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unicorndukeAnother weekend down. I drove in friday morning during the team meeting and hit the ground running. We had an outing that night, so my worker was busy with that and watching the register while I whipped the displays into shape. I added another pumpkin display, put out all the false bottom bins that we had supplies to build and reorganized things a ton. I also started putting out the things that we bought at auction last week, sorting some things into proper price categories, putting them near other things at a similar price that sort of thing.
Working over the pumpkin display is a thing that I'm good at and have trouble articulating to people what makes a good display. We use the extra sturdy pallets, so they are extra reinforced, heavier and have more bracing. The wood holds up better. They are put on the ground with their 40 inch sides touching, 4-5 pallets in a row. We put all the pumpkin displays in a line behind the TD-9 bulldozer which doesn't work but looks really cool. There's a fake skeleton in the drivers seat. The pumpkins look dramatic so we line them around the TD-9, both on the treads and on the ground. Biggest, most beautiful pumpkin I can find goes on the corner that the customers see first and it sells fast.
Then we put crates perpendicular to the pallets on top, 3-4 per pallet set and then put a 1x12 plank on top of the crates. Then we put pumpkins on the top plank, on the pallets on both sides and on the ground, so we get three layers of pumpkins. Generally the biggest and most dramatic pumpkins go on the top row. A variety of sizes got on the middle row and mediums go on the ground alternating with warty pumpkins or yellow pumpkins or smaller white pumpkins. The big white ones go on the upper displays. All the pumpkins must be close together but not generally touching, they must be tucked close to the back part of the displays so that people can step onto the pallets to get the top pumpkins. The nice faces must face outward on the display, other than the top level, which faces the road where the customers come in. There needs to be gaps where the customers can go around the displays and reach the other displays.
There's some quality to setting up the display that I can't seem to articulate to the workers because I don't know quite what it is that makes it look better or worse, so while we had one of the workers stocking the display Saturday while I was busy, I went through once or twice and fixed stuff in a way that made it look better.
We also have second row parallel to the first that has squashes, gourds and other fun stuff. Plus small pumpkins. Hang on. Picture.
Friday was easy and we got a lot of work done. Also because a group of folks went into the corn maze at 8pm, which is when we last allow folks in and wandered out at 10pm, an hour after we close. We say last entry at 8 because most people give up after 45 mins to an hour, but they really did it. We stocked displays. I said I was going to give them five minutes and they finally got out in those five minutes.
I broke my phone that night.
Saturday was busy. It was beautiful, sunny and Sunday looked like rain. We were mostly booked up with groups. We are now permanently short a register worker and it's hard to find someone halfway through the season, so we pulled our competent woods person because I know she's fast on the register and had our less experienced person do the woods setup and reset the picnic sites. I don't love that, but I can't actually be on register because I'm checking in groups, making sure the drivers are ready, making sure the group supplies go down with the woods person and they're lighting the fires when they need to be lit, clean up is happening, stocking is happening, posting on facebook (ew), and coordinating the groups for the next day too. Getting change, helping the customers with questions, handling weird stuff that comes up. So I really can't be second register because I need to be able to walk away at any time, which is hard if there's a huge line.
Saturday went well though, with a minimum of crises which were all minor ones and easily handled. got back to the house at 10pm, tried reconciling the cash registers and completely failed at counting the money, so my mom checked it for me and I just went to bed.
Sunday rained out, only two groups decided to come and of course, it stopped raining by 2pm so the weather was nice after that. oh well. we were overstaffed so we got some more picking done with my dad heading down to the field to pick with them, since he complains a lot about how bad they are at actually picking the field out. I had my extra workers carve pumpkins to put out on the driving route because people think they're fun. It was a good day to have quiet, because I was dragging. I didn't sleep well and was so tired from the day before. PoGo told me I walked 8km on saturday and only 3km on sunday. We did have to scramble at one point, a group arrived a little early and we hadn't cleaned up from the previous group, so I called my dad and my mom, had her pick him up from the picking field and meet me at the picnic site to clean up, build a third fire, set out the pumpkin deco stuff and get out of the there while the group unloaded their party stuff. eep.
Also amusing thing: we have a medium gravel pile probably 150 feet from the main selling area, not near anything interesting. One of our workers put a plastic pumpkin on top of the gravel pile since we take the hayrides past it and I have seen at least 20 people go over to take pictures with the stupid plastic pumpkin and the gravel. So funny. of all the backdrops.
I slept in this morning, kept hitting snooze. My phone is now super duper cracked, I was using it yesterday for notes since I still could and shoved it in the side pocket of my pants and broke it worse, so it's barely usable. My spare phone is getting me through although the new phone hasn't actually hit USPS's system yet, it just says label created but not in system. It's the weekend and a federal holiday, it's not going anywhere, just got to keep telling myself that.
thankfully this week looks not busy for work, so I can get some things done around the house. Next weekend should be the busiest weekend at the farm of the whole season, the weather *knocks wood* looks good both days, we're almost entirely booked up with groups. So dad called the auction to buy one more load of pumpkins because we're running low and we can't run out of pumpkins. He stayed home from computer work today to pick the last stuff from the field because we're due for three nights of solid frost.
This morning the heater/boiler got serviced and when I got home, F had turned the heat on, so now it's a balmy 63F in the house. delightful.
Working over the pumpkin display is a thing that I'm good at and have trouble articulating to people what makes a good display. We use the extra sturdy pallets, so they are extra reinforced, heavier and have more bracing. The wood holds up better. They are put on the ground with their 40 inch sides touching, 4-5 pallets in a row. We put all the pumpkin displays in a line behind the TD-9 bulldozer which doesn't work but looks really cool. There's a fake skeleton in the drivers seat. The pumpkins look dramatic so we line them around the TD-9, both on the treads and on the ground. Biggest, most beautiful pumpkin I can find goes on the corner that the customers see first and it sells fast.
Then we put crates perpendicular to the pallets on top, 3-4 per pallet set and then put a 1x12 plank on top of the crates. Then we put pumpkins on the top plank, on the pallets on both sides and on the ground, so we get three layers of pumpkins. Generally the biggest and most dramatic pumpkins go on the top row. A variety of sizes got on the middle row and mediums go on the ground alternating with warty pumpkins or yellow pumpkins or smaller white pumpkins. The big white ones go on the upper displays. All the pumpkins must be close together but not generally touching, they must be tucked close to the back part of the displays so that people can step onto the pallets to get the top pumpkins. The nice faces must face outward on the display, other than the top level, which faces the road where the customers come in. There needs to be gaps where the customers can go around the displays and reach the other displays.
There's some quality to setting up the display that I can't seem to articulate to the workers because I don't know quite what it is that makes it look better or worse, so while we had one of the workers stocking the display Saturday while I was busy, I went through once or twice and fixed stuff in a way that made it look better.
We also have second row parallel to the first that has squashes, gourds and other fun stuff. Plus small pumpkins. Hang on. Picture.
Friday was easy and we got a lot of work done. Also because a group of folks went into the corn maze at 8pm, which is when we last allow folks in and wandered out at 10pm, an hour after we close. We say last entry at 8 because most people give up after 45 mins to an hour, but they really did it. We stocked displays. I said I was going to give them five minutes and they finally got out in those five minutes.
I broke my phone that night.
Saturday was busy. It was beautiful, sunny and Sunday looked like rain. We were mostly booked up with groups. We are now permanently short a register worker and it's hard to find someone halfway through the season, so we pulled our competent woods person because I know she's fast on the register and had our less experienced person do the woods setup and reset the picnic sites. I don't love that, but I can't actually be on register because I'm checking in groups, making sure the drivers are ready, making sure the group supplies go down with the woods person and they're lighting the fires when they need to be lit, clean up is happening, stocking is happening, posting on facebook (ew), and coordinating the groups for the next day too. Getting change, helping the customers with questions, handling weird stuff that comes up. So I really can't be second register because I need to be able to walk away at any time, which is hard if there's a huge line.
Saturday went well though, with a minimum of crises which were all minor ones and easily handled. got back to the house at 10pm, tried reconciling the cash registers and completely failed at counting the money, so my mom checked it for me and I just went to bed.
Sunday rained out, only two groups decided to come and of course, it stopped raining by 2pm so the weather was nice after that. oh well. we were overstaffed so we got some more picking done with my dad heading down to the field to pick with them, since he complains a lot about how bad they are at actually picking the field out. I had my extra workers carve pumpkins to put out on the driving route because people think they're fun. It was a good day to have quiet, because I was dragging. I didn't sleep well and was so tired from the day before. PoGo told me I walked 8km on saturday and only 3km on sunday. We did have to scramble at one point, a group arrived a little early and we hadn't cleaned up from the previous group, so I called my dad and my mom, had her pick him up from the picking field and meet me at the picnic site to clean up, build a third fire, set out the pumpkin deco stuff and get out of the there while the group unloaded their party stuff. eep.
Also amusing thing: we have a medium gravel pile probably 150 feet from the main selling area, not near anything interesting. One of our workers put a plastic pumpkin on top of the gravel pile since we take the hayrides past it and I have seen at least 20 people go over to take pictures with the stupid plastic pumpkin and the gravel. So funny. of all the backdrops.
I slept in this morning, kept hitting snooze. My phone is now super duper cracked, I was using it yesterday for notes since I still could and shoved it in the side pocket of my pants and broke it worse, so it's barely usable. My spare phone is getting me through although the new phone hasn't actually hit USPS's system yet, it just says label created but not in system. It's the weekend and a federal holiday, it's not going anywhere, just got to keep telling myself that.
thankfully this week looks not busy for work, so I can get some things done around the house. Next weekend should be the busiest weekend at the farm of the whole season, the weather *knocks wood* looks good both days, we're almost entirely booked up with groups. So dad called the auction to buy one more load of pumpkins because we're running low and we can't run out of pumpkins. He stayed home from computer work today to pick the last stuff from the field because we're due for three nights of solid frost.
This morning the heater/boiler got serviced and when I got home, F had turned the heat on, so now it's a balmy 63F in the house. delightful.
