Yodeling and Planning

Like any good retailer, we at Southwood take frequent and thoughtful looks at our sales numbers. These numbers apparently used to be handwritten into ledgers, but nowadays they come in multi-colored graphs and charts. One such document found in our email inboxes (because we're trying to go green and not print as much) is the Three Year Sales Average.

If you were looking at this graph without trying to read the numbers, which are in an approximiately 4-point font, it would resemble a picture of a very tall mountain peak with a shorter and more rounded hill beside it. Those are Mt. Spring Season and Fall-Plus-Christmas-Decor Hill. If a driving rain or big storm has wiped out a spring weekend, Mt. Spring Season has multiple peaks. The higher the peak, the happier we are, but the more we feel like we have just climbed a mountain when the season is finished.

If one were to make awesome use of those graphs, and add a yodeling mountain climber a-la "The Price is Right" Cliffhanger Game, he would be on his way downhill right now, having traversed the ascent and peak. Summer is a quiet time at Southwood, when we catch our breath, water the plants and assess the all-important spring season in the Garden Center. It's also when we launch into the tasks we hope to accomplish before we circle around and start climbing the mountain again.

Every year, in early June, we pull out our strategic plans, to-do lists and goals spreadsheets (those would be Ginny's) and decide what projects to tackle. This year, I'm all about the market. Joe and I have set up an office there, hauled some of the kids' toys there, and otherwise prepared ourselves to camp out there this summer. Our intent is to take care of the garden, generate data for the vegetable trails and define our vision for the project. I have already labeled four binders: Programs, Marketing, Infrastructure and Farms/Techniques. By the time school starts, I hope to have them filled.

We have visited - and will continue to visit - farms, markets, museums, zoos, restaurants and retailers. We have amassed a bin full of the papers they distribute. We have taken hundreds of pictures of fencing, roofs, animal pens, vegetable gardens, store displays, marketing pieces, bee hives, hay bale mazes, and everything in between. In fact, if you've seen something awesome that you think we should put in those notebooks, Email Them To Me!

So here's what the place looks like in May 2012. Let the changing begin.

First crops of tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs are in the ground and starting to produce.

The house has been remodeled as an education center with a demonstration kitchen.
It occurs to me that I should take some pictures of the inside, too. I'll get right on that.

The farm is pretty and green, a blank slate to create something that will serve the community while preserving its beauty.

And last but not least, Audrey and Catherine running towards me on our front lawn.
They are so healthy and fit. I hope this project will keep them that way forever.