Pruning to bear fruit!

Fruit orchards will regularly prune their trees in the late winter.  Pruning will make the tree bear larger and often, more fruit.

My brother-in-law used to say ..... You will prune an apple tree until  you throw your coat through it .... it won't catch on a branch.

Over the last few years .... every time I threw my coat, it would catch on a branch of my life.

It would catch on an upcoming event, a class, bookwork, a customer request, a flat of flowers to get planted, a box of peaches to be canned, a row to weed, an email to answer ............. another meeting.

I was over-worked, under-funded and extremely stressed.

And when I finished my taxes and discovered that I made $169 in profit and no salary last year, I cried. 

And I cried.

And I cried.

And I wondered if the IRS would possibly consider me a charitable cause.

So ........ I pruned.

I pruned hours.

I pruned events.

I even pruned help.

And although it is early in the season ....... I feel as I can breath.

So let me catch you up on a few things ..........

Miss Effie's will not be holding her ice cream social this year. I LOVED doing the ice cream social.  But it is a week worth's of cooking ice cream custard, baking cakes, setting up tables, finding dishware, taking care of garbage, finding vendors ........... and by Sunday evening, I realized I hadn't had a slice of cake or a scoop of ice cream.  And I was ready for bed!!!!!!

I will not be participating in the North Scott Farm Crawl.  September is a very busy month and although this is a great event ........ I am open to the public 4 days a week, 4-5 months out of the year.  Stop by and see me ... pick some flowers.....use the pink Barbie Dream House porta-potty.  We will be here as we are every Sunday .... from 12-3.

We are doing some uber-cool stuff that I am very excited and proud to be participating.

I am teaching again at the Mid-America Homesteading Conference in Joliet on August 31st.  And I not only talking about canning ... but I am demonstrating canning.  So trust me ... I am super excited about hanging with Deborah and Donna again.

In the middle of September, the University of Illinois Master Gardener's annual conference will be held in Moline at the I-Wireless Center.  I was thrilled when they asked if they could tour our gardens.  And since I feel like like only orange-and-blue bleeding Illini in Iowa ........... I immediately said Oske-wa-wa!!! 

You should have seen me when they asked if I would speak at their conference!!!  I thought about attempting the jump that Chief Illini would do at the end of his performance at football games.  Then I realized there isn't enough chiropractic care in the QCA to fix my back!!  So I just cheered!!!

I am teaching TWO Salsa Camps at Scott Community College!  Twenty people in each class will be chopping, slicing, dicing and canning their way to great salsa come winter!

Yea .... I am still super busy.  There is weeding to do ..... buckets to prepare .... jam to make.  We still host parties and there are 4 this week alone.

But pruning has taken some of the pressure off ...............

And my coat doesn't get caught every time I throw it!!!!



Comments

And I am looking forward to seeing YOU! I too have pruned this year and said NO to many things. Asked to serve on an advisory board...no thank you...asked to teach several soap making classes...no thank you...etc. Like you still very busy but doing more of what I WANT to do instead of what I think I SHOULD do. Time is short and my GK's are calling me, literally. :)
colleen said…
Thank you for the reminder,"pruning" is a great thing. I have to try to prune everyday as I think I should be super woman and get everything done everyday..I have been trying to do what is important for today...there is always tomorrow and things will get done and I can stop and smell the roses along the way.
colleen said…
Thank you for the reminder,"pruning" is a great thing. I have to try to prune everyday as I think I should be super woman and get everything done everyday..I have been trying to do what is important for today...there is always tomorrow and things will get done and I can stop and smell the roses along the way.
Deborah Niemann said…
Pruning! I need to do some of that! And if it makes you feel any better about your profit, I made even less. How on earth can two women work as many hours as you and I work and not have anything to show for it?

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