Posts may be a little fewer and farther between until the first of the year. We’ve been very busy. Even when we’re done working and come in for the night, there’s still all the bookwork to be done. The most experienced of our helpers quit after the first day because we couldn’t pay him what he wanted to earn. We’ve hired more employees. They seem to be very good workers, if not as skilled. I’ve already sold my first tree, and we aren’t even officially open yet!
I hired three men today. I’ve never done that before so I hope I got some good ones! Continue reading
Yesterday two big trailers pulled up with all the equipment for setting up our lot. Mike and Roger and the three amigos worked all day without any kind of a lunch break or dinner break. I managed to get most of them to take some cans of pop, some jerky and a couple tangerines. They were here till after dark and got all the basics in for us. We take it from here. Continue reading
Mark’s class ended late last evening due to his final exam. We didn’t actually make it to our lot in Kerrville until after 1:00am, and we didn’t pull inside the gate. We didn’t hook up to electricity, we didn’t have any propane, and we didn’t have any water. It was very cold last night. Continue reading
I didn’t get a chance to mention that all of us women were invited over to the Cooper’s RV yesterday afternoon for a “Kitchen class”. I had no idea what a kitchen class would be. They have a brand new Redwood and it’s very fancy but out of our price range. The kitchen class mostly consisted of showing off various features of the kitchen. Then one of the women changed the subject to questions she had about this week of training and things got a lot more interesting. I learned more from that discussion than I did from the class. Continue reading
In the business class this morning, we went over making a business plan. I was so inspired that after class I drove to Walmart and got some supplies. Steve said it should look nice, with pictures that illustrate what we plan to do. I got a notebook, some page protectors, and some scrapbooking materials. I made the cover before lunch, the title page after lunch, and worked on a brief resume for Mark and me. Here are pictures: Continue reading
Today Mark and I drove to the warehouse/office of Holiday Hills Christmas Trees for a day of training. Today’s training was supposed to be just for first time lot operators, but there was a couple there who did this last year. They came to support a couple of new recruits they brought in. They were able to add some ideas from their experience, so it was a good thing to have them there. Continue reading
Today was partly sunny with some breeze. While there is still mud on the ground, it’s not such that we are afraid of sinking in up to our hubcaps when we leave tomorrow. Thank you to all those of you who were praying for us today. So far, God has been preparing a way for us! Continue reading
This afternoon as Mark and I were working on the chicken coop, big black clouds were gathering in the northwestern sky. The wind began to rock the coop. We had brittle fiberglass roofing on one side and we were beginning to lay corrugated metal on the other. Then it began to rain. We finally went to our RV and from there we could see the rain coming in sideways. I felt like singing, “Oh say can you see if our roof is still there?” Continue reading
Nancy and Karl sold a couple cows so they left yesterday to deliver them. They left us in charge of running the farm for the last couple days. We got the animals fed and today we did some more work on the chicken coop we’re building. The Falsters returned today. It’s sure good to have them back and in charge! Continue reading