Ready For Christmas

It is time to get ready for Christmas. We have been putting up lights and decorations since last week but we are still not done. This morning, Karen has been decorating the store by herself because I have been stuck working in the house since various people have been here working in our home.

We are in the strawberry capital of Texas, Poteet so we made strawberry jam this week.

Ready For Christmas 12/07-12/13/2020

Monday, December 07, 2020

The Nativity with trees and lights at David's Garden Seeds® Farm Store. We are ready for Christmas!

So I put a bunch of decorations and lights in the store this morning for Karen, (my assistant and so much more) and she has been working to get the store ready for Christmas.

I put some lit deer up on the store porch yesterday afternoon and Karen added the spiral trees to get ready for Christmas. I am going to snag one of the Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus sets out by our road and put it on our porch. Don't worry. It belongs to me, not a neighbor and is on our property already. I just don't think they need two nativity scenes on the road in front of our business.

It was 40° when I woke up and will get up to 70° Fahrenheit soon. It looks beautiful outside, with lots of sun and clear, blue skies.

It is payday so soon I will have to write checks once we get the pay stubs from our accountant. We have Top Notch Lawn Care out here caulking our business buildings on the outside. For some reason, the factory did not caulk them. I find that odd.

Paychecks have been written, handed out and everyone has gone home.

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Merry Christmas from David's Garden Seeds® Farm! We put blowups along the road on our farm behind our ready for Christmas farm store. Come on in and shop for seeds. They make great gifts.

A lot of team members and contractors got our farm ready for Christmas today, hanging lights, fixing Christmas blowups, and making sure that everything has an extension cord. (They actually missed a few and forgot to plug them in. I discovered that after it was dark.)

I photo-bombed several of the blowups in front of the store.

Mrs. David's Garden Seeds® photobombing Santa, the tree, and Frosty in front of our farm store, ready for Christmas!

We had to spray the chickens with the purple spray paint again because most of them are pecking each other once again. We are wearing gloves but still manage to get purple spray on our hands and arms. The chickens hate it but the idea is to spray the bald, red spots so they don't peck each other more. There are new feathers growing on some of them.

Top Notch Lawn Care is here again with three people today, doing lights and adding skirting to the first building with the restrooms and the commercial kitchen. After the skirting was in, they painted it to match the building.

Nacho and crew skirted the newest building and then painted it to match the building. It looks great. It houses restrooms, employee breakroom, commercial kitchen, and David's office.

Wednesday, December 09, 2020

This is a beautiful showroom where you are treated very well when you go in to buy something. When you want something fixed, it is a different story.

So today we took my wedding ring with the missing stone into Americus Diamond in San Antonio to get the stone fixed. They open at 11am. We got there shortly after 11am. David stayed in the truck. A young woman met me when I walked in. I explained that we had come in to buy my solitaire for my birthday on November 16 and the salesperson that day cleaned my wedding band. Apparently, the cleaning loosened something. Two days later, I was at work typing and noticed the first stone was gone. Today is the first day we could get into San Antonio since we live an hour away now.

Her first response was not one of empathy or caring. She flat out said they are no longer repairing rings until sometime in January. What? So I loudly said, "So you mean to tell me that you are not going to repair my ring for the holiday season?" I went from pleasant to very upset quickly. She could tell because she then said, "Let me verify that." She should have verified it before she upset me.

Losing a stone was not my fault. I had the ring for two years with no problem until the saleslady cleaned it on November 16. Anyway, when we bought it two years ago, the saleslady said that if a stone ever came out, they would replace it right away because they have jewelers onsite. Apparently, they forgot to train today's saleslady the correct way in dealing with people who spend thousands of dollars at their store.

She left me standing there for quite a while. She did not offer me a seat or a drink but just left me standing there. She finally came back after about five minutes and said they would fix it but she needed my name and phone number. I gave the information to her and she left me alone again for more than five minutes. She came back and said there was no record of me buying the wedding band there. Really? So I had her look under my husband's name and after another five minutes, she came out of the door with an older gentleman. He had the paperwork and she went on about her life, ignoring me. If that is how she does customer service, she won't last long in the diamond business.

The man examined my ring and then told me he would take it to the jeweler. He left me alone, but by now I sat myself in one of the chairs that you sit in when you buy a ring. He finally returned and said the ring would be ready at 6pm. So I told him we live in Poteet now so we will have to come back tomorrow. He gave me a claim check and a bill for $35 which he said I would not be charged but he had to give me a bill as a formality. So the stone is only worth $35? Interesting since this ring cost $1000.00 two years ago. I left and told David how you get treated in there if you are not buying anything. My guess is we will go somewhere else next time I want some diamonds.

We went to Cracker Barrel for lunch in San Antonio on the way home and tried their chicken fried turkey. I thought it was good. David did not care for it.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Good morning and Happy Thursday. This afternoon, I will try to fix up some more outdoor Christmas lights to get ready for Christmas.

This morning, we have to drive back into San Antonio to pick up my wedding ring from Americus Diamond. Hopefully, there won't be a problem today since I have the claim check they gave me yesterday for the ring.

It was 38° Fahrenheit when I woke up this morning but it is warming up quickly. The high is supposed to be 77°. It is bright and sunny.

I got my ring back and it looks beautiful. I complained about the saleslady from yesterday. She just won't last long in that store if that is her style of customer service to people who spend a lot of money on jewelry.

After lunch, Matt and I went out to the chicken coop to respray some chickens again. Some are all red again. They peck each other for dominance and did a good job yesterday. We did not have to spray some of the same chicks as their feathers are growing back nicely but others, like most of the Barred Rock chicks, had to be sprayed again.

Friday, December 11, 2020

Come by our farm store. We are open and ready to help you find the perfect gift for all your loved ones--seeds for spring!

Today, was a busy day at work. I added more listings to some of our online stores and corrected and updated some things on our website. I had no time to get ready for Christmas.

Linda is stirring the berries. Karen and I went to investigate and David is getting jars ready to be sanitized.

David and the crew made strawberry jam in our commercial kitchen for the first time today. He used a recipe he found on the internet. I was not involved but I did snap a few photos. One of the Poteet strawberry farmers has a lot of leftover strawberries and brought us 30 pounds so David used ten pounds to make jam. He had six of our team members in the commercial kitchen, cutting up fruit and washing and sterilizing jars. David did the actual cooking.

If you want to grow strawberries, you can find our Non-GMO strawberry seeds here.

David says that it is not gelling like it should so I guess we will give it a few days and then open one and test it. He also told me that he wants me to make some jam tomorrow with a different recipe.

At 1pm, I had my first ever hair color appointment with a beautician. Of course, I have had my hair cut and permed and styled many times over the years, but I have always colored it myself until today. I drove all the way into Jourdanton by myself for the first time. Halfway there, I got caught in the middle of a convoy of farm equipment going 20 miles per hour where the speed limit is 70. I was stuck there for quite a while. Finally, a truck behind me passed me and the four farm vehicles in front of me. I took off right behind him. He passed me and all four farm vehicles. I only made three before traffic was in the other lane. Once four cars went by, I passed the final farm vehicle and made it to my appointment one minute early. I should have been at least ten minutes early.

We recently found a new barber/beauty shop in Jourdanton that David goes to. Last month, I had my hair cut there and really liked it so I made my first hair color appointment. I was there for two and a half hours and it looks good, different for sure. My hair is darker brown than normal and she put some highlights around my face. I think I like it.

Part of getting ready for Christmas is getting the shopping done. I thought I had finished my shopping online. I received all but two items from Amazon and they were supposed to be here today.

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Today, I cleaned up around the house, shopped for groceries and last minute Christmas gifts, and finished decorating our retail store since it did not get done all week long. I added extension cords to some of the lights and at 2pm, I finally entered the commercial kitchen.

David was there to sanitize the jars and I made a Strawberry Quick Jam with pectin, orange peel and a ridiculous amount of sugar. It tastes delicious but still is not setting up like it should. I followed the directions exactly.

Some of our new strawberry preserves.

I bought new flannel sheets for all of the beds today as part of getting ready for Christmas.

Sunday, December 13, 2020

I wrapped a lot for the grandkids today. You can see the kitchen and the built in electric fireplace next to the tree. We are almost ready for Christmas!

Today, after church, I tried to get ready for Christmas. I spent the entire afternoon wrapping gifts. Most are done, but not all. Sitting on the living room floor, cutting paper and wrapping for hours on end is not much fun, although I know that some find it fun.

There is a chill in the air as the next cold front moves in so it feels sort of Christmasy. David is watching a show in the den so I do not have Christmas music playing. Amazon has lost one of my packages with two more gifts. It should have been here on Friday but now it is Sunday night and still no lost package. My Amazon app says it should have arrived today by Amazon carrier. I have checked all over the property three times but now it is time to lock the gate at 8pm.

So, we finally kicked off our Christmas movie season this evening at 8pm with two movies, Christmas Vacation and then Christmas With The Kranks. Those are two of our favorite, must watch Christmas movies. Of course, there are others and hopefully we will get to them all before December 25!

Return from Ready For Christmas to Farm And Business Life

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