Two Large Steps Forward, One Giant Step Back
Wow, what a week! We worked our tails off and provided a huge amounts of cut flowers to everyone who wanted them. We reorganized and prepped for our first of the season summer farmers' market and cut a thousand more stems for the market.
It is was a great day at the market, the sun came out, the kids were in costume for the Earth Day celebration and folks wanted pretty flowers. We were busy and excited to see our faithful customers and meet a new bunch of folks who were first timers or just visiting the market from out of town. We sold about 90% of the flowers we brought and all of the ranunculus we had. It is a very popular flower for our springtime customers. Wow, what a great day!
It was a really big week for us and we were making plans for how we can continue to improve, grow more and meet the demands of friends. We were really excited and felt we were really kicking butt and moving this little operation forward!!
But then, reality checks in and kicks our ass and knocked us down to the ground. We have discovered we have a problem with our well, or really with the power to pump the well. A couple of weeks back we had a leak of the well pipe that comes up to the house that irrigates all the fields and greenhouse. Our house is on a separate well.
Farmer Tony dug out the driveway to have the pipe repaired and while the expert pump guy was checking things out, he noticed that the electrical connection from well pump to holding tanks up in our garage were not as they should be. We could possible have a system failure at any time. It appears that the system failure is now. There is no water in the greenhouse or any of the irrigation stations in the field. The possible fix will be several thousands of dollars and so the many hoop houses we had planned to build, will go back on the waiting lists again. Just can't grow flowers without a water system.
So this week ends on a bummer of a moment, all we worked for and earned now goes to repair bills. For the moment we think this sucks but we will move past that in the morning. It will be a new day, with lots of chores and new ways of working around the water issue. The weather is warming up this week and our flowers will need to be watered. We can't be bummed. We have to pull our buns out of the mud and get back on the road of growing flowers. This is what owning a farm is all about, two steps forward and one step back. It is still progress even if it isn't at the speed we want. This is a labor of love and not a get rich scheme. My father always said that to make a million dollars in farming, you start with 3 million.
Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.
Denis Waitley
Your flowers are beautiful. Glad to hear that you sold almost everything you brought.
ReplyDeleteOh dear god, it is always something isn't it?
ReplyDeleteWith your can do attitude and your astonishingly beautiful flowers I thinbk you'll come out ahead.
xo jane