We had the Farmers Market event yesterday afternoon. It pointed up to me, the significant contribution of volunteers from the fundraising for the building, to the teams of makers, builders, laborers, detaillers, designers, architects, village employees and more. The reason we have this market is sheer will and effort of people who truly WANT a Farmers Market. People who put their energies behind what they believe in. There wouldnt be the wonderful park we have without this common belief and effort of our fellow Tburgers. We are all beneficiaries of this common belief and effort behind doing things right. I think very few of us understand that this expression of community at our Farmers Market and how very, very special this is. We are indeed blessed.

Now the challenge is to harness this marvelous mechanism to create wonderful things for community to spin more community and then some. This is what I will be leaning into.

I had a great conversation on Friday with Kevin from the Hanford Mills Museum. Have I mentioned this museum to you before? Hanford Mills describes their mission here:

“Hanford Mills Museum’s mission is to be a leading interpreter of the evolution of power generation and technology and how it contributed to the unsettling of rural America. The Museum is dedicated to:

preserving and presenting the mill site
understanding how the Hanford and Pizza families adapted their business operations to respond to changes in technology, markets, and transportation
illustrating how these activities affected the community

Hanford Mills has a mill and a millpond that they actively use to create products and show how vital a mill, waterpower etc. to yesteryear and also, I think to demonstrate the viability today. In February every year, they induce people to leave their warm houses to go out and cut ice for their icehouse during their Ice Harvest Festival. There is soup, hot cider and all sorts of fun with a 1922 gas powered ice saw to help folks to “embrace winter” and to “harvest one of the winter’s most abundant crops”. I love this event, so Kevin and I are going to create some images and branding around this fun…to drive more recognition and maybe sell some gear to drive more revenue for this wonderful little museum outside of Oneonta NY. You Tube has a little happy clip on it>>

Another announcement is that instead of donating time and illustration to the Hangar Theatre next year, I am going to provide pro bono logos and illustration to local producers and farmers to move the image of their products ahead. I feel that this is the place that I can be truly more effective for the time put in and the emotional payout that comes back to me.

The week is busy. Alex has a ton of afterschool stuff. Rob has a ton of afterwork stuff. We have Wednesday in Rochester for more testing. Friday is the beginning of the Columbus Day Holiday for Alex…with the weekend senior trip to Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio. I hope this week can be as productive as it feels like it could be.

Onward.