Mrs. David's Garden Seeds®

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Getting Away From Your Small Business

Getting away from your small business can be very difficult. Each time we have gone out of town, we have taken laptops with us on the plane or in the car to work on our business in our spare time. And almost every time, something unusual happens, so we have to work. For instance, the last time we went out of town was November of 2020. David and I drove three hours to the beach. We had such a good time for the first two days in our condo right on the ocean. Then late in the afternoon of day three, Amazon started pulling our items down for being "organic". Keep in mind that they were listed for eleven years on Amazon as "organic" but because we do not have a purchased license for every single variety, we cannot say they are organic.

It turns out that we could not use the term "organic" on our seeds unless we paid a $1000 licensing fee for every seed variety that we claimed to be organic. The seed companies we bought the organic seeds from claim the seeds are organic but Amazon would not accept that. So we had to go seed by seed and delete all of the organic wording from every listing on Amazon and on our website.

So we worked late into the night and left to go home early the next morning. It took us most of the week to finish fixing the listings. Then we had to run each one by Amazon and ask them to restore our listings, one by one, so that we could sell them again. It is always something and once or twice a year, it is something new we have to fix or change on listings. Most of our income is from selling on Amazon so it is important to do things they way they demand.

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Getting Away From Your Small Business
6/28-7/4/2021

Monday, June 28, 2021

Good Monday morning to you! David is still in the hospital. Of course, being hospitalized is one way of getting away from your small business, but that is not what I had in mind when I planned this page!

One of David's surgical drains just split open so I am not sure what they will do about that. David's plan was to come home this afternoon but now he said to hold off on going into San Antonio.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the new website continues to show a lot of things we are out of because we have made so many changes after the products were downloaded, but the website was still being built. This morning, we had two orders for a product that we have not had in a while. We are emailing the customers to see if they would like a different product. We have to go through and check each of our products individually and make changes but with everything going on, that will take some time.

Everything but the goji berries dried in the food dehydrator overnight. They are still in there dehydrating away.

Getting Away From Your Small Business

Getting away from your small business from time to time is important for your sanity. Even going to church on a Sunday morning instead of working on the business is a nice change. There is always so much to do that we feel obligated to be getting things done 24/7. This is not good.

The problem is a bit worse for us because when we step out of our home, the business is right there, before our eyes. Yes, there are advantages to working from home, or in our case having our business right on our home property, like no commute, no worrying about getting gas, or packing a lunch, or forgetting something and having to drive across town to the house to get it.

I love that I don't have to dress up and that I can just run to the house to make lunch or throw a load of laundry in the washer throughout the day. It is so convenient and if the car breaks down, I won't be late for work.

However, people come here seven days a week, mostly when we are closed. Never mind all of those Saturdays when I sat in the store waiting for a customer to come. Now that we close on Saturdays and always on Sundays, people come by. Some will text or call and say they want to come in. Sometimes, David will tell them okay and then I have to run and open the store. (What is a day off, anyway?) Some people come right on up to the door of our home.

The electric gate that finally got installed several weeks ago does help with that. It stays shut all weekend long which is wonderful. That does create a bit of a problem with deliveries since we get them seven days a week but most have tossed packages inside the gate. I check every evening just to be sure there aren't any packages waiting there.

Getting away from your small business should be planned. For instance, you can go out for a nice dinner or a fun shopping trip, go to see a movie or to a friend's home for the afternoon or evening...

Plan an afternoon in the backyard grilling or gardening or relaxing in the pool if you have one. Watch a TV show or a movie and don't have your laptop or phone with you for two hours. Just chill. Go to bed on time. Do not stay up late working on your business every night. You will burn out quickly. Trust me and make getting away from your small business a priority.

We went up to the hospital to spring David this afternoon but he was not allowed to leave until the surgeon came up to see him. He was there in surgery all day but finally came up at 5pm. David was bleeding out of the left drain tube where he burst a stitch this morning when he bent over. The surgeon did not put in another stitch. He asked me if I could handle the blood oozing out and I said I could. So they let him come home.

We got him home just after 6pm. The dogs were so happy to see him. Molly will not stay off of him. My main concern is her ripping his drains out.

We got six medications from the pharmacy for David for a grand total of $563.00. That is just insane.

David really likes the zero gravity chair and he fell asleep there while we watched Hawaii Five-0 from 1968.

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Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Good Tuesday morning. David slept fairly well in three time periods and got up at five, sending business texts and emails. He is happy to be home.

I woke up at 6am and got all of the animals fed and watered and started working from the house. Jay, our production manager wanted to talk with David. After a few hours, David agreed to see him. They had a good meeting in the den while I made a delicious low carb tuna salad for David's lunch along with home grown tomatoes.

It has been raining on and off and I just heard a loud clap of thunder. It is 2:20pm and a bit dark in the house.

David has been taking his pills and he is trying to stay away from carbohydrates. I have a lovely beef pot roast with mushrooms and carrots in the crockpot for dinner tonight. I will serve it over riced cauliflower so it should be tasty.

Getting Away From Your Small Business

Getting away from your small business can be difficult. For instance, David has been in the hospital for the past eight days, which is one way of getting away from your small business, but now that he is home, he has jumped right back in with both feet, from a chair in the den. I thought he would be napping and watching TV, but instead, he is talking with people and actually doing work on the computer with the TV off.

Last November, David and I took off to the beach for several days. It was great getting out of town and being on the beach. Of course, Amazon pulled a fast one while we were gone so we had to stop and pack up and come home to get things fixed. As you know, Amazon is our biggest platform for selling our seeds. We are hoping to get away from them now with our beautiful new website, but that will take some time.

Sometimes, getting away from your small business is impossible but once you have hired some good people to take over when things come up, it will get better.

I made low carb meals all day long and worked from the house today, with a few trips out to the business. David is eating and taking his meds with no problems and very little pain.

At 5pm yesterday, when I was out in the chicken coop, David was asleep so the production manager came out to find me. Both of the seed machines were acting up and neither was counting correctly. They made several adjustments, but to no avail. I advised him to load them up and take them with him to drop off tomorrow morning at the seed machine shop in San Antonio. He does not live far from there.

This evening, we did bandage changes and emptied out the three drains. To my amazement, the three tube areas are no longer bleeding. It was rough taking off the surgical tape and unwrapping the bloody bandages but once I got it all off, the areas were clean and dry. I was so relieved. I wrapped everything up and taped it and David was good to go. There was a lot of blood in the drains but I measured it and wrote it down for the surgeon. Hopefully, he can get these drains out next week when we see the surgeon.

Annabelle and Molly got groomed today. Don't they look adorable in their red, white, and blue scarves?

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Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Good Wednesday morning! I slept a bit late this morning, still getting up at 6:30am. David had a great night, except he kept waking up about once an hour to use the bathroom but no pain. He is not blood soaked where the drains are so that is good news. The drains are working. They are filling nicely.

I made eggs with sausage and a whole wheat round with homemade strawberry jam for breakfast. David had an audience with the farm manager this morning.

Both of our seed machines are being serviced, so our people are hand counting and measuring seeds today. I went in to check on our production team since their manager is not yet in. Seeing them counting and measuring brought back a lot of memories of me counting seeds for hours every night when I came home from work. There was a never ending pile of seeds to be counted. My motto back then was "whatever it takes to get this company going" and I meant it. Today, I can look back and say that it was definitely worth every moment!

Tomorrow, we will be making homemade salsa in our commercial kitchen. We have a nice harvest of tomatoes.

Lucy and Ethel got groomed today and now they have red, white, and blue scarves and look so patriotic.

Getting Away From Your Small Business

For many, this holiday weekend coming up is the perfect excuse for getting away from your small business since most of us are getting a three day weekend because of Independence Day! It is on a Sunday this year, so some won't get a three day weekend.

Closed July 3-5 For The Holiday!

We here at David's Garden Seeds®, believe in our freedom and we know it is an important day in our country so we are giving everyone here off on Monday. This also means that our farm store will be closed Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. And believe me, with David recuperating, I can really use a break!

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Thursday, July 1, 2021

Well, good morning and Happy Thursday! It has been a very busy morning. David got dressed and went outside for the first time since he came home. Two of our team members drove him around the farm so he could inspect the fields and sheds. We have a lot of things dying in the field. Squash bugs wiped out all of our squash and zucchini plants. Then they jumped over on the pickling cucumbers.

We are going to be doing gardening differently than before. Hopefully, we will get a good fall garden. We will plant at the end of August and we should get some decent crops in October and November.

Summer is our slow time as far as our business is concerned. Every year about now, the orders and store visits slow down as people tend to have vacations and kids out of school on their minds. Orders are down; therefore, income is down. Visitors are down. Vegetable growth has been almost non-existent. Plus, this year is the year of vacations again since last year everyone was on lock down and could not go anywhere. This year, things are opening and people are traveling.

Also, if you live in Texas, once the heat really hits and the temperatures do not cool off below 90° at night, everything stops growing. You have to keep things alive by watering. Then, when it starts to cool off in September and October, things will grow again. Or you can pull it all up and replant at the end of August for your fall garden.

Of course, getting away from your small business or whatever job you have is a good thing. I encourage everyone to get away from your normal routine once or twice a year. I would love to be at the beach everyday. In a way, we are at the beach because our soil here is beach sand without the ocean.

Getting Away From Your Small Business

David should be getting away from his small business but, unfortunately, we cannot go anywhere with his abdomen in staples and with three drains coming out of him. So we will stay here. Hopefully, he can watch some good movies as he recuperates that will temporarily make him forget about painful decisions.

If you have a small business, practice getting away from your small business, even for just a few hours, once or twice a month and try getting away from your small business for a few days or even longer at least a few times a year. I know it is difficult to find good help so you feel confident enough to leave, but it is for your mental health.

Some of our ladies are in the commercial kitchen this morning, prepping to make and can homemade salsa tomorrow. They are getting the tomatoes scalded and skinned and have cut up onions and jalapenos. It already smells amazing in there.

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Friday, July 2, 2021

It smells so good in the commercial kitchen as the salsa is being made. After several hours, David and I went over there to sample the salsa. It was so good. Then David went around exploring each building. David also explored a bit of the back forty again. Jay took our last seed machine in to be serviced. Right now, we have zero as Jay is not yet back with one of the others.

On a positive note, our printers are fine. I just made lunch and David is in the zero gravity chair, eating and working on the computer. His drains are still putting out a lot of fluid. He is feeling good.

Several visitors have been in and out all week long visiting David. He has been doing too much instead of just resting.

Getting Away From Your Small Business

Getting away from your small business can actually spark new creativity to apply to your business when you get back. Wherever you decide to go, you can get new ideas and see how others do things. For instance, we had been wanting to buy land to live on and have our business there. David was convinced that we would have to be on a main thoroughfare and property rates there are very high.

Back in 2019, before corona, we went to Missouri to the Baker Creek Seed Festival. I had wanted to go for several years. David finally agreed so we went up to Branson and had fun for a few days for the first visit there ever. It was awesome. Then we drove to Mansfield and toured the home and museum of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was thrilled. Then we drove about 18 miles down a dirt road to Baker Creek Seeds and there were thousands upon thousands of people at the festival. It clicked right then and there that David did not need to be on a main thoroughfare.

If people like your business, they will come to you. That was in May. In June, we found property and we paid for it in July. We moved to the property in August and in July of 2020, we moved our business out of San Antonio and down on the farm!

We are miles away from a freeway and we love it out here. If you have not yet visited our farm, I urge you to come out Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. Shop in our farm store, take a farm tour, and relax in our gazebo by our waterfall. Just a friendly reminder that we are closed on the weekends because visitors stopped coming and I deserve some time off. Our staff will not work weekends or holidays so it is all me. Also, we are closed on Monday, July 5 for Independence Day. I am thrilled to be getting a three day holiday. Of course, I will still be working in the house, taking care of David. He cannot bend over and needs to be still to heal up so he can stop bleeding.

I have plenty of gardening to do as well including planting the things that snakes hate around the pond.

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Saturday, July 3, 2021
Getting Away From Your Small Business

Nacho was here working out on the property until about 2pm. I worked inside most of the day on the new website. I finally got to get in the pool in the late afternoon and the water was way too warm so I had to add hose water to it.

The new website has had to have a lot of adjustments. Some of the products that we are getting orders on are out of stock, yet the new website shows we have it. Also, some of the pages did not transfer to the new website, so we are transferring them to this website, such as the doomsday pages.

Svengoolie was an interesting girl werewolf movie but without a werewolf at all, only someone thinking she was a werewolf. The movie starred June Lockhart and it was pretty good.

Getting away from your small business is necessary and can be fun. Go to the beach or to the mountains, or even to visit family for a few days. Getting a change of scenery really helps you to focus on new things. This renews your mind.

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Sunday, July 4, 2021
Getting Away From Your Small Business If You Can

Good morning and Happy 4th of July!!! I love Independence Day, don't you? I spent most of the day working on the new website. David is still too messed up with drains and tubes to be able to put on nice clothes and go to church so we stayed home but I am very happy to have him at home.

We gave the canned green beans a water bath which took most of the afternoon. David stayed over with them and I came back home.

We grilled steaks this evening and at 9pm, we went out to our parking lot and popped a lot of fireworks off and it was great! It is just so delightfully dark out here so the fireworks were magical. All around us, neighbors were popping theirs off. Last year, one of our neighbors did not want us to do fireworks so we did not, yet everyone else did so this year, we decided we are free and we can do what we want out here in the country.

Remember that getting away from your small business from time to time, if you can, will clear your head and give you new ideas for your business as well as your marriage.

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Return from Getting Away From Your Small Business to Farm And Business Life

Since 2009, over 1,500,000 home gardeners, all across the USA, have relied on David's Garden Seeds® to grow beautiful gardens. Trust is at the heart of it. Our customers know David's Garden Seeds® stocks only the highest quality seeds available. Our mission is to become your lifetime supplier of quality seeds. It isn't just to serve you once; we want to earn your trust as your primary supplier.

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Sing Along To Our Jingle

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Peppers and peas

And lots of yummy greens

You can't go wrong

With Squash This Long

At David's Garden Seeds

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Our New 2024 TV Ad

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