Friday, November 23, 2012

Beginning a new season

Thanksgiving is now behind us. What a wonderful fall season it was this year. The turkey production and sales went amazingly well.... aside from a few mistakes on little things. We more than sold out of turkeys, were able to spend a little time with many customers and quite a few new customers, and to top it off we had a fabulous Thanksgiving day ourselves. But... alas... the 2012 has come to an end. Little Sprouts Farm now officially moves into the slightly quieter winter season.
We follow nature in all principles possible... including honoring the seasons. Winter is a time when most of nature takes a break... rebuilds, and readys for a new circle of life. Our labor and projects match this cycling. Winter for us is more about fixing, improving, thinking, writing, planning, maintaining than executing big projects. Its certainly not "time off" by any means. There is no days when chores and maintenance quits even for a day... but it is a much different workload.
This winter we need to redo our brochures, get the new online store and private association up and running, publish those ebooks, plan out our next season offerings and get eggs or babies started, do a lot of fixing, rearrange the land use, etc etc. Some new things we are investigating is switching the bee hives to Warren instead of topbar, and installing winch drive systems on the moving bird coops. Its also time to first ally put in that sidewalk to the store and sell off unneeded items on craigslist.
Variety is good. We believe there is great value in honoring the seasons. There is a time and a season for everything and our ultimate long term success as people depends on recognizing that. One of the problems I saw in the tech workplace is the constancy of effort. Without seasons people burn out at almost everything. Factory type work where every day becomes identical year after year tends to deaden the spirit and dull the senses. Motivation thrives on newness, on promise, on challenge. Thats what the seasons give you... new promise and new challenge. It's refreshing and uplifting to forge on deeper and deeper into the forest of life, to expand our exploration into the mysteries of tomorrow.  That's what seasons give you.
So here we go! No black Friday here... the day after Thanksgiving for Little Sprouts Farm is about birth... the birth of a whole new year. Where will this year take us? I have no idea.... not yet... making goals is goal 1. But whatever it is.... whereever we go next... it will be an adventure!

1 comment:

  1. I too raise bees. I have found that I like my top bar hives for some features, my langstroth hives for others. You might find that you too enjoy the diversity. Fairly easy to divide larger hives into newer ones and buying new queens is easy enough. Good way of increasing desirable traits, such as disease and pest resistance in your brood. Good luck! So glad I found your site!

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