BEAUTIFUL VALENTINE'S DAY FLOWERS; KNITTING, NEW CLASS COMING

Windmill Farm Flower Arrangement Made in February

OK, I have been so bad about posting.  I have all these lovely flower photos to continue with the flower highlights of 2017.  But first I wanted to share with you what I have been up to in January and February.  Yes, I felt the same as all of you, WHERE DID FEBRUARY GO!!! 

We had a fantastic Valentine's Day flower event.  It was decided to really promote it via social media.  I hired a great business and marketing promoter friend, Sarah Reynolds, who put together my ad; helped me boost it using special areas (such as highlighting MEN since they are the ones who usually purchase flowers on Valentine's Day) and other tips we used.

 I made this fun HEART using tissue paper as an event prop.

The results were fascinating and VERY productive.  And we made many people happy with beautiful flowers on February 14th!!!  Thank you Sarah.  It takes lots of planning and organizing along with having beautiful flowers available for an UNKNOWN amount of customers.  It is a gamble for a small flower farmer.  It made me remember what happened last year at the same time. Lots of flowers, lots of vases, lots of customers but 2 days before Valentine's Day, the Oroville Dam evacuation of Oroville, Gridley, Biggs, Live Oak happened.  (Check out my blog archive for what happened in 2017).
This year went on without any hitches though.  We made lots and lots of beautiful flower bouquets and arrangements.

 I even made my own hand made Valentine's Day salutation cards using old buttons and special hearts to make them extra special.

 

Also in January and February, I have been bitten by the knitting socks and hats again.  Every few years, I start up again. 

First I used up some yarns I already had in my stash.  Then I went to YouTube to refresh my skills; bought a tutorial from my favorite sock knitter who has written books and speaks all over the world on sock knitting, Ann Budd.  Then I made a hat that looked pretty cute on Bella.

I find even though I have knitting skills, crafts change, people learn something that helps you; people get more technical and knitting constantly evolves.

So knit, I did and everyone in my family now have lots of socks.  Whether they like it or not!!!

I am also making felted slippers; have a cat cozy pattern and yarn ready to start; a wrap project for myself, which I work on off and on, all near my favorite chair to work on since I heard it is supposed to rain next week.

Have you ever wanted to wallpaper your kids room or a bathroom?  Or even the back of your cupboards?  I have wallpapered my whole life, as styles and fads have moved in or out over the years.  I have even wallpapered as a business in my youth.  

We will be having a class- Learn To Wallpaper - set on a Wednesday night, March 14th, 6-8pm and if you can't make that class, on Saturday, March 17th 10-Noon. 

The classes cost $30 and people will have a hands on hanging paper experience; be taught how to figure how much paper to order; matching seams; everything you need to go home and do it yourself!!

Finished projects in January and February:  Completed all our fruit tree pruning; finished cleaning up flower growing field debris and planted some seeds; ordered all my dahlias; bulbs; and seeds needed for the spring plantings; spraying dormant spray (necessary unfortunately) on fruit trees; cleaned up and organized barn storage area; Frank disked field; he raked up all the tree pruning clippings, chipped the small stuff and has a huge pile ready to burn of the big limbs; covered all the outside pipes with insulation so none will break during freezes in Jan/Feb.

I got interested in making mini pies, so in February, I have made many batches of fruit and meat mini pies. 

These are something I am considering making available from our farm; and also make available as part of our refreshments we provide at our classes. 

Since we have so much fruit from our trees, it is another way to use our fruit during each season and possibly to sell the pies.  They are so good tasting and I have found a lady in Placer Co that has taken an old bus and goes from site to site selling mini pies!!! Sounds like fun.

Work in progress: Frank-designed and ordered necessary parts to make large barn doors on my sorting shed to enclose 2 sides of it; he is changing oil and re-conditioning his tractors and Gators to get them ready for spring; I am working on promoting my new flower CSA program for 2018; I am working on selecting farm classes and setting dates for them for the next few months. I am re-designing the flower/shrub plantings along our driveway.  For years, they have been some plantings doing well, but others have not; plus we lost 2 trees to disease along the driveway. This requires new drip system changes; added soil compost; new rock, plantings and more. Big project.  I have ordered and received new landscaping fabric for adding more rows of flowers this year. My continued inside knitting projects for the days when the weather doesn't allow me to go outside.
That is what happened to our January and February!!!  What have you been working on over this 2018 winter?  Love to hear from you.  Be back with more Windmill Farm news soon-and more pictures of our lovely flowers -promise.