Improvements On The Farm

One of the major improvements on the farm right now is our tall gate posts. We know it will attract attention when it is complete.

This week, we are working on more improvements on the farm. Signs will go up soon, the pond area is getting done, and our new gate with entryway is going up. The gate will say "David's Garden Seeds® Farm" and it will include our logo at the center. We will have an electronic lock as well.

The pond will have plants and fish and the fish will be able to swim back and forth from the falls area to the pond by way of an under the gazebo river. The gazebo will have seating and a place to take selfies with our David's Garden Seeds® logo.

New signs are being made not only for out on the road but also for every building and for parking.

Improvements On The Farm 4/26-5/2/2021

This waterfall along with gazebo and pond is one of the improvements on the farm that we are working on this week.

Monday, April 26, 2021

Improvements on the farm include our beautiful new gazebo with pond and falls which was finally finished around 7pm this evening. Now we have to get plants and fish!

Good Monday morning and welcome to a very busy week of improvements on the farm. Nacho brought two helpers today and they are adding rocks and stones to the waterfall as well as building benches into the gazebo. I have ordered an official David's Garden Seeds® official selfie site so our visitors can take a selfie in the gazebo that they can post with our company name while they are enjoying the fish we will soon add to our little pond area.

Nacho's daughter, Ariel, used to work for us when we were in San Antonio. She recently got married and she and her husband were visiting San Antonio this week so she texted me and they came by to see us this morning. We had a good visit and I gave them a tour of the farm.

The keypad for the gate is going to cost over $5,000.00 so we are going to wait a bit on that.

I filled a bunch of Etsy orders this morning. The Fulfillment department filled the rest of the orders. Production is busy counting and packing seeds and making seed collections.

The babies are hopping all over the place. We have 17 babies right now. One mom had 8 and the other one had 9 babies, another of many improvements on the farm!

Our baby bunnies are bouncing all over their homes today. They are so cute.

Look at these sturdy 7 week old chicks! Yet another of our improvements on the farm is planning ahead to produce more eggs for future sales.

Last night, was our 11 new chicks first night to stay in the big chicken coop. They are actually in a large dog kennel that was put in there to protect them from being pecked by the big hens who turn one year old on April 30. Our babies will turn seven weeks old on Wednesday, April 28. They did very well last night and I know they will love being turned loose in the coop in a few weeks.

We placed the baby chickens in the middle of the coop, outside of the nesting area. The hens spend most of their day out in the run, except when they are laying an egg so it should give the babies plenty of time and space to get used to the coop without being harrassed too much by 22 full grown hens.

Our guineas still have not hatched any eggs but there are six guinea eggs in the nesting area in their coop. Our neighbor guineas are still here 24 hours a day. We are waiting on their owners to finish a coop they are making for the guineas. It has already been about four weeks since they started. Of course, the guineas have been living over here since last September. Back then, they would go home for meals and to spend the night. Around January, they stopped going home for anything. Unfortunately, we cannot let our guineas out because the neighboring guineas bully our male guinea, chasing him all over.

Improvements On The Farm Continue

From now on, you will drive under our very tall gate to get into David's Garden Seeds Farm. It is not finished yet but will look great...

Here is a close up of the beginnings of our new gate which will include our farm name and our logo.

Sandon, our gate welder, came this afternoon and added more metal to the posts that are standing. I went across the street after he left for the day and got these shots. Once it is finished, it is going to look awesome!

I snapped this photo while 3 of our team members were enjoying lunch on the covered veranda outside of our commercial kitchen today--Jay, Aaron, and Brendon.

This evening, Nacho, Ryan, and David (Nacho's two helpers for the day) were out on the gazebo building and sanding benches and driving back and forth up the hill along our privacy fence, taking materials up there. Nacho or one of his helpers hit something with their big tires, smooshing the life out of it and I am so glad!

Around 8pm, I went out to put the animals away for the night and then I was walking along the drive by the privacy fence to get to the front of the property when I saw it. I freaked out and wondered if this was it....It was a giant snake. Fortunately, it was not moving and then I took off. I am so grateful that it was dead. I have not seen one snake the entire time we have been out here and then I saw this gigantic scary thing!

Our scary dead snake at dusk. I did not realize it was dead. I thought it would get me...

It was getting pretty dark so I am lucky this photo came out as well as it did. I will get better photos in the morning, provided the snake is still there.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

I found this beautiful multicolored rose in my rose bed. I am obsessed!

I am excited to see the finished gazebo this morning as well as the nasty snake from last night. Hopefully, a hungry animal did not show up and demolish him. As I sit here typing, I am having a quick breakfast. I woke up at 5:51am and got up and made coffee. Then I remembered the snake from last night.

After getting dressed, both David and I went out and found the snake with its mouth wide open. He looked a lot bigger last night but he is not a rattlesnake so that is good. Below is today's photo.

So here is the scary nighttime snake in the morning, mouth open. So glad Nacho ran him down. Nacho did not even realize it until we texted him.

We ran some errands this morning and now we are back at the business. The welder gate guys are here working on it again. They welded on a few cross bars today. It is coming along.

More work was done on the gate posts today.

We have a new cake baker for our birthday cakes...David ordered through the baker's husband by text. He ordered a full sheet cake. The thing weighs a ton and feeds 90! Just a bit big for our needs!

Here is our giant full size sheet cake.

Our giant birthday cake is beautiful.

Fortunately, there were no snakes or anything else this evening to report on. We made Mexican food for dinner and it was so delicious. Did we mention that we love tacos, enchiladas and almost any other kind of Mexican food?

Earlier today, a stray black dog with white trim showed up. She just had a litter of puppies because her teets are full...Hopefully, that is the correct way to say it. David fed and watered her. She left and came back. Not sure who she belongs to or where the puppies are. She is a sweet, thin dog.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Look at this beautiful farm pasture that was plowed up in February right after the winter storm. It has come back nicely.

Happy Wednesday morning! This morning has been busy, getting ready for our monthly birthday luncheon and doing last minute things before we leave.

Today our baby chicks turn seven weeks old! They are doing very well in the dog kennel out in the chicken coop.

The gate welders have not yet shown up to do improvements on the farm in the front, but our outdoor team is making improvements on the farm in the back. They are spraying with organic Safer Soap as there are green stink bugs all over.

The welders showed up at 10:40am as we were leaving to go to Salt Grass. Brendon had a birthday earlier this month so we celebrated him. Several of our team members and our guests could not make it so we had a few empty seats. Each month, we invite our accountant and his wife who help make our lives easier. They can't always make it. We also invite our pastor and his wife. Then we add others as well. We made the reservation for 26.

The servers are not good like the old ones used to be. They don't immediately start taking drink orders until they feel like it. The old servers would immediately take our orders and get everyone else as they came in. I know Salt Grass lost a lot of their good people and the ones they have now are new but they ought to train them. Last month, I gave the server my drink order and she never brought it. Finally, they started at one end of the table and got down to us toward the end and then we had a long wait.

David and I are the ones paying for the ticket and giving a huge tip so they should be taught that we are the ones who should be catered to. My ribeye came out cold. In fact, the butter would not melt on it that the chef put on top of the ribeye that I ordered. I showed the manager. He did comp me for my meal but the reason we started going to Salt Grass is because of the excellent service we received before coronavirus. Service has been spotty since opening back up.

The David's Garden Seeds® team gathers once a month to celebrate birthdays.

Happy birthday, Brendon.

We had a great time at Salt Grass, for the most part, and came back sometime near 2:30pm. The welders were gone but one part of the gate was painted green.

The tall posts look almost like football goal posts, definite improvements on the farm.

We love the green the posts and gate will be painted. It matches the green in our logo.

I heated up my cold rib eye from Salt Grass for dinner and it tasted pretty good hot. Lightning started flashing in the early evening and my phone said we were under a tornado watch. A little after 7pm, I went out and put all of the birds away. The wind picked up and there were sprinkles. Meanwhile on Facebook, people in San Antonio and in Leakey and Uvalde were posting photos of baseball sized hail in their hands. One lady posted that the hail broke her kitchen window. Scary.

The stray dog was here again. We cannot keep it out because we have no gate to close right now. It is taking a really long time to get a gate back up.

No hail here and very little rain before I went to bed.

After I put the chicks away, I sat on the front porch and watched the dark clouds roll in. There was a lot of lightning.

The wind was blowing pretty hard when I put the chickens away a bit early this evening.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Not too many improvements on the farm today because it is raining. It started some time in the middle of the night and has been raining on and off since. I woke up and had to go to the couch because my nose was clogged from mold in the air. I can't remember if it was after 2am or 4am but the rain hit hard. We did not get any hail that San Antonio and surrounding areas got. We are so grateful!

No welders are here yet to make improvements on the farm because of the rain but our outdoor team is out back working as well as removing screens and washing around the windows on the buildings. A lot of sand has accumulated.

We still have not had time to go to Marion, Texas to pick our plants and fish. This will be one of the biggest spring improvements on the farm. Nacho said they have a huge selection at Water Garden Gems and they will be able to help us choose the best selection of fish and plants that we need.

I am excited to go to pick out plants and fish, but there is so much to do here. On Saturday, of course, the farm store is open until 2pm and we are expecting company before noon so we won't get to go again. Maybe we can squeeze in a trip tomorrow.

The stray dog who had puppies has been here all day long. She seems friendly and loves David because he has been feeding her. I wonder where the puppies are and where her owners are.

Is this your dog? We know she just had puppies and is hungry, friendly, and sweet.

Happy One Year Birthday To Our Chickens And Guineas!

One year ago today, we bought 24 baby chicks and two baby guineas. Sometime last fall, after we put the chickens in their own coop, one of the Ameracaunas disappeared. Either the other chickens ate him, bones and all, or one of our people opened the door and let one escape. Everyone claims they did not. Anyway, we have just seven Ameracaunas since September. We moved our two guineas because they were pecking the guineas and the rooster. One of our Barred Rock hens turned out to be a rooster so we gave him away on April 1 because the chickens were being pecked.

Now the rooster has been gone for four weeks and the chickens are still getting pecked. Back in early 2021, we put chicken spectacles on all of the hens so they could not peck each other but they still are...All last fall, we spent hundreds of dollars on sprays and purple liquid to stop them from pecking each other. In fact, we cleaned out Amazon and all of the Tractor Supplies in the area. They have none. All of the chickens are pecked so I have no idea what is going on.

Someone told me that I should give them boiled eggs and raw hamburger because that will take care of the problem. I have done everything but pecking is still going on. Anyway, we are hopeful that sometime soon, they will stop pecking each other, but we are at a loss.

Other than that, the girls are doing well and laying lots of eggs.

The guineas have nine eggs in their pen but they have now been there for over a month. One shell turned soft and they broke it and it was just yoke with clear liquid on a shelf in the nesting area. The other eggs get buried and then dug up. It has been over five weeks so I am pretty sure they are not going to hatch. I was hoping for baby guineas but it did not happen. It takes 21 to 28 days for a guinea to hatch. I guess I need to collect the eggs.

The neighboring guineas still live in our yard which means we cannot let our guineas out because the neighboring guineas bully our male guinea.

We had a meeting with the Red Hot Signs owners this evening. It is a good thing because they were making my selfie sign horizontal instead of vertical. They came here to David's office. I had just gotten in from taking care of the chickens so I was a muddy mess. I had to change clothes and get over there. It will be great when the signs are done and hung because no one knows where to go when they drive onto the property. These signs will be big improvements on the farm.

Friday, April 30, 2021

The morning started with a beautiful, bright sunrise peaking through from behind the clouds.

Good morning! It has stopped raining on the farm but it is still overcast. The air is cool but it will be hot and humid shortly.

The stray dog either lies down on the stone path in our parking lot or she relaxes on the ground by the gazebo.

Our stray dog is sticking around. Someone dumped her after she had puppies. She is friendly. Here she is by our new gazebo, one of many recent improvements on the farm.

My calendar says today is Arbor Day, a day dedicated to planting trees. We won't be planting any trees today but since February of this year, We have planted 109 of them, with most of them in our orchard. So we've done our part this year!

Two of our team members called in sick today. The sun has gone away again and the cooler air is blowing outside which means we will get more rain.

A truck came by painting the yellow lines down the middle of our road.

A truck came by painting yellow lines in the middle of our road. Looks pretty good.

Improvements on the farm started with the gate. The welding guys are here today, working on the actual gate to attach to the posts. They have also put up some metal gridded fencing so the dogs can't get through the slats on the sides of the posts. The posts have turned rusty from yesterday's rain.

The tall posts are turning rusty orange from the rain. They are working on the gate right now. You can see some of the new trees, we have and will plant-more improvements on the farm.

I just talked to the welder. He is now working on the actual gate, which he plans to hang next Monday so the posts, side fencing, and gates will be more improvements on the farm.

Also, improvements on the farm continue out back. A few weeks ago, we bought a black water tank to hold well water for watering our crops. Today, Jerry and Stephen are pouring concrete to make a base for the water tank out by the greenhouse.

Jerry and the outdoor crew are making improvements on the farm now like laying this cement slab for our water tank.

Jerry says he has laid a lot of concrete over the years. It is Stephen's first time. It is good for young men to learn all of the things they can learn out here on the land.

Speaking of Stephen, back in early March, a contractor who was servicing our generator backed up in our driveway and hit Stephen's car. It was parked off of the driveway, out of the way. As soon as the contractor hit it, he came and told David and me together that he hit one of our cars. Turns out it was Stephen's car. The contractor told Stephen he would personally pay for damages and not to use the contractor's car insurance. Fortunately, he did give his insurance card to Stephen.

The contractor refuses to pay now. I read a chain of texts this morning between them. Stephen has been nothing but nice. The contractor says he won't pay. So Stephen has to go to the contractor's insurance. This is horrible and definitely not the way for this Christian contractor to act. What kind of message does this send to Stephen who is the son of a pastor? Not a good one. We know the contractor did it because he came and told us he did, thinking it was our car.

We have family coming in tomorrow for a birthday party. The person who made our Wednesday birthday cake is also making a unicorn cake for tomorrow. She is bringing it by this afternoon.

At around 3pm, improvements on the farm came to a standstill as it started pouring. Now it is raining lightly. The concrete pad was dry before the rain started. The welder came into the store because he loves growing plants so we talked about seeds. His helper went home. The welder said if it doesn't rain, he will be back tomorrow for more improvements on the farm. The weather forecast says it is supposed to rain all weekend so I don't know if there will be more improvements on the farm this week. The guy who is doing the letters is not done with them yet so it may be a while before this whole gate is done.

Saturday, May 1, 2021

Well, it rained most of the night and is still raining off and on so I don't think any improvements on the farm will be made today. The more it rains, the more orange (rusty) our gate metal gets...

I have opened the store for business and it will be open until 2pm today. David went out grocery shopping at 7am to get provisions for our out of town company who will be here in about an hour. We are having a birthday party and look at this beautiful cake we ordered!

Holley's birthday cake was made by Amanda Ehlinger in Devine, Texas. It came out great!

It is now almost noon and the rain continues to fall. In fact, we are in a flash flood warning right now. Not surprisingly, we have had no customers and no contractors today.

I priced some of our strawberry preserves and it is now for sale in the David's Garden Seeds® Farm Store as well as the strawberry topping that I made. We still have some green beans left and one jar of onions that David canned.

For the past hour, it has rained really hard, so hard that I could not hear when I was on the phone. These metal roofs are loud when they are pounded with rain. It has stopped momentarily. I had to collect the orders I filled this morning. I had them on the covered porch but the rain soaked them so I had to redo the envelopes. We use bubble envelopes so it kept them dry but the envelopes and labels were soaked. I just won't mail anything on days like this.

I just realized that God made improvements on the farm this week, a lot of them. He sent us a lot of rain and plants are springing up in the raised garden beds all over the farm. They are also springing up out in the field rows in between my orchard trees. We have been trying to water all of the plants with a hose but there is nothing like God's rain coming down to green everything up and get it all growing.

Our company got here. We had zero customers today. I went to the house and we all had a nice lunch of cold cuts, followed by a birthday party for Holley who will turn eight on Monday. Everything was unicorns and Miss Holley was pleased.

Holley loves unicorns so this year, we had a unicorn party for Holley's 8th birthday. She loved it.

Holley surrounded by unicorn gift bags. Every gift was unicorn related.

Holley finally blew the candles all out. The cake was good but it was really sweet.

The birthday girl!

Sunday, May 2, 2021

This is the new grow tower in our store. It is growing herbs now that the grow lights have been put up. It is something fun for our visitors to look at & one of our improvements on the farm.

Good Sunday morning! It is not raining! The temperature will get up to 95° today. It will be hot and humid.

We went to church and afterward, we took our company to Salt Grass for a delicious lunch. They left to go back home and we went back to the farm. The day was definitely hot and miserable. I went out to collect eggs and water the chickens around 5:30pm. I washed out water containers and refilled them. By the time I was finished, I was soaking wet. Not to mention there was a lot of mud back by the hose area. The ground was over saturated from the rain. To give you an idea of how much rain we got between Friday and Saturday, our completely clean and empty pool now has six inches of water in it. So we have to empty it again and move some of the poles.

We straightened up the house this evening and took the two leaves out of our dining table again. I found several Legos and a hair scrunchy in the living room. They always leave something behind.

No more improvements on the farm were made today. We thought maybe the welder would show up since he did not come yesterday, but he did not show up.

Return from Improvements On The Farm to Farm And Business Life

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