Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Fresh Market

I have a job here in Aberdeen...I finally got around to applying to a few places and I took the first one that called. I am working at the Fresh Market..which is a somewhat upscale grocery store..similiar to Trader Joe's but more full-scale...and supposedly gourmet! :) After discussing my background with the manager they decided to put me back in the bakery. Which I thought would be a perfect fit..since I have experience and I truly love to bake! Well...the first day of work I figured out that they don't actually make anything from scratch or mix, but rather pull all their treats and bread from a freezer. What a surprise....and a bit ironic since it is called the "fresh" market. So my job these days is to put stuff in and out of the ovens, bag & package breads, and smile and act like all the gourmet treats are fresh. It's a simple job, and will work perfectly for a part time job...but hopefully one day I will be able to have my own truly "fresh and gourmet" cafe! :)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Hot, Sweaty Days

Today was a hot 98 degrees. James and I have decided to volunteer at the farm for the remainder of the year and then re-evaluate our actual involvment at that time. So like I said, we are volunteering and today we went out to the farm and helped out Chris, one of the farmers at Raft Swamp Farms. We did some serious weeding. For those of you in AZ, you don't know what weeds look like until you visit the east coast. Holy smokes...there is morning glory and our "new favorite weed"-nutsedge everywhere. We hoed so much morning glory and nutsedge today...and it was hot and muggy. Whew...took me back to the days on the farm where we hoed for hours...except Willcox was a bit drier! :) But we are excited to be out at the farm learning new things (driving tractor, building sheds, etc) and being around people who enjoy farming. And of course volunteering has its perks...as we keep receiving delicious free veggies, which we miss from our community garden in Tempe. It makes us feel more at home for sure. Well I am off to bed...as another day of weeding is ahead!

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Our House

I left off on my last posting on our living situation. James and I came to North Carolina for several reasons, one was to be farmers at Raft Swamp Farms. Raft Swamp Farms is an organnic incubator farm, which basically is a place for you to learn with hands-on experience. If you are interested in checking them out the website is http://www.raftswampfarms.org/. Anyhow...the farm is located in Raeford, NC, so we were hoping to find a place to rent in that area. We checked all the local newspapers, 5 or more real estate offices, and drove around the whole city looking for a small house to rent. Unfortunately we were having no luck! :( So on a whim, James and I made the 16 mile drive to 3 neighboring cities: Aberdeen, Southern Pines, and Pinehurst. We found a cute little coffee shop, ordered our coffee and sat down with the local paper. We found several listings for houses in our price range (which is rare...as it's a little bit of a "ritzy" city) and called on them. After many analyzing conversations, we realized that we probably would want to live in Aberdeen. We decided that we would have an easier time at finding job's in this particular area and there was much more in the way of a social life. Aberdeen is a small city with a charming historic downtown with plenty to do surrounding it.



We moved in on Friday June 2nd. We had our POD delivered and James, Trudy (his mom), and I unloaded and unpacked the entire POD within 2 days. We were working hard! Trudy was wonderful...especially helpful with cleaning! Those 2 days were tiresome and we were a bit irritable realizing some of the flaws with our place..or more like the kitchen (no dishwasher, washer in kitchen, weird linoleum walls) But we have adjusted and are really enjoying it. We have a big back yard with lots of wild stuff growing...and James and I just dug up a small space for a home garden. The soil is much different than AZ; a lot easier to work with and it seems much more fertile! Here are some pictures of our place! Gotta love that kitchen!












Friday, July 6, 2007

Thursday, July 5, 2007

OUR MOVE


Hi friends and family...Jamie and I finally arrived from our long road trip to the beautiful state of NC. We left Tempe on the 4th of June with tears in our eyes. It was quite emotional to think of all our friends and family we were leaving behind. We managed to get through the tears when we drove through the area of Petrified Forest and remembered the green terrain that awaited us! :) Our first destination on our trip was Santa Fe. We arrived in town at 3 in the afternoon and drove up to the mountains to find a campsite. We found a beautiful one....and of course Jamie enjoyed all the wood cutting!


Our second stop was Taos, NM. We had heard great things about this progressive city so we thought we'd see what the fuss was about. It was all it was hyped up to be. We found a small campsite right by a flowing creek. Of course we had to treat ourselves a bit and traveled into town for a tasty breakfast at the Dragonfly Cafe. James visited the Kit Carson Museum, but due to intense wind and having our dog, Dittles, we decided to get on to our third destination-Las Vegas, NM.The drive to Las Vegas was gorgeous....but unfortunately the wind prevailed there as well...and Jamie's allergies were in full swing. So we drove on to the muggy Oklahoma City. There we decided we were just too tired to camp out...so we rented a room at Motel 6...Yikes...but the hot shower felt great and it was nice to sleep in a real bed. By now we were only on our third day of the road trip...but it felt like we had been going for weeks!


We arrived in Arkansas mid-afternoon on Wednesday and stopped by their Welcome Center....there were a lot of State Parks to choose from, but we settled on one called the Devil's Den. Beautiful...but really sticky. James and I had set up camp and were tired so we decided to lay down in the tent. Well that didn't really work, as we realized there was no air circulation and could barely breath. We commented to each other if we had made the right decesion to move... :) and then laughed about it after!


We traveled to several other spots in Arkansas (Folk Center in Mountain View) and decided we should head on to Nashville. Thankfully, prior to our trip my good friend Bridget mentioned that her mom lived in Nashville. So she set up us staying there for a few days. We arrived in Nashville on Saturday and stayed until Tuesday. We had a wonderful time chatting with Betty (Bridget's mom) and Sally, and thoroughly enjoyed the city of Nashville. We went to their community block party and met a great couple who had very similir interests. We ended up going over to their house on Sunday to make cheese together...it was a hoot!


Tuesday we left with aspirations to see the Great Smokies...but halfway through the drive decided we were ready to be in NC. So we drove to the amazing town of Asheville, NC; a mountain town with some neat cafes and people. After a delicious dinner of local, organic food we headed to his sisters (Julies) house.


We spent several days with Julie, Mike, and their precious daughter Sarah. We enjoyed spending time with them. But realized we had a few more family and friends see before settling down. We headed out from Hickory to the town of Monroe, NC. James' childhood friend, Greg, lives in Monroe with his wife and son. We spent one night with them and then headed on to Granny's, Grandma's, and then made it to James' dads on Father's Day. By this time we were ready to find a place to live...that will have to wait until the next posting. :)