All the Baby Animals

The pie social was a success, although we are suffering from the usual problems of not enough help. I said to Susan that the 60- and 70-year olds should not be the people doing all of the heavy lifting for these events. If it weren’t for Susan and Sarah baking pies, we wouldn’t have had many pies to serve, and one of our older board members did all of the table setup and takedown. We are glad that everyone comes and enjoys themselves, but I wish that more people stopped to think about all of the work that goes in to putting on these “community” events.

I was at the information table and visited with people as they came in. We had quite a few new attendees and people new to the area along with the regulars. I also heard a lot of positive comments about the fact that we pushed back the date for the plant sale. I think we will keep the later date from now on.

The weather stayed nice until the pie social was over. Now we are getting more rain. Our employees were here working on their trucks yesterday, and one of them helped the husband move the chicks over to the coop while I was at church. The chicks are a bit shell-shocked, as they always are. All of a sudden they went from a little brooder box to a 5' x 5' room with a bunch of very big chickens staring at them through the wire. They’ll figure out soon enough that they are safe and can run around.

The piglets are settling in, too. They found the food right away:

These are a good size—about 25 pounds apiece. I have to ask our supplier what breed or cross these are.

The weekend was busy, but everything went (mostly) according to plan. I have a dentist appointment at 8 am this morning. I haven’t decided what the schedule will be for this week. I have to finish the Christmas stocking store samples, and I need to start knocking out some warmer-weather tops and dresses. This is an ongoing problem. When I have time to sew, in the winter, I am not thinking about making items to wear when it’s 80F. And when I need them, I don’t have time to make them.

If it keeps raining, though, maybe I can make a couple of Malva Tees or Laundry Day Tees.

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Joanns has come out of bankruptcy reorganization and I am curious to see what happens next. I hope that the people now steering that company have learned a few lessons. Customers want a fabric store, not a glorified Dollar Store carrying plastic crap from China. No one needs acres and acres of polyester fleece. And if you teach people the skills they need to buy and use your products, you’ll be creating a stable, ongoing customer base.

That may be too much to ask. We’ll see.