Category: business

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Fall Festival

Well with fall finally here, to kick off the weekend, we always have a fall festival here at the bed and breakfast.  Friday night starts off with a ‘pig pickin’ which is where we have a whole 75 pound pig barbecued and then there’s the usual fixins which are barbecue slaw, potato salad, baked beans and banana puddin’.  Some of the local musicians (and there are a lot of them in these hills) stop by for some pickin and grinnin.  I guess you could call it a mini fiddlers convention.

Then Saturday, some of the locals bring their arts and crafts for a craft fair here on the grounds.  We have everything from handmade quilts, home made jellies and preserves, fresh vegetables, and some of the most amazing paintings and crafts you have ever seen.  Anyone is welcome and many come from all around just to spend the day if I’m booked up which I usually am for this weekend.  This year wasn’t any different which surprised me.  There weren’t quite as many here just for the day as there usually are but that’s the only difference.

Today, we had a good old fashioned gospel singing.  There were choirs from several different churches here and again some locals just got up and sang solo.  The air was just crisp enough that I made hot spiced apple cider for everyone.  The whole weekend was a complete success not only in fun but financially for me and several in the community too with the arts and craft fair.  It’s one of my favorite weekends throughout the year.

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I’m a farmer

Well I checked to make sure my insurance was good with the animals, made sure I had all the proper permits, and even got a pair of pot belly pigs, pygmy donkey’s, and a miniature horse so I guess I’m now officially a ‘farmer’.  I got the little donkey from the ‘Little Ass Farm’ up the road.  I love the name of that place.  It’s a sweet little donkey too.  Her name is Blossom.

So far, the animals have been a huge success.  I even have people stopping by just to see the animals.  Yeah, I do charge for them to pet my animals.  Hey, you gotta pay for feed for all those critters ya know.  I even got a pair of pheasants and some quail too.  Man those are some pretty birds.  I can sell the babies they hatch because I’m not eating their eggs, that’s for sure.  Maybe we could have ‘pheasant under glass’ for dinner if they raise babies.  I’m not killing them if we do.  That’s going to be someone else’s job, not mine.  I’ll just sell the babies, I’m not eating any of the animals!!

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Chicken coop

Well the chicken coop is finished and it’s great.  He even found me some Rhode Island Red chickens that are grown and already laying.  I also got some Jungle Foul too.  Those are supposed to be the original chickens, or so I was told.  One things for sure, the rooster is absolutely gorgeous.  The hens are rather small but the rooster is about as big as the Rhode Island Red rooster.  I also got some Bantam hens and a rooster.  They lay little eggs and are just the cutest things running around.  Of course they are each in different ‘runs’ and have separate parts inside the barn too.

Now he has talked me into getting a few pygmy goats and pygmy sheep too for a petting zoo type thing.  He’s trying to talk me into getting a couple of those pot belly pigs too.  I think he’s trying to make a farmer out of me.  I’m thinking about the pigs.  I guess I need to check and make sure there won’t be a problem with having a small petting zoo and what if any, special insurance I would need too.  I better call my insurance agent right now before I get in over my head.

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Another Monday

Well here it is another Monday after a pretty busy weekend thank goodness.  The funny thing is I got an interesting suggestion from one of my ‘guests’ this weekend.  They asked me why I don’t have chickens to have fresh eggs for the guests since I have a garden to provide fresh vegetables for them?  They were saying the chickens would also provide education and entertainment for the children since a lot of the city kids have never seen a chicken up close and personal or seen eggs being gathered either.

I thought that was an interesting question so I called a friend of mine that does all my repairs and building that I need done and asked him about building me a chicken coop.  He said it wouldn’t take too awfully much to fix one since there’s already a small barn on my property.  He said he could attach it right to the side of the barn and make it so that the nests are inside the barn in a small fenced in area where the kids can see the eggs in the nest but can’t get to them.  He’s going to start on it tomorrow.

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What a great day

About 4:30 today, there came a knock on my front door.  When I opened the door, there stood three kids and 4 adults, all from the local elementary school where we donated the school supplies that were collected here.  These beautiful smiling faces on these children warmed my heart before I knew why they were even at my door.  Out popped three little hands with hand made ‘Thank You’ cards from each and every child at school that had received supplies from us. The parents all made sure to thank all of us too.

I called all of my staff in so they could be a part of this since they were a huge part of what made the whole ‘School Tools’ collection a success too.  Then a bright idea hit me.  I knew that some of the patrons that had brought donations would be coming back soon so I invited the parents and children in.  I have a couple bulletin boards where I post upcoming events and I let the children put every ‘Thank you’ note on one of the bulletin boards so everyone could be thanked by these sweet children that had a hand in helping out.  That sure made my day.  Well it probably will make my whole week in the end.

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Weekend special

This weekend we decided to run a special to help bring in some business.  Our community always collects items for the local schools for the children in need of school tools.  I decided to continue what we started 3 years ago by offering half off on the weekend stay with the donation of a fully packed back pack for a child.

By fully packed I mean a pack of pencils, 100 sheets of loose leaf note book paper, pack of erasers, colored pencils and markers, 3 ring binder, pencil box or pencil pouch like goes in the binder and anything else they want to contribute like lunch boxes or other school supplies.

Last year, we collected 15 fully packed back packs with some of our patrons bringing more than one.  Everyone brought extra supplies.  Everyone that works for me also brought items for the kids.  It was wonderful to take them to the schools.  I hope this year is as successful as the last three.

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Small plane crash

Did you hear about the small air plane that crashed in Utah Friday evening killing all 10 people on board?  That’s what scares me about going up in small air planes.  You hear so much about them crashing.  This one crashed shortly after take off.  Of course the FCC is investigating the crash.

The nine passangers were dermotologists from Cedar City.  This might be a strange thought but I wonder if there are any dermotologists left in the city?  What a loss to Cedar City and to their families.  Sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair but hopefully none of them suffered.

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New lap top computer

Remember me telling you about ordering a lap top computer?  Well it was not worth my time or money.  Now I have a real lap top and not a toy.  I went to Dell.com and got a referbished lap top and saved a bundle.  You can put in what you want or need and they will show you a list of available lap tops at the price range you choose.  Not too bad.  My computer geek guy that works for me helped me pick out just what I needed.

I just don’t know what I would do without him.  He is such a help to me and has shown me ways to save money on business expenses that I didn’t even think of.  To quote my favorite group, “I get buy with a little help from my friends!”