Saturday morning is best of the two days and Thursday evening got to where it was okay, I admitt first year I did not know what the heck I was really doing. This year I have better idea how to do things and I bought a canopy in Nov so this year I should look more professional. Maybe one can have too many types of items on the tables.??? I have only veggies and that is what they stop for if looking for them. I put my prices right out there where they can see than in big numbers. I think Tanglejohn is right too price has a lot of it. My prices were okay . Bad stuff is not good at any price. DIL thinks I should go for upper income people. She says people do have money. But I think like the rest of us they want reasonable prices. If you give them good produce and reasonable prices. You bet they will go to store or Wal-mart. Good variety on table of veggies helps. I think I only had one guy try to get me to give him extra. I did get few tips too. Really. This year I have been working on a garden plan to try and have stuff come on from first week of market to last. This in its self will increase the income some. Last Sat in June is first market day. No rain got us from the time I started going. I lucked out there. It would come on afterwards. A bad wind did hit after closing time once and guy got his canopy broke. He never did come back. It is on lawn and one can stick in the stakes. I got told after 25th of Sept if I came I would be only one there. I asked few others and some did come. The craft people quit and I had it paid for till last of Oct as they say that is the season. I quit mid-Oct to go hunting. Yeah, put a deer in the freezer. It was frosting by then and tomatoes were getting it. June 25th first market day this year. I need to have something to start selling then. ???? There is nothing wrong with gardening in Colorado. You irrigate here or don't grow anything. I know it is shorter season here. Last frost should be over by May l5th. Market assn ran ads, but I think I will sure budget some ad money of my own . Try it once or twice to see and if doesn't help. My son says just grow less and sell that. I do not think be worth it. One told me she thought I had done real good for the first year. I know I will not get rich at this. I don't have a way to grow tomatoes real early, but I will try to have as early as I can. I have a list made out when to plant as early on somethings as can and other stuff to be ready say June 25th. Trying to spread the work out so all will get done. I kind of think lot don't come to the market as think the prices will be too high. I have had several in the past years that said the market was too high.

I, too, have a Rubbermaid bin setup. I started with a 10 gallon, but quickly moved to an 18 gallon one. I just like having the flexibility of a little more space. Anyway, I drilled some 1/2 inch holes in the bottom of the bin, probably about 10 of them, evenly spaced across the bottom. And some 1/5 inch holes around the upper rim of the bin. I had originally planned to put the bin inside another bin, hence the air holes at the top were spaced so that they would be open even when the bit was sitting in another. But instead, I use the lid from the second bin as a leachate catcher. Because I can SEE how much leachate is there, I can more easily monitor the wetness of my bin. But it can be annoying if it overflows, or someone bumps the bin.I have it set on top of a hooded cat box in a fairly high-traffic area (between the kitchen and the back door), so it's easier to get into. But that means that the tray is about mid-thigh, and easy to bump when going past. If you don't want that worry, you might be better off using two bins. Or not using drainage holes at all and monitoring the wetness of your bin very closely, though I wouldn't really recommend doing that until you've been vermicomposting a while and have a good feel for how much moisture your system needs. As to your worms not doing well... If you just got them and are just starting out, you probably don't need to worry too much. Mine didn't get "settled" for a couple of weeks, and my system and worm population didn't really get to the point where I could say they ate a consistent amount of scraps until six months or so. Now, the bin is teeming with worms, and they eat a good couple pounds of scraps a week. Things to watch for: Moisture. Too wet and it will go anerobic. If you open the bin and it's stinky and wet, it may be too wet. I seldom "water" my worms anymore, though at first I sprinkled a little water in tehre every couple of days. Now the moisture from the feedstock is enough to keep it damp enough. Sometimes too much so, depending on what I'm feeding them. Food. They don't eat the actual food, they eat the bacteria that grows on it as it decomposes. So if you just fed them "fresh" scraps, they probably won't seem interested. They'll be eating the scraps you put in there last week. Next week they'll start working on the ones you put in there today. That idea was strange to me at first, until I understood what they ate. I was discouraged that the food didn't seem to be being eaten. But as I continued to put foodstock into the bin, the previous offerings were disappearing. Odor: If you open the bin and it's stinky and not too wet, it may be the foodstock. YOu may have too much foodstock in there for the number of worms you have, or may need to bury odiferous veggies like onions and broccoli in the bottom of the bin. If it's stinky, add add more bedding or remove the offening foodstock. Pests: Fruitflies are the most annoying little bugs. *grumbles* I freeze any fruit before putting it in the bin, especially banana peels. This kills fruitfly eggs. But the other thing that really seems to help is burying the food deeply. Molds will grow in your bin. They're normal. If they get too big for your liking, check the moisture. I will leave the lid off my bin overnight to help dry things out. And I'll use some of the bedding to scrap the mold off the sides of the bin and get it down into the system where the worms can eat it. Indoor bins don't have some of the critter problems that outdoor bins can get. But in general, you need to remember that the bin is its own self-contained microsystem, and that bugs and worms and bacteria and mold work together for you to decompose your scraps and give you wonderful castings.

Deee, We're in ARLINGTON. The real estate in Manchester is a little too rich for us. I happen to like winter. The problem with so many people is they hide from it, but people up here PLAY in it. There are snowmobile tours that can take you from Mass to Canada with stays in B&Bs and nice restaurants. And there's NOTHING like October in Vermont!!! And give me a BLIZZARD over a HURRICANE any day! I hate the summer heat though. That's why I like it up here. The average summer high is only 80 degrees. And another thing about here that even when tourists come up, the traffic is still less than 10% of the "normal" traffic in the NYC area. "Rush hour" for us is waiting for 5 cars to pass by before you can pull put onto the highway.

I grew up in the country, and after leaving home, have lived in a variety of places: rooming houses, college dorms, old apartment buildings, and the upper floor of private residences. Each had their charms and nusiances, but each suited my needs at the time. Too much and constant noise is a bad thing (my opinion). I enjoyed my surroundings the most when I could pick out individual sounds outside such as children playing, or an elderly couple passing the time with conversation. After purchasing our starter home in a city, we had another home built for us in a neighboring small town. I liked that one the best and am still in that house. However, the street has changed for the worse. When we first moved here, hte town had about 5000 population and my street was a bit narrow without sidewalk. Traffic was light. That idlyic condition changed as the town grew. It is now over 10,000 and my street has been widened to standard width with a sidewalk on my side of the street. The traffic has increased such that I have trouble backing out of my drive onto the street during the rush hours. Speeders are commonplace now where they were the exception on the old narrow street. The traffic has increased due to new subdivisions added to the the town. I still like my small town, and would enjoy it more if my house were on a side street. My street has changed. The population mix has changed. I now have a sidewalk to keep clear of snow, although, I have been surprised at how much use the sidewalk has gotten once it was installed. One day, I heard a new sound coming up the street that I could not identify. It was two boys on skate boards. The wheels made a an odd clacking sound as those passed over the seams in the sidewalk. Then one hot night back in June, I paused with a start while at the keyboard of my computer. I thought I had heard a gun shot. Gun fire at night is often heard in Milwaukee, but not out here. The light of next day revealed the source of that sound. The sidewalk had burst from heat expansion and levered two slabs into the air to form an apex.