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!!!!
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!!!!
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