Good lord I am tired

[unicornduke]

I actually took a nap today which is not a thing I normally do. 

We opened for strawberry picking today for a half day from 8am to 12pm. This meant I was down at the field setting up at 6:45am because there was much to do. Me and dad had moved the RST (rolling selling thingy which is a prototype ice fishing house they got ten years ago now) and plopped it down at the west farm late last night but didn't finish setup because it was already 8pm. I had trouble falling asleep because I ate dinner almost at 9pm.

First customer got there at 7:15am. Sigh. We had lots of pickers and everything ripe pretty much got picked. It's light picking currently, we only have a few early varieties and so they ripen ahead of the main season. We warn people picking is light and they simply don't listen. 

I was On Register the whole time. It's exhausting doing retail stuff. I understand why my mom doesn't want to do it anymore but my god I absolutely 100% don't want to do it. We're getting a worker for half of the days and she's starting next week, so I have to suffer through this weekend. I need to find a farm partner/worker who really likes that shit because it's terrible. I don't mind doing it for a little bit but ugh. Exhausting

While chatting with a customer, I got the idea to make pancakes for lunch with strawberries and whipped cream. So I did that. And then I had a 30 min nap on the couch. 

I successfully did a new thing this afternoon: fertigating! Irrigation + fertilizer, it has a whole complicated setup. 

One thing I've been trying to figure out how to manage is my garden. I haven't worked on it at all. Once I'm done for the day, I'm tired enough that I don't want to go back out and do more stuff out there. Part of it is that I thought about my work hours (6 days a week, 8am to 7pm with an hour lunch = 60 hours a week), well duh I'm tired a lot. So I think I'm just going to give it up for now and figure out something for next year. I've got peas and potatoes in the ground and I'll be happy to eat them when they're ready. I think I need to narrow my focus a bunch to maybe some small flowers around the house and then see if I can manage something else at some point. 

I started watching The Repair Shop again and boy howdy it's a delight as always. I also have realized I want to be like Jay, the host. He's so dapper and also a furniture restorer. And I started the next season of Taskmaster which has been a gosh darn delight. 

Thank goodness it won't be as hot for a couple of days coming up. Full body sweating. Ick. 

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> We opened for strawberry picking today <<

Yay strawberries!

>> I need to find a farm partner/worker who really likes that shit because it's terrible. <<

Good idea.

>>While chatting with a customer, I got the idea to make pancakes for lunch with strawberries and whipped cream.<<

We like strawberries with almond poundcake and whipped cream. I also put freeze-dried ones in hot cereal, or use dried ones to make quickbread.

>>I think I need to narrow my focus a bunch to maybe some small flowers around the house and then see if I can manage something else at some point. <<

I do most of my gardening in containers so it's less work. The ground-gardens are always a battle against weeds, so there I mostly plant things that can defend themselves.

When you're not exhausted, think about what you love most. Pretty flowers? Being able to pick a few herbs? Fresh vegetables of types you can't find in a supermarket? And then think about how to do that in a small space, right next to your door, with as little work as possible.

[reedrover]

You may /only/ be working 60 hours a week, but it’s all nonstop action. And when you aren’t physically working, I bet you are still mentally engaged in solving issues and planning future work. So I have no surprise that you are tired.

I’m sure there is someone out there to partner with for the customer facing work. I, for one, love working retail and farming and think that it would be fun to help out at a farm PYO.

The Repair Shop is incredibly sweet and earnest. I’m glad you find it delightful.

[unicornduke]

Not enough hours in the day even with all the time I'm working! I do take a lot of snack breaks, so that helps a ton. I do need to find that person who likes this sort of thing, it's extremely important for the business to have someone really focused on customer interaction and register work in a way that most businesses aren't doing in a retail environment. And teenagers aren't the ones able to do that sort of really good retail work. They're fine usually but we're aiming for excellent. I'm okay at marketing but having to be extremely on is not my jam. I just need to figure out the financial reality of someone maybe full time but also maybe find a retired person part time. Or something.

Adding in that my parents are working on their rental church thing this week and it feels like I'm the only one doing farmwork. Which was kinda what I knew would happen with my dad's schedule of so many things happening and my mom stepping back from the farm, but also augh. Pumpkins need to get in the ground and I'm stuck at the register.

We're doing half days for now and then once we get the new employee trained up, we can do full days open.

I've been watching an episode and doing a little spinning on my electric wheel to wind down for the day, which has been very nice! I would love to get a little table set up so I could spread out other projects to be worked on as well.