It’s a small town, but everywhere I went was bustling like an impossibly friendly city. I was raised mostly in small towns, and my husband lived in the same small town for most of his life, but Cadiz ramps up that “everyone knows everyone” vibe by, like, 10 million percent.

Hancock’s Market was packed in the afternoon and all the checkout people knew their customers and chatted with them and their neighbors as they priced their groceries. John L Street Library was a constant stream of in-and-out and people meeting and greeting. I laughed at myself at one point thinking I had found “the mall”, with all the young people interacting.

Even East End Cemetery: I wandered its rows for two days, spread over five different two hour shifts, and I don’t think I was alone for more than twenty minutes at any time. Sometimes it was maintenance people, but mostly it was loved ones visiting the site to talk a bit or place another memento. The drive by visits really had me smiling to myself. A car would pull up to an area, then the driver window would go down as the operator anxiously scanned their designated headstones and, assuming all the little statuettes, flags, flowers and what-nots were all as they should be, the window would go up and the car would move on.

I have never seen a more decorated cemetery. I took over a thousand pictures, only documenting about a third of the entirety, and almost every headstone had a little something on or next to it. Many had so many decorations that you couldn’t see any information on the stone. I was constantly bending to gently lift the edge of a flower arrangement or nudge a hanging plant to sneak a snapshot of the data buried under the gifts of remembrance.

There was no Home Depot, no Wal-Mart, no Best Buy, and no Kroger. At first it hit me as, “yep, this is a small town!” but even the smaller towns (population wise) that I and my husband were raised in had a major chain store or two. After wandering and watching, and after reading some of the old newspapers in my research efforts, I came to the conclusion that there will never be any of those big box stores in Cadiz. I believe they are very purposeful in what they allow into their community and that they believe in their community supporting each other.

Overall, it was like stepping into an alternate reality for me. I know I was in a small country town, but I easily obtained everything I needed during my visit and there was abundant technology around, including wi-fi hotspots everywhere I needed one and laptops and cell phones being used all around me. The number of people around me at all times continually astonished me. Then count in the complete lack of chain stores and neon presentation of consumables, the fact that it’s a dry county, and the continuing real interactions between human beings every where you look and it just seems like a place of contradictions that couldn’t possibly exist.

I know there are aspects of the place that I could never truly appreciate, like the dry county part – I enjoy a good glass of wine and my husband loves his specialty beers – but I sure envy them their sense of community and wonder what Madison, AL could be like with a bit more of that.

This is nuts. I live in Madison, Alabama, within spitting distance of probably 20 farms, and they can’t get a ripe tomato in a grocery store.

I did find one positive thing that trip, though. I had previously complained about not being able to find real yogurt and cheese. Everything is either “low-fat,” “no fat,” or “soy / alternative;” which means it has a ton of non-food additives to it to make it taste edible – or, in the case of cheese, they just leave it tasting like plastic. It seems criminal to me, to take out the natural flavoring in food and replace it with processed who-knows-whatsits.

Yogurt Problem Solved

Anyway, I found a variety of Dannon that was just yogurt, natural full-fat yogurt. It was plain flavored and it came in a large tub instead of a handy cup, but that was fine. I bought a large bag of frozen blueberries and made a 2 cup yogurt to 1 cup blueberry batch in a sealed bowl and I just scoop out a cup at a time when I’m ready for a snack. Great tasting stuff, and if I get a pop quiz, I can rattle off the two ingredients without referring to a chemistry tome.

Fresh Produce and Fresh Meat Problem Solved

My buddy Suzanne, over at Entirely Adequate, posted recently about getting ready for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and pointed everyone towards the Local Harvest website to sign up. If you haven’t visited this site and done a zip code search for farms, CSAs and farmers’ markets in your area, you should.

I remember visiting before and only finding the markets over by South Parkway for the Huntsville, Alabama area. This time, I’ve found a CSA to stock me with fresh produce for eight months, a poultry farmer to provide fresh, pasture raised chickens for seven months, and another pasture livestock farmer that I’ll be ordering fresh eggs and the meat du jour from, on a weekly basis. Better yet, two out of the three sources deliver to within five miles of my house!

Healthy Fresh Food All Year Problem Solved – And You Can Do It, Too

I’m a lucky soul, who had an awesome grandmother who taught me canning and freezing when I was young. Don’t worry if you didn’t, though. While I knew the basics, I sought out a recipe book for a refresher and to ensure a variety of options when facing overages in my chicken and produce orders. I found the Complete Book of Home Preserving, by Ball – the canning jar and lid people, at Barnes & Noble. It details all the equipment you’ll need, all the basics and science of all types of canning, and 400 recipes. This single book will ensure that you have access to more variety in your cupboard than can found in the finest grocery canned goods section!

Do you live in the US without a source of fresh and local food? Have you tried the Local Harvest site? Share with a comment and, if you say your general area, I’ll try to help with your search. No one in the US should have to eat fake processed food or bland or rotten food that was harvested too early and hauled hundreds or thousands of miles to land in an unappetizing pile at your big box grocer.

I used to refuse to carry a music device. Besides driving laws and insurance policies enforcing the idea that they are a safety hazard, I thought taking noise with me would counter the purpose of the walk: to relax my mind and exercise my body.

My husband contested my logic for several years on the issue. He insisted that I should at least take my iPhone with me for safety (call in an emergency) and distance measurement. I bowed to his logic in carrying the phone, but didn’t use it for anything but path tracking and the occasional picture until this past week.

Then I went nuts. By yesterday, I had three podcasts to listen to, that I continually popped in and out of to take a picture; or make a voice memo of a song title I wanted to remember, an idea I had for site layout (this one isn’t final), a couple of story ideas, and some logo design notes; in between bouncing and squeezing this tennis ball I had found abandoned just off the trail.

I kept my earphone volume at a level where I could hear what’s playing and have a normal conversation with someone near me, and I had no problems hearing traffic and other walkers and runners around me. My walk time was the regular 40+ minutes but the time flew. I felt more productive, too.

I normally get a few ideas during my walks, but my steel sieve of a brain releases most of them before I get home to write them down, and my attempt at carrying a notebook failed miserably. I maintain as fast of a walking pace as I can. To write something down, I had to stop and scribble with hands that were swollen and shaky. Besides being a pain and a delay, the visual proof of how out of shape I am was uncalled for. Using the voice memo app on the iPhone, I retain all of my ideas, painlessly.

I think I got a better workout too, with the tennis ball. I never could get in the habit of closed fist arm pumping while walking. Alternating squeezing the ball with each hand and randomly bouncing and catching it as I walked was kind of fun, though.

The only drawback is not missing the quiet. I should, shouldn’t I? Shouldn’t I miss the peaceful time for reflective moments? I felt refreshed when I completed my round, after maintaining the multitasking and continuous information input. That’s my major goal, but it still seems wrong somehow: like I’m cheating on nature or something.

Does anyone have a comparable quandary? Are you pro multi-tasking or pro au naturale? Is there something I just have to listen to, or add to my routine, to make it an even better experience? Please share with a comment.