It was a rough week

Last week was a difficult one to get through. But even the short few days since Scott died have lessened the shock of it. It was such an eye opener and reminder to live life to the fullest, every day. And although it shouldn't be, it is a difficult thing to do. Especially working, it feels like being on a treadmill.

But the good thing is, the weather is improving, business is picking up and the world is full of color!

Sometimes, when I take a photo, I know I "got" it!

Farmer's Market is open and although I missed the first day, Saturday was so much fun, and took my mind off the depressing reality of the death of someone my age. I met Susan and Janet at Janet's house and we went on to the market. It was one of those brilliantly beautiful northwest days, when the blue of the sky is so dark and transparent, you swear you can see right through it, the mountains brilliant and snow-capped, silhouetted against blue. Beaver Valley Rd was picture perfect, cattle lazing in the sun, tractors out mowing, really amazing! The market itself was wonderful, early flowers and veges in good supply. Lots of new vendors, lots of young farmers which to me, is one of the best things to see.

This week, I got back to work, and the pr is going well. So packed and sent out several packages of nuts and I just got an email saying the local TV station wants to do a segment about me and the local paper is doing an article. I am to meet Patrick, who I have worked with before, on Friday. It will interesting being interviewed, instead of interviewing :) and I am not too sure about being on TV! What do I wear? And oh good grief! I need Tate up here to do my hair!! Who knows, maybe I will be discovered! Ha ha! 

Yoga is good - and I got the last spot in the next session! I am getting to really look forward to it. It totally absorbs my mind and body while I am doing it, about the only time my mind is not racing around all over the place. Now I just need to start doing it at home every day. I think out on the deck would be fun, nobody is ever out so no one would see me trying to become a pretzel.

I just saw our two resident Canadian geese cruise by with four tiny babies in their wakes! I wonder how many will survive the predatory eagles and coyotes?

Almost there

I figure if I can put this business together, I can do anything!


It definitely is a steep learning curve, starting off with what I thought was a reasonable amount of internet and web 2.0 knowledge. Now I have a much wider understanding of it, and am just glad it's not me building the site - way too much scripting and algorithms for me! I am so grateful I found the group in India who are building the site as they "got" what we are trying to do, right from the beginning.


So that has been going along very well, now we are waiting for the nutritional calculator to be incorporated and then once that is done, I can move the site to our hosting people, upload all the images and copy and go live. Then I have to be ready for the flood of orders, because I know Annie is going to tweet the heck out of it and so are her friends. This is the ultimate viral marketing site. 


But besides the site, there has been all the other stuff, like ordering and pricing! The pricing was not easy and thank goodness for Ryan and his excel spreadsheets and formulas! But I think we have it nailed down now. And then it's all the ancillary stuff for the gift baskets, packaging, shipping - I had no idea what went into all this. And then came what I thought would be the fun stuff -- ordering, but I have been agonizing over it. I thought spending someone else's money would be great, but it is scary - what if I make mistakes etc? And then there's the book keeping - quickbooks online - another program to learn.


And chasing down things that are still needed from the attorneys - but Annie is on that and hopefully we will have the legal stuff from them soon. If not, the site can't go live as our merchant account couldn't be active.


So it has been one step forward, two steps back but now it seems that we are making steady progress. The main BIG order arrives tomorrow morning between 6-7 in a 57-foot (17m) big rig that is going to have to turn around in the field down the road and then back up to the house, unload the pallet of 1000 lbs nuts with his fork lift and hopefully not get stuck in any mud! It will still be dark but I plan on taking pictures!

Since I put up my weather station a month ago, we have had 11 inches of freezing rain! We are not impressed!