are interested in finding out more about it… The one we belong to is the Cape Ann Fresh Catch. They have pick up locations all around the North Shore and one in Boston.

Haverhill Farmer’s Market is Up and Running!

The Farmer’s Market opened on July 18th, but we were on our way to Chicago that day. We sadly missed the first two, but today we got to go and support our local farmers and vendors! Aaron had to work today, so the kids and I made our way on foot over to the market. It was a bit of a hike on a hot summer day, but well worth it to support this great community venture. It is set up on Ginty Blvd. A bit of a busy thoroughfare, but it seems to work well to attract people who are living in the downtown area. There were some local farms today with a variety of produce, a local ice cream shop, goat cheese, some baked goods, and two local craftspeople. We picked up some corn, scallions, blueberries, and goat cheese. The kids both had a taste of the ice cream, which they loved. If we did not have our CSA pick up tomorrow, I would have been buying more, but there are just so many vegetables we can consume in a week and I am still working on how to preserve extra. I spoke with two of the people who are helping to run it and they said that it is growing each week, with more vendors participating and more people coming to buy the products. I signed up to volunteer in whatever way I can and they said they can use all the help they can get – so if you are reading this and live in Haverhill – sign up!

Produce from Long Hill Farm

Train Travel – Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs

We are back from our journey to the midwest via train.

Our trip out there could not have been better. We walked out our door and headed to the train station in Bradford. Our train picked us up on time and we got into North Station in Boston in good time. It was a really fun feeling to walk out the door of our house and board a train which would take us to another train which would take us all the way to Chicago.

Waiting for the train in Bradford

We had to take two subways to get to South Station in Boston, where we would then catch our train to Chicago. It would be so nice if Boston had a central station that all the trains came into though. I always find it a bit tedious to have to take two subways to get from one station to the next. Not sure why they have it set up this way. If anyone can shed some light on this, please comment. While we were in South Station we discovered that having a sleeper car allows you access to the first class lounge, which is very nice. We had fun exploring that and waiting for our train to depart. We boarded the train at 11:30am and settled into our rooms on the sleeper car. This was a single level Viewliner car on Amtrak. It was every bit as exciting as we had imagined.

Spencer is up in his bunk

The kids were so enthralled by how the bunks lift up and down, the fold away sinks and toilets, the lights, fans, and curtains. They bounced from room to room and did not sit down for at least an hour after we departed. We were given lunch in the snack car because our train did not have a dining car at this point. We were to pick one up in Albany, NY. The food on the train was fair. Lunch and breakfast were much better than dinner. Our dinner entree was $22.00 and it was about as good as any microwave meal from the frozen section of the supermarket. I was glad that the price of it was included in the room accommodation because it would have really bothered me otherwise. We got off the train several times to get some air. Each time Spencer decided to collect some local flora for his binder about the trip. In Albany the train stopped for an hour and half so we got off and walked to a nearby park. The kids were very excited when it was finally bed time. They loved brushing their teeth in the folding sink and getting into their bunks and closing the shades.

Toilet and sink in our room

It was a long night though. You have to either sleep on your back or on your stomach because when the train gets going fast, it really rocks you back and forth. The upper bunks have straps to keep you from falling out. The beds and seats are really comfortable when the train is not moving though. We got up the next morning and we had made it to Ohio. All of us looked pretty groggy, but still excited about being on the train. We got into Chicago right on time at 9:45am. The Chicago train station was a bit of a disappointment. Not enough bathrooms for all the people. Confusing to get around, and not so clean. We found the lockers and put our carry on bags into them. We had decided to check two larger bags in Boston before we left. The lockers in Chicago are easy to use and made it possible for us to explore Chicago without all the backpacks. We spent most of the day in Chicago and enjoyed seeing parts of Grant Park and Millenium Park. It is such a neat city. Very clean and the grids make the streets feel so long. We got back to the station around 2pm to give ourselves time to get the bags back out and figure out where to board the train.

A seat in the roomette

We had been given the advice in Boston to get a Red Cap Porter to help us board, so that we could get on faster and make sure we were all able to sit together. As it turns out Chicago does not use the Red Caps the same way that Boston does. It seems that the Red Caps in Chicago are really only for people who cannot carry their own bags. They do pre-board seniors, active military, people traveling with small children, and people with disabilities. This turned out to be almost half the train though! I was worried for nothing though. We got to the car and the conductor seated us all together. We left on-time at 3:20pm. It was not as much fun as riding in a sleeper car. We were seated with lots of other children and it was pretty noisy and busy. There were also number of boy scout troops on the train headed for New Mexico, so they kept going by to get to the lounge car. The seats are still much roomier than the airplane seats though and they have nice leg rests and big wide windows to look out of.

Riding in Coachclass

We loved going over the Hudson River in New York and the Mississippi River on our way to Kansas. The scenery for most of the trip was really nice. We got into Kansas City right on time around 10pm and were met by our family. We headed up to the station excited to be off the train and ready to put our weary little travelers to bed, but it was not to be. We had to wait for our checked baggage to be brought out. Amtrak does tell you that it can take up to a half hour or more. Well, we waited for an hour. It was past 11pm when we finally left the train station. We still cannot figure out how it could possibly have taken a whole hour for them to get the bags up from the platform to the station, but it did. We made a note to ourselves not to check the bags on the way home.

Our trip back was one glitch after another. Amtrak gets an A for roomy seats, relaxing and scenic views, nice sleeping accommodations with lots of perks, but a big fat F for customer service. After the baggage issue and some of our experience in Chicago coming out, we had a sense for some of the disorganization of Amtrak, but this trip back really made it glaringly apparent that Amtrak has some big quality issues when it comes to service.

We forgot to call ahead to see if our train was on time departing from Kansas City, and arrived at the train station to find out that it was over two hours late. We had woken up at 5:30am for no reason! Argh. We made the best of it though and had a nice morning with our family in Kansas City. The train was finally ready to board at 10:30am (we were suppose to leave at 7:45am). We headed down to the platform and went down the wrong staircase to get to the coach cars. Why they could not have someone there directing people which way to go, I do not know. Anyway, we joined the large crowd of people waiting to board one of the coach cars. As we were standing there, we were told that we had to put our bags on a different car, because this one was full. Aaron went to the other car with the bags to put them on. Just then, I was told that we should head over to that other car (where Aaron was), because there were twelve spaces left on it. We went over to join Aaron and then we were told that there were no more seats left on that car! So, we went back to the car we had been at before, still with our bags. At this point we had a conductor’s attention and they got us to the front of the line. They found us four seats together, amazingly, because it seemed like there were no more seats left on any of the cars. As we went into the car, I looked at the luggage area and easily found spots for our bags. Not sure why they had said it was full. We took our seats, thankful to be together and to be on our way to Chicago.

The conductors who seated us came on (although now I think they were just seating attendants?) and they proceeded to complain about the train being late, and not being kept in the loop about what is going on, and a host of other issues, right in front of the passengers! An official conductor came through and asked them why they had seated people in the lounge car, because he could see several open seats in the car behind us (the one they had turned us away from). They shrugged and told him that they had not seen those seats. As soon as he left to go and move the people from the lounge car, the two attendants began to complain about how much of a pain the conductors are! Amtrak is not doing it’s best to train their employees to be professional, if these two are any example. The rest of the trip to Chicago was uneventful, thank goodness. We were a bit sad that our layover in Chicago was shortened so that we could not take the water taxi out to Navy Pier for dinner, but we got extra time with family which is way better anyway.

When we got to Chicago, we found the first class lounge in the station and checked in. They told us we could board the train an hour and a half early. We were very happy to hear that. The kids were already tired and it would be nice to put them to bed on time. We checked our bags with a Red Cap in the lounge and headed into the city to get dinner. By 7:30pm we were back at the station and ready to board the train. We were looking forward to having a sleeper car again and the trip home. The lounge attendant took us out to the train with all of the other sleeper car passengers. When we got on the car our sleeper attendant barely acknowledged us. Last time we were greeted as we entered. We went to our rooms and got the kids ready for bed. All the while noticing that it felt really hot. We figured that they keep the AC off until the train gets going. Then Aaron went for a walk to the other end of the car and noticed it was much cooler down there. So, I went to find the attendant to ask her if our rooms’ climate controls were not working right. She told me that she had put in a call to the mechanic two hours ago and was still waiting to hear back! She knew it was broken already and had not said a word to us! I told her that we could not sleep in such hot rooms. She told me that there were no other rooms and we could move to coach class if we wanted. The idea of spending 24 hours in coach was not exciting. We sat down to think about it. She came back to our area and began looking at the different rooms. At 9pm, she told us we could switch to one other room. We told her we needed a few minutes to think about it, since that would leave two people still in a really hot room. About fifteen minutes later she told us we could take two rooms in the cooler part of the car. We agreed to that and moved our stuff. Graham was already asleep, so we had to wake him up and get him moved to the other room. Once we were in the other rooms, we quickly realized that they were cooler than the first, but still quite hot. It turned out that the AC was broken on the whole car. The attendant told us we could get a refund of our money even if we stayed in the hot rooms all night. We decided to stick it out for the night and hope that they would fix it the next morning. As it turned out the mechanics never showed up in Chicago.

When we woke up the next morning it was still hot and stuffy in the rooms. We looked forward to going to the meal car where the AC was working. When we stopped in Albany(around 2:40pm), a mechanic finally took a look at the car and declared that it could not be fixed! He said it should never have been put on in the first place. It also turned out that the car had been put on backwards, so that the wrong end faced the baggage car ahead of it and was taking all the heat coming from the baggage car. At this point we were so hot and uncomfortable that we decided to look for a way to get off sooner. We made plans to get off in Worcester instead of at South Station to avoid having another two hours on that insanely hot train. Before we left Boston, we had splurged and gotten a private car to meet us at South Station, and luckily they were happy to meet us in Worcester instead. The attendant was getting frantic too, because she was being told that she was going to have to ride the same car back out to Chicago. She was just as miserable as the rest of us. She was trying to get the AC problem figured out the whole trip. As far as we could tell Amtrak did not care at all. She told us multiple times that Amtrak would refund our money for the sleeper car. We were just glad to get back home and be off that train.

To finish the saga of the hotter than hot train ride…  I called Amtrak the next morning to get the refund, and was told that since we stayed on the train all night, we were not eligible for a refund. I was told that we could have a travel voucher instead. I was mad, but I decided to let it go at that time. When Aaron got home, he was really annoyed to find out that they were only going to give us travel vouchers. He called them again, and asked the agent how we could have made the choice not to ride the train, when no-one even told us that the AC was broken until the train was departing. The agent just kept repeating how sorry she was, but that this was Amtrak’s policy, and we did get to enjoy a certain number of amenities, just not the AC. Therefore, we are not eligible for a refund. Aaron also kept asking why their employee would tell us we could get a refund, if they were not going to honor it. The agent stuck with her line and apologized again, but told Aaron we could only have a voucher. Aaron even asked to speak with her supervisor and she told him that she is not allowed to transfer calls! So we will be getting vouchers for future train travel (which we have to use within a year), and maybe it will improve our opinion of Amtrak.

Getting on the train in Boston

We were so excited about traveling by train and doing the right thing environmentally, even if it meant four extra days of travel time. There were many really exciting and neat aspects to traveling by train and we would like to be left with those and not the negative feelings we have instead. I don’t think it is the train travel itself that went poorly, we really enjoyed being on the train. It was really Amtrak’s customer service that left us with a bad feeling. So, take the train, but beware that Amtrak, the company, may not give you the best customer service.

Waiting to get back on the train in Albany

Regional Differences in Farmer’s Markets

This week we are in Kansas City visiting family and I had the chance to go to a farmers market here. It is in downtown Overland Park. It was a Wednesday market, so not as big as their Saturday one, but compared to even the Lancaster, NH farmer’s market it was very large. I had a lot of fun looking at what is in season here versus what we can get back in Massachusetts right now. They have peaches, melons, green beans, loads of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, blueberries, blackberries, beets, radishes, and onions.

We won’t have many of those things until August and September. The market also had a cheese vendor, pastries, a pie maker, and honey. It was fun to have a chance to view a market like this one to see what is growing in a different region of the country than my own. It is also great to see that farmer’s markets are thriving in many states around the country. I bought blueberries from a young girl and it made me hopeful that the next generation will have people who are going to grow up caring about fresh local food.

Taking the Train to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint

Very soon, we will be boarding the train to travel from Boston to Kansas City. We have never taken a long train trip before and thought that it would be an adventure, and a way to lower our carbon footprint while traveling. Normally we fly directly and it takes two hours in the air. When you factor in getting to the airport and getting out of the airport, it usually ends up taking most of the day. While searching for prices, I found that we could take the train for the same price as flying direct (airfare, baggage fees, transportation to and from). I have also been reading about plane travel and the large amounts of fuel that go into traveling that way. We have talked about doing a train trip for years, and have talked with loads of people who take trains all over Europe. We found that we could even get a sleeper car and still be within the price of flying direct. We have viewed a couple of YouTube videos of people on the train – so crazy that you can do this – and it looked pretty neat. I have also heard not so great stories about train travel, but we figure it is something to try once and see how it goes. If it is terrible then we will just never do it again! The kids are very excited though. We have all sorts of games packed and I made them binders with a map of our route and empty pages to fill with mementos from places that we go. Our route takes us to Chicago, where we have a five hour layover. We are hoping to have time to go out on foot and explore the city a bit. Then we get back on the train and head to Kansas City. The kids are going to have to be pretty flexible and most likely they will not get as much sleep, but we are hoping that it is a great learning experience for them. I will report once we have made it to Kansas!