To having a real life business. Once again, Ron has been able to put his graphic arts degree from Cazenovia College and expertise to good use in creating our business card. He ordered one batch and was pleased with it, but typical for him, he has ready made a couple of changes. He never stops trying to find that one thing that he can tweak. Those little touches are what makes the difference. And makes it so his.

It is just over two weeks to the official start of winter and we are already planning for spring. That not only means getting all the equipment and tools off THF and stored, but making decisions about what comes next. Pawpaw trees and elderberry bushes are a given to be started in 2016. But it not as easy as just saying we want to grow them. We have to decide how many and what varieties. You have to have several different kinds growing together if you want to actually have fruit. In his search for pawpaws Ron discovered that Winston Salem NC had a festival this year. The things you can find on the internet. We missed it, but are already thinking we will get to the next one. Unfortunately there are no sources for pawpaws here in NY so Ron has reached out to a nursery in Missouri. He ended up calling the company to finalize the deal. He tends to do better that way. Besides he got to share the whole mushroom farm story with them. Something he loves to do. We have 38 pawpaw trees and 50 elderberry bushes on order. Now, do we plant this fall or next spring? Every person we talk to has a different opinion. We are thinking spring. That will give us more time to get the field ready. We still have lots and lots of rocks to dig up, dead trees to get cut down, and brush to clear and burn. Sadly there is still garbage about the place that needs to be picked up too.
So now we have to lay out the planting grid, dig up the rocks, till the ground, dig the holes and come up with a irrigation plan. Ron is trying to do this on the fly. Maybe I should be glad that he doesn’t know what he is doing. If he did, this might be even more complicated and costly. He likes to figure out how to get things done without relying too much on stock solutions. He loves his You Tube videos. On top of all this we still have to get the plans for our next installment of mushroom logs finalized. We are thinking 300 more come spring. This time we will have them delivered right out to THF and do the work out there. That will be much less messy. I am still sweeping up wood chips in the garage. Ron bought himself a Honda generator to run the grinder and heat the pot for the sealing wax. We have a large tent and a couple of pop up canopies. All we need now is a few more volunteers to come out and help and we will have the beginnings of a party. Maybe we will get the grill going, some tunes playing and warm beverages brewing. We are still waiting for chance to raffle off the first use of our official tiny house.