Bear Encounter, Juneteenth Vendor Showcase, and Beautiful Spring!

I meant to blog about this at the end of last week but haven't had much time lately but it's something BIG...and exciting!  Last Thursday Night I was leaving my parents house around 8:30 or 9pm and in their neighbor's front yard was an Adult Black Bear!  I am borrowing this photo from Bear.Org and it looked a lot like this one.  Between what I learned in my research and what I have been told by local bear people I think this photo resembles the closest thing I saw.  If this is the case - this is a female North American Black Bear around 4 and a half years old...according to the site.  IT WAS HUGE but beautiful BUT I also was grateful to be IN my car when I saw it.  It was about 20 feet from my car.  It was standing tall and up on 2 feet.  It looked behind her - then looked at me - got down on all 4's - and started running around in 2 semi-circles in the neighbor's front yard before dodging towards their OPEN GARAGE.  I then called my mom and dad to call the neighbor's to warn them.  They weren't home.  I came back down the hill and parked in the end of their driveway with my high-beams on pointing in the direction of their garage and sat there for a good 5 minutes.  After realizing the bear wasn't in their garage - I decided to drive home and my parents waited for their neighbors to return.  In the meantime - one of the other neighbors said it darted back behind their house and took out one of their hand made 20-year old bird feeders.   I know it wasn't a cub.  I'm thinking hundreds of pounds!  When asked I said maybe 500 pounds or so - I could be way off - but still it was quite the site and I was so shocked I couldn't get to sleep that night!  This time of year they are looking for food because not much has grown yet in their habitat so they have to go out and look for it and travel a bit.  I assume that is what she was doing - especially after the neighbors told us about their bird feeder!

Saturday - my sister, my mother, and I all attended the Juneteenth Vendor Showcase in Jamestown, NY, with our Wildtree Products.  This was Part 1 of 2 events.  The actual Juneteenth Celebration is in June and is a 2-day event.

We had a wonderful time and met a bunch vendors we have never met before - mostly because we haven't done too many events in Jamestown YET.  It started off being quite cold in the morning but by the time we left it was pretty nice outside.  Thankfully the event was inside the Renaissance Center.  It was an awesome space to have an event! 

As you can see there is even an upstairs.  We didn't use the upstairs but the areas of the space we did use were great!  There were about 20 vendors there and everyone had smiles on their faces and were very excited to start up another busy events season!  The people who attended - the public - the walk-in and walk-thru traffic was light but steady and again everyone appeared to be happy because it's FINALLY Spring!  YAY!

As you can see from some of the photos here - there were all sorts of vendors!  Jewelry, Purses, Food, Tupperware, Skin Care, Fabric Crafts, Up Cycling Artsy/Crafty Items.  There were some non-profits and informational weight-loss type tables, as well!

I LOVED the windows and you can see a little bit of the stage and storefront area in this photo, too!

There was a face painter, there, and they opened the kitchen for Tea, Coffee, Snacks, and such.

I really hope they have more events in this building - I think the space is perfect!  It's within the section of Jamestown that they have put a lot of work into with renovations, parking, and street scapes.

Here you can see our table and display.  That's my mother with the red hair standing behind the table reading our Wildtree Catalog!  I doubt she knows I took this photo of her!

We didn't take all of our stock but what we did bring sold well!  Everyone enjoyed our samples.  We decided to sample the Absolutely Onion into a Dip by adding Sour Cream.  We also sampled the new Happenin' Hot Pepper Jelly which has quickly become one of our best sellers (and it's vegan!)

Then we sampled the Outrageous Orange Sauce, Honey Dijon Dipping Sauce, and 4 Oils - the Garlic & Garlic Dipping as well as the Balsamic and the Butter Flavored Oil - ALL Grapeseed Oil Based (and ALL the oils are Vegan).

I met a few people who were Gluten-Free, a few Vegetarians, and at least 1 Vegan!  YAY!

Yesterday I spent a good amount of time cleaning and I have even more cleaning to do this week!  BUT...tonight I plan on getting back in to the kitchen and making something to add here on my blog.  Another food project I have on tap is to find some foods I can make for my father who has changed his diet because he was diagnosed with Diverticulitis.  So he will no longer be consuming fruit with seeds, nuts and seeds, corn, and other foods - foods that are spicy or acidic.  He LOVES Italian Food and he loves Salads with dressings and he's a fan of nuts, seeds, fruits with seeds, and is totally missing TOMATOES the most!  But he's been told to stay away from them...so...I will be doing some research for dressings and sauces, etc. without those ingredients!

I also have many more reviews and giveaways on tap!

I'm going to state TWO mini-goals I hope to start this week, too, for myself!  ONE...I want to wake-up earlier and TWO...I want to do more Green Smoothies in the morning!  I have the GREEN Powders, the Super Food powders and mixes, etc and am ready to go I just have to start doing it!

What are some mini-goals you are setting for yourself this week!?