(I have to give credit where credit is due. All of these prints I use are by my favorite artist, Beverly Doolittle. You can click on them to see them enlarged) 1/3/07 Wednesday
It was a long night. I kept thinking about the farm, what was I going to do and how would I do it. I have been researching “You pick farms” and am leaning hard in that direction. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this these are farms that usually have fruit orchards and are set up so the public can come in and pick their own fruit, usually at a discounted rate. We are familiar with these as they are not uncommon up north and there are several in the Toledo area.
In talking to other farmers I get a message that there is little money in raising pecans. Heard several stories of farmers who just let their pecan orchards die. I had already planned on planting a variety of fruit trees and plants just for us. Apples, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches, and whatever else caught our fancy. Now I am contemplating doing this on a much grander scale. The nearest U-Pick farms are in Lubbock and Abilene, both a hundred miles or so away. One in Lubbock is an apple orchard and seems to be set up much like the ones in Toledo with events such as making apple butter. I will get in touch with them and any others I can find to see if they will let me come see their operation.
Anyway my mind was filled and excited with thoughts on this. I would drift in and out of sleep and couldn’t tell between the thoughts and the dreams I would have. Of course I had drunken lots of coffee so having to get up and use the bathroom several times meant there was no deep sleep. I will continue researching this and have to admit it is an ambitious plan but I’ve never been a mediocre person when it comes to business. That is why I was such a success with my two companies in Toledo despite the poor business conditions of a depressed local economy. This thing they call a disability is just an inconvenience I can work around. So is being poor.
Today I will put the baseboard down in the backroom and hallway we painted two days or so ago. It is supposed to be cold and miserable out just as it was yesterday. Despite my saying I would work indoors yesterday I didn’t. Can’t help it. Like being outside in the open air. That is my preferred environment. I will probably finish cleaning out the henhouse but need to make myself work on designing a business plan for the farm. That probably won’t be hard to do as it has captured my mind and is an exciting return of the enthusiasm and positive can do attitude of my past. Love to have a dream and vision for the future. Lots to overcome but I’ve never shied away from a challenge. (except as a child when I would run from those who wanted to beat me up)
Enough of this. Cherie has her chores planned out and is already cleaning in the kitchen so I need to get moving also. I am tired from not sleeping well but the brain is working well, at an 8 on the bob scale
7:15 – It’s the end of the day, at least for me. I didn’t have any problems other than a headache. So what did I do today? I was full of energy this morning and some how got the hospital bed into the bus. Just moved it a few inches at a time as I pulled it up the steps. Then I went and got the tools I had taken out of the henhouse and thrown in the back. The axe is actually a rare one that is designed to plane logs straight. That was a surprise. The mystery piece of equipment is a device designed to project an enlarged microfilm image. I took the lenses out of it. Fred would love them to enlarge print so he could read it.
What else?? I had to take a nap at one or so and conked out till three. Then I tried to make something I could stretch the carpet with. I drove a bunch of nails through a piece of wood and attached another piece on top of it to strike with a hammer. It worked ok for about thirty seconds when the wood split and all the nails were bending backwards so I went out and made a heavy duty version. Didn’t get too much done before Cherie had dinner ready so called it quits. Cherie has turned into quite a cook. She baked a cake and made a Chinese type of dish with the chicken stew we had leftover from sometime.
That pretty much sums up the day. No wait, I just thought of something. Cherie called State Farm insurance in Ohio cause she could no longer go online for some reason. We have to send them a check or the insurance will be cancelled. We haven’t heard back from the Farm Bureau on their quote for car insurance yet.
I did spend some time online researching what might be available regarding grants we can apply for. There is so much it will take a while to sort through. Some of them have already passed the cut off date to apply for. There are thousands and thousands of grants out there covering about every category imaginable. There are Federal, state, and private foundation grants we can qualify for. Being a veteran, disabled, low income, and having a farm are all big areas for grants.
I am a bit tired and slowing down just a little on top of still having a headache so I think I’ll just call it a night. See ya next time.
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