Making A Profit

Making a profit from your small business is a good thing. It means your business has turned from an expensive hobby into a real money-making business! Don't let people tell you that making a profit is evil. It is not. Money is not the root of all evil as so many like to say. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. That is true. You need to learn how to relate to money in the proper way. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be greedy. Use your money wisely. Then you can take care of yourself and your family and you can help others because you have some money.

Our small business is David's Garden Seeds® and David created it over 12 years ago.

Our pink zinnias come in many shades and styles.

Starting our week off by seeing our pink zinnias growing in the yard. Aren't they gorgeous?

Making A Profit - 6/21-6/27/2021

Monday, June 21, 2021

Us waiting to be called back for David's surgery. We are in fearful San Antonio so everyone has to wear a mask even though the state has been open for months. It was packed. They are making a profit.

Good morning! We start this week by going to the hospital this morning so David can have surgery again. He has two abdominal hernias that are getting larger. They are making his breathing difficult by pressing down on his diaphragm.

We checked into the hospital and are back in pre-op at 9am. They did pre-op testing and gave him some sort of horrible strawberry drink.

It is now 12:55pm and they took him back to surgery which should have happened an hour ago. While he is there, we are starving so we went to eat lunch at their cafeteria. They have a nice selection of food.

It was a very long & scary day with David's heart in A-Fib. I have never worn a mask for so long. It was ridiculous, breathing in fibers and it stank.

At 3pm, an operating room nurse called to say the surgery did not start until 2pm. At 4:30pm, his surgeon came out to say that it went well but that he had a tough time repairing such large hernias. He also said that if David did not start losing weight, the hernias would come right back and the surgeon would not be able to repair them again. The surgeon said they would come get me by 5:30pm to go to David's room.

They did not come get me. Around 6pm, the surgeon came back and said he is in A-Fib so he cannot go to the floor. They will have to put him in ICU but there are no available beds so he has to stay in recovery. Around 8:30pm, a recovery nurse came to get David's phone and charger from me. She refused to take his suitcase and told us we would not see him and that we had to leave by 9pm. So we left.

We arrived back at the farm in the dark but I saw a white truck in the parking lot. Matthew drove me home and he said it was our farm manager's truck. So I emailed him to find out why he was at my farm in the dark. He was not. He left his truck here as he did not feel well. I told him from now on, I need to know this.

It was an incredibly long day and I feel very frustrated that I was not able to see David tonight. What kind of hospital receives patients that they don't have room for?

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

The sunrise was spectacular again this morning, even with cloudy, grey skies. I love sunrises out here on the farm.

I had a hard time going to sleep as I was waiting for a call from the hospital. I did not get one. However, I got four texts that awakened me during the night as well as the dogs woke me up barking twice.

One of the texts I got was from David at 3:30am telling me that they finally got him into an ICU bed. Then he texted again at 5:15am asking me what he takes for indigestion. His sister woke me at 6:30am asking if I was going to the hospital today. Not sure why she would care at 6:30am. Normally, I am up well before this, but I had a difficult time going to sleep.

I spoke with David and I was on the phone when the surgeon came in. I got to hear what he said on the phone to David. He is still in A-Fib but his heart rate has come down a lot. The surgeon told David that he has to lose weight or the hernias will come back and at that point, they cannot be fixed again.

Our pastor called me and I told him what was going on. He went over and visited him. I went around 3pm or so and they had to escort us back to ICU. Honestly, what we have to do now due to corona is ridiculous.

David was in a bloody gown with two drains hanging down and dirty bandages. Soon a nurse came in and changed his bandages but left the drains with blood in place and left him in the bloody gown from the day of his surgery. David's heart was down in the regular range by this time. His brand new cardiologist came in while I was there and said he is putting him on a blood thinner because he is at risk for stroke whenever his heart rate goes up high. He also wants him on a low carbohydrate diet.

So I am preparing for the low carb diet. I guess we will be doing a combination of Atkins and Keto as both are low carb.

The grandchildren are at church camp in Leakey this week and will come back here on Friday. I am hoping David is home by then or I will have to send them home. This trip for them was planned before we knew David would have surgery this week.

Making A Profit

Making a profit when you have your own business is looked at by many as being dirty. There is nothing wrong with making a profit when you are in business. Making a profit is the reason you are in business. Most people who say that being rich or making money is wrong are jealous, yet they do nothing to better themselves. You are not greedy or selfish because you are making a profit. You are a smart business person. We have found that the more generous we are in helping others and hiring team members for a decent wage, the more profit we tend to make. I believe God blesses us for doing these things. Of course, you should be giving to your church, to charity, and/or to someone you know in need.

Broke people cannot help others. It takes money to turn the lights on for someone, or donate $500 to your church project to buy a single mother a car. It takes money to buy a few sacks of groceries for someone who needs it. Poor people don't have the resources that you have when you practice God's principles in making a profit and in giving to others and they will never understand that these principles work until they get up and do it themselves.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Here are some of the purple zinnias growing near our farm store. Notice the different shades.

Here are some of the yellow zinnias we have growing. Behind them are some watermelons growing on that vine.

This morning, I went out and took some photos. Above, you will see some of the zinnias that I planted this spring.

So today, I have been working from home. David is still in ICU but has been told that as soon as there is a bed, he can be moved to the floor in a regular room. They finally got him changed out of that nasty, bloody gown and he has been up walking.

The new website seems to be doing well for us. We have had a lot of orders from it and we are filling them as quickly as we can. Making a profit on the new website, David's Garden Seeds, will be much easier to achieve with such a user friendly site. As fast as I can print orders out, others are popping up. This is how it should be. We should have had a new site built years ago.

None of our top seed competitors sell on Amazon and they are making a profit without Jeff Bezos. We should be able to do so as well. Amazon takes about 50 percent of everything we make on there and they keep making up silly new rules, de-listing our products at the drop of a hat. We are grateful to him and to Amazon, but we need to start keeping our money so we can pay good quality people to help us with our business.

I love it when our neighbors bale their freshly mowed hay! I think it looks beautiful.

Today, they are moving all of the hay bales. Maybe we will see more in a month or two.

It is noon and I just got a text from David saying a room on the regular floor is now available so he is being moved. I don't believe he will come home today but I could be mistaken. Just in case, I am at home working but also doing laundry and cleaning up a bit. I want everything to be good if he does come home.

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Just down the road from our home, traffic was stopped due to an accident and then the medical helicopter appeared.

Today was a very long day. It took over two hours to get to the hospital with a traffic accident out here requiring a medical helicopter and then there were several road construction places that slowed us down.

About 40 minutes after I arrived at the hospital, they took David for another procedure, this time involving his heart. They tried it three times and failed. Two and a half hours later, they brought him back to the room. I had to leave as they were getting him hooked up to monitors and IVs as the dogs had already been alone in the house for seven hours. By the time I got home, I let them out and everything was fine. I figured they would have done potty all over the den but they just watched TV and were good.

I was so disappointed that the procedure failed. They are trying new medicines now.

We are getting a lot of orders from the new website. I have taken down a few pages from the old website but I have not had much time this week to work on it. We are still getting orders from the old website even though it says to use the new website. People hate change!

Friday, June 25, 2021

So David called this morning saying the cardiologist is letting him go but he is still waiting on the surgeon. Doctors usually visit their patients in the morning, but not today. It is 1:16pm as I type this and the surgeon still has not come in.

The zero gravity chair that I am renting for David cost almost $800 for one month. That is nuts but will make it easier for David to get up and down.

Meanwhile, David had me order him one of those zero gravity durable medical chairs to use while he is recovering. I found one and they are supposed to deliver it from San Antonio this afternoon. I hope it arrives before David does.

I moved furniture and things around to accommodate this chair delivery. I dusted and vacuumed in the den where the chair will go. I cleared the floor all the way through the house.

The grandchildren should be getting picked up by their parents about now from church camp down the road from here. We were going to pick them up and keep them here for a week, but that will have to be later. David will need lots of rest and quiet and there is no quiet with them in the house.

Unfortunately, the parents arrived at the church at pm and no one was there. They called the pastor who was still at the camp, two hours away saying they had not yet left. There seemed to be no organization. So they drove four hours to get down there by 1pm, only to have to wait another two plus hours while the church folk up at camp packed up and got back when they pleased.

I never got to talk to the kids but I heard they had a good time. Still, to be over two hours late and not let people know is not a good thing.

Saturday, June 26, 2021

Today started out with a third trip this week to the operating room. His hernia surgeon said last night that he was taking David to the OR this morning to clean him up and take out a hematoma. David texted that it would be at 8:30am. But I had not even fed any animals yet when I got the text. So around 10am, I called the hospital to see what was going on.

I was told by a nurse that David was still in surgery. David's surgeon called me a bit later to say that David is doing well and was still in recovery. He removed a hematoma and put in a third drain. He also took out all of the staples. He said David will go home with three drains that the doctor will take out later in his office. Swell. Back in 2018, he came home with two drains and was miserable for about eight weeks until the doctor removed them. I had to empty and clean them throughout the day. So fun.

About an hour later, David called and said he was back in his room but they would not let him eat at all today. He wants his computer.

David was in a good mood after another morning of surgery. He was ready to come home but the hospital just wants to keep him even though his doctors have said he is good to go.

We finally got to the hospital around 3:30pm and he was sitting up, cheerful but had not had any type of sponge bath the whole week. I took his computer to him but he did not look at it. So I bathed him since the nurses aren't doing their job. We visited but my ankles were swelling and starting to hurt. I think we left around 5:30pm and got back to the farm right at 7pm, just in time for Svengoolie. Of course, I had to feed the dogs and cat so I missed the beginning...

Sunday, June 27, 2021

David is feeling much better this morning! He sent me several texts and emails about the company. He wants this past week's payroll and other things. It is the first time in seven days that he has looked at anything.

He also wants a video camera so he can start recording some things. I have not used any of our cameras in a long time. So I have been going through the house finding them and charging batteries.

David's surgeon cleared him to come around 3:30pm and the cardiologist cleared him on Friday but the hospitalist won't let him go. Now all this is doing is upsetting him. He has been in the hospital for seven days and now he is fighting to get out. He said he will check himself out. A hospitalist, if you don't know, is a doctor employed by the hospital to monitor patients when their primary doctors are not there. Both of his regular doctors cleared him but she said she wants him to heal there longer (so she can be making a profit for the hospital.) She wants him to stay until next Wednesday at least...

It is already almost 4pm. It takes us an hour to get there. So we are looking at 5pm, 6pm or later leaving. Why? This is so stupid. Same thing happened in January of 2019 after David's big put back together surgery. I spent about five hours that day going back and forth with the hospitalist. This is so ridiculous.

It is Sunday so the pharmacies close at 6pm in San Antonio. So that means he will not have any type of medicine to take because they can't make a good decision. Also, David will be tired and cranky when he gets home and in pain.

Making A Profit

If you have started your own business, don't be afraid of making a profit. Making a profit is how you go from a teeny tiny business to being an employer and hiring others to help you as your business grows. If you are not making a profit, you cannot hire others and you cannot grow bigger.

Some people will be happy you are making a profit. Others will be upset that you are making a profit. Some will accuse of being rich and stuck up. Others will say you are trying to buy them if you go to dinner and you pay. Still others will be happy to have you pay everytime because now you are a big evil business making a profit. You need to forget all about what they all say, decide what you want to do, and then just go for it. You cannot please everyone. All of the things I have said this week about making a profit have happened to us.

Food Dehydrator

I sliced strawberries fresh from the garden.

I picked some basil leaves but ants got on my feet and started biting me so I got just a few.

I picked goji berries from our orchard.

Shishito peppers are so much thinner than the bell peppers. Both types of peppers are from our garden.

Fresh bell peppers have an amazing flavor.

So this afternoon, while waiting to hear from David at the hospital, I picked some things from the garden in the heat and then washed and cut them up. I went over to the commercial kitchen and placed strawberries, goji berries, shishito peppers, bell peppers, and basil into my food dehydrator. David took my food dehydrator over there to use but I don't think he has used it yet.

The quickest item is the strawberries. They should take 16 hours. They may be done by 7:30am tomorrow.

It is now just 80° so I am thinking a storm is coming. It rained briefly this morning and it has been cloudy all afternoon. Molly jumped the fence when I was out back and she went and harassed the guineas and chickens. We have electric fence all around the backyard to keep her in but she jumped it somehow.

5PM Update

The hospitalist who doesn't want David to leave called the surgeon. The surgeon called David and asked him to stay for one more night after he already cleared him to leave. So that is making a profit of another day for the hospital and for the hospitalist after his two real doctors cleared him. So we will go and spring him in the morning. Tomorrow will be his eighth day there. Originally, the surgeon said two nights. Every time he goes to the hospital, there is a problem with them letting him out after the surgeon clears him.

This is a different hospital but they are all for making a profit.

Return from Making A Profit to Farm And Business Life

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