There was certainly some little voice in my head late yesterday telling me to get those geraniums dug up and hung in the basement of my office, because we certainly had a had a real freeze last night. As chance would have it, I mentioned my little job of hanging my geraniums upside down to a customer today and wondering if they’ll survive. My customer re-assured me that they will survive because his father used to do that with his mother’s geraniums and they survived each and every year. Now I’m all the more confident they’ll make it thru the winter. Unfortunately, we have so many people now with finished basements that are heated and likely have no cool dark place to hang theirs. Now that people are becoming more earth-friendly and green oriented, the new home builders should create a small room in the basements of the new homes they’re building to mimic a cool dry basement of homes built 100 years ago. Even better, they can build state-of-the art root cellars for the urban gardeners who’re now preferring home grown over grocery aisle. I stopped at a grocery store early this morning to grab a few things for the office and just happened to notice some really big fresh turkeys in the meat section. I couldn’t help but stop and look at them. To my surprise they were all natural and the prices on them ranged from $50 – $60 based on their weight. I must say they did look natural compared to the others that were likely raised on one of those monster turkey farms up in Dakotas. I’ve noticed a number of small acreages beginning to raise their own natural vegetables as well as poultry and livestock which they sell in the North Iowa area. I really wish we had a permanent building in the Downtown which would be dedicated as a place where all the area growers could come and sell their produce on a daily basis. If you think about it, there could be stalls where say one particular grower is given it once or twice a week on a rotating calendar basis, so that other growers would have an equal foot for marketing theirs. The days would be changed each week and month—sort of like a broad dispersed schedule which would go out a month or two ahead of time. We could call it North Iowa Produce Market. I’m sure it would be successful as long as the word would get out to everyone living in our area. The outdoor markets have their own niche, but to have somewhere the general public can go on a daily basis that’s inside a building would be much more appealing to the general buying public.
I’m glad the wind finally went down with the sun this evening. It really was starting to get on my nerves. I was surprised to have as many people at my public open house today at 677 – 15th St. SE since the wind was creating a biting chill. I talked to a contractor today about his schedule and he said, “I’ve now got some acclimating to do before I’ll even want to step outdoors.” I laughed and said, “So you’re going to stay inside today while us poor Realtors have to endure the hardships of the day?” He didn’t think it funny. Since my tongue was being a bit wickedish this afternoon with an old classmate of mine at a local benefit, I couldn’t help but tease her after she told me that she has to drink a Red Bull whenever she drives long distances by saying, “Don’t drink that crap! If you start getting sleepy, roll down the window and put your head out, or at least hold your arm out to wake you up. But don’t wave OK? If you wave, some of the other drivers may think you’re driving a mobile mattress offering curb services.” Oh Mercy! Did I ever get a look from her followed by a few belly laughs from her relatives that were seated around her. I did remind her that if I didn’t like her, I wouldn’t tease her. I really did get a much needed laugh today.
