LOVE OF WRITING AND FLOWERS CHANGES COMING????

In the air I feel the changing of seasons. 

It may have been in the 80 degree heat this last week, but the trees are turning yellow and oranges.  The evenings are cooler.  The air smells differently.

 I feel like knitting instead of planting seeds. 

I want to stay in bed just a little longer instead of bouncing out at daylight to head out to the fields. 

The citrus on the trees are turning from green to yellow.

We have been picking and selling our pomegranates and making some juice. 

 The last 275 pumpkins were bought up in one bunch by a pumpkin patch in Grass Valley. 

The price was extremely reduced but happy because I had already picked, moved and sold that many already one-by-one.

A Pumpkin/Flower arranging Class in October

My thoughts have been to the last of our Windmill Farm classes of 2017, setting dates, deciding on what classes to try and schedule before Christmas. 

And asking myself what will be in store for Frank and I, Windmill Farm in 2018.

My biggest concern is "TIME".  Having the time to do all that I want to do; what Frank and I want to do; what Windmill Farm should be doing.

I love to write.  My life has revolved around writing for the 28 years with the Nevada County Superior Court. Writing for the United Way campaigns when I was chairman; writing gardening tips and letters in Nevada County; writing articles in antique journals (I have always been an avid antiquer and at one time, owned an antique store); writing proposals, articles about designs and spaces; I wrote for a year on farming and gardening for the Edible Shasta Butte magazine; I wrote a blog for The Gridley Herald newspaper on gardening and farming for a year; I contributed a year long sequence of articles for the Farmgirl Flower's special project, Field To Vase website on gardening-flowers-marketing-flower farming. And I have continued writing my blog here since I started it in 2009.  It sure seems like it was just a few years ago, but now we are talking 8 years.

I always secretly dreamt some magazine would ask me to write consistently for them either on the topics of Interior Design; Antiques; or Gardening/Farming/Vegetables/Fruit/Farming topics. Maybe everyone hopes for that to happen, I always felt I express myself better in writing than speaking in person.

Blogging has been an excellent outlit of sharing about our mini life here doing crafts, projects, farming, DIY, animals, children, just plan LIFE. But blogging has become an avenue for many people to move into a business; to careers; to selling lots of products.  There are techniques, but I have had no TIME to venture into that and my daily reading numbers show that.  

A string of Crocheted Maple Leaves I made for fall.

I guess my point, is, even though I have a minimum of 200+ people view my blog every day, I feel that my presence of my content is, well fairly interesting; barely relevant; basically not that exciting enough for people.  After 8 years investment of my TIME, I am feeling like I should have 1000 people views a day.  And I think, from my point of view, my writing is too long. People only want to SEE things; in seconds of videos.  To see and hear it; experience it and then move on.  People may go back and follow someone over and over again, but most people don't have TIME for the READING part.  Life has become a visual reality. YOUTUBE and INSTAGRAM are the new frontiers.

Indigo Dyeing Last Weekend

Since in this 8 years I haven't become a STAR; haven't been featured in any magazines; haven't made a million dollars selling products that we make or grow; and rarely is there ever at least a slight comment from someone; I am thinking for 2018, it may be time for me to say goodbye to my blog.

I think, at least right now, starting in January, 2018, I will use the TIME I used to use preparing for the blog; doing my research; downloading photos, that I will work harder at our Windmill Farm presence on YouTube and Instagram and of course, continue with Facebook.

A new Indigo Dyeing Class coming up soon.

It does make me sad to think about this.  I love to write, to share, to express myself. Not everyone does do all these other social media, there are people that I do reach that like to read!!! These people are like me, we still buy magazines to touch and feel and read paper. To read actual paper books instead of on a technology tool. 

I love flowers and I love showing how beautiful flowers can look together, hence I try and put photos of our Windmill Farm flowers on every blog. 

And I love the classes we host here and enjoy sharing that experience with you for those that weren't able to be right here with us.
So the season maybe changing here in my fingers and my mind. What can I do with the TIME not spent here?

Maybe you all will find my short videos on Instagram more entertaining, more informative??? Maybe you would move over from reading to watching a short YouTube video of my classes?

We still have 60+ days left in 2017 to post here so don't leave yet.  Stay tuned to what I finally decide to do and hope you will continue to find the TIME to stay with me here at Windmill Farm to any new adventures we do end up doing.

Another Wedding; Pumpkin/Flower Arranging Class-All In October!!!

Doesn't anyone get married in summer any longer???  At least in my tiny flower farming world it doesn't seem so this year. In the last blog, I showed you the flowers of my 1st wedding in October, but the following week, I had another one. 

Then, if that wasn't enough, I knew I had my annual pick your pumpkin, carve it; pick your own flowers from our flower gardens; and then make your beautiful arrangement the following weekend. Lots to do, lots of planning.

So let me start with wedding #2 in October.

Beautiful bride, lovely, lovely family. This wedding requested dark red colors in bride's;pink and other color flowers for table and bridesmaid-no ribbons hanging; burlap and lace. 

I think the wedding party looked beautiful.

The Pumpkin/Flower class quickly followed.  I readied my sorting shed, Frank set up tables and chairs.  I put out all the details needed like flower clippers, buckets, hand towels; brought out the food and drinks and put them in the cooler.  I also pre-picked lots of greens, fillers and some flowers so they could get started before going out into the field to pick their own.

At 4:30 am, I was awakened to loud noises.  It was the wind blowing at least 20 mph.  I almost feel back to sleep when I thought:  all my class stuff is outside and probably blowing away!!!  And would 14 ladies want to be outside in that kind of wind to try and enjoy themselves?  No.

So I waited until daylight, got dressed and examined the class area.  It was a total disaster, stuff was all over the yard, some tables had blown over.  I thought to myself: 1.  I am too old for this.  2.  Maybe I should cancel. 3.  Where would I hold it that was outside of the wind?  ANSWER: I didn't cancel and inside the house was the best place, and get my butt moving and maybe the class can still happen.

That meant, clean up the house quickly. I woke up Frank - I needed his help to move all those chairs and tables and greens and buckets and food to the front door and I would set up inside the house. He was a good sport and could have just put the covers over his head and pretend he didn't hear me.

I don't know how it happened, but we made it just in time.  I took a video, I will try and load it right here before the class.Before class video

In the house was a great idea in the end.  People were more comfortable, chatted away.

But we did have to brave the wind to go out and have them select their pumpkins; and they cut their own flowers. 

Some people even went out again after they got started to select more flowers or different colors.

Fun time, love it when Moms and daughters come; or when people bring a friend.  They get to share the experience here at Windmill Farm.

Fall Pumpkins, Wedding Flowers

It finally got cooler and our pumpkin harvesting time has begun.  

We picked all the white pumpkins first which will mostly be used in our October 14th Pumpkin and Flower Decorating Class.  

We also picked many small and medium sized pumpkins to sell out at our roadside stand.  The ugly part about this is that the stems on pumpkins have these sharp prickly points all over them so gloves are a must.  

The fields have been so dry and dusty, the pumpkins are dirty too, so each one had to be picked, loaded into the Gator; then unloaded in our sorting shed to be washed.  Then re-loaded up and placed out front at our roadside decorated stand.  I cut up a few smaller ones, put some floral foam and filled with fresh cut flowers to sell at a very reasonable price.

Another event happening at our farm is on October 19th, the Walton Pre-School kids are coming out to spend a few hours with us.  They will be picking their own pumpkins; taking Gator rides; and then doing a little craft project out at our sorting shed.  The kids are ages 3-5 years old so this should be such a fun thing to do.  If anyone locally or nearby is needing any pumpkins, we have them either one or many!!!

Everything is coming up flowers!!!  It is interesting how everyone starts doing the same thing at the same time.  Let me explain.  I may not get a telephone call for my farm fresh chicken eggs for a week or more.  Then in one day, I will get 5 calls just in the morning for as many eggs that I have available.  This last week, I have gotten at least 10 calls from all over California with people looking to buy fresh green olives to cure.  My olives are very small this year so not selling any but do refer them to the few places I know to look for fresh olives.

The same thing happened about a month ago, people started calling to see if our farm could do the flowers for their small weddings, all in OCTOBER and November!!!  

Not the best time to get flowers in a season, but we still have beautiful dahlias, hydrangeas and other flowers so we said YES.  Above are some photos of a flower cuff I made; a bridesmaid bouquet and the boutionerres.

Then we received a telephone call from a local photographer who wanted to know if they could take some high school graduation photos out in our flower gardens.  Of Course!!  

But I did tell her that this is not the best time of year to show the gardens off and especially since we had such a huge wind storm recently.  Honestly, I was afraid to even go back there to look at it, I figured everything would be blown on the ground.  Luckily,, only one row of dahlia plants were slumped over, which I can re-prop back up for at least another couple of weeks until the flower season is completely over.

Maybe it is me, but I have been feeling like baking lately.  I am trying out some recipes to make home made pretzels and hopefully I will be teaching a class sometime in late November or possibly after the 1st of the year.

The best news is, I am wearing a sweat shirt today.  Why is that good news you ask?  Because since June, our area has had the hottest weather anyone can remember.  No day was cooler than in the middle 80 degrees and mostly all summer long it was in the 90s.  I am just happy that it is cool enough to even think about wearing something warmer and not be sweating just walking across the room.  Fall has arrived!!!