Business Ethics

We had a problem recently that I wanted to write on, because it bothers me no-end and I need to get it out. Also, I think it would be interesting for discussion.

Last December or January, Matt and I went to Potomac Bead shop in Hagerstown to get a few things. Well, actually *I* went to get a few things and Matt came along for the ride. But, Matt wound up finding some things he liked and decided to get them to make a Man Necklace. He bought the following:

• A strand of nice black onyx
• A strand of nice green jade
• One flat round lava bead

And he proceeded (with my help) to make a Man Necklace. He wore it constantly the rest of the winter and through the spring and then realized something.

The green was wearing off the jade.

I’m going to stop this part of the story here and talk for a few paragraphs about stone and gemstone and jewelry making. When I began making jewelry years ago, I learned that it is standard practice in the industry to treat stone to change its color. This can be done in many ways. For example, most of the citrine on the market is actually low-grade amethyst that has been heated to turn it yellow. Blue sapphire? Same thing. Do you remember those ‘power’ bracelets that were soooo popular about 10 years ago? You couldn’t walk into a store without seeing baskets full of them. I made it a point to look and every single turquoise bracelet I saw was either man-made or howlite that had been dyed turquoise. Every single one!!!

I really don’t like this practice. Once a long time ago, I purchased some gorgeous red garnet to make a necklace for my mother for Christmas. As I was stringing it, my fingers turned mulberry. I had to wash the strand 4-5 times in a mild soapy water until the water finally rinsed clear. If I hadn’t, my mother’s neck would have turned mulberry, too. Not cool, so I decided looong ago that I would not buy stone and gemstone that had been altered.

It has turned out to be very difficult to do, as most suppliers do not list details about their stone. I mean, if you are selling turquoise you can get a much higher price for it if you don’t list it as imitation or dyed, right? And besides, most of the finished jewelry is bought by people who can’t tell the difference.

But to me, that’s fraud and I will not do it. I have educated myself over the past 10 or so years to be able to tell the difference between stone and glass, to know what natural vs. fake looks like, and generally to know what the industry is doing to try to fool me. To me, heated or irradiated or dyed stone is fake. Period.

Fortunately some suppliers do mark everything. Fire Mountain Gems is the supplier I use the most because of their policy on this. They are also charter members of the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA).

So, back to the ‘Jade.’ If I had known that it was dyed I would have recommended to Matt not to get it. He wouldn’t have gotten it, anyway, because he was looking for something very specific for a specific reason. It was listed as ‘BC Jade’ and since I knew that most jade on the market right now is coming out of British Columbia, we got it. Also, I knew that this shop was selling some dyed stuff without labeling it as such, but as far as I knew jade was not something that was commonly being dyed.

Matt and I talked about it and decided to take it back and talk to them about it, see what happened. Before we did, I looked up the guide that the AGTA published online regarding stone altering. I found it very enlightening: the Federal Trade Commission REQUIRES the following:

With the exception of the normal fashioning (cutting and polishing) of a gemstone, it is the seller’s

responsibility at all levels of commerce to clearly disclose to the buyer at the time of sale:

1) Whether the gemstone is natural or not;

2) All information pertinent to any enhancement process done to a natural gemstone when:

a. the treatment is not permanent and its effects are lost over time; or

b. the treatment creates special care requirements for the gemstone to retain

the benefit of the treatment; or

c. the treatment has a significant effect on the value of the gemstone.

Minimal disclosure information would include whether the gemstone is natural or man-made; if

natural, whether the gemstone has been treated in any manner where 2 (a), (b) or (c) above apply;

in such cases, the nature of the treatment, its permanence and any special care requirements.

Now, isn’t that interesting? AT ALL LEVELS OF COMMERCE. When is the last time you bought jewelry and they told you whether or not it was real?

So, I printed it out. And I took it with us, and I told them about the problem, and they credited us the amount that the strand had cost.

And before I even asked she showed me where they had posted the ‘enhancement’ guide sheet and told me that they had an ‘*’ code on each label that corresponded with the guide sheet. And there was only one guide sheet in the store and if she hadn’t pointed it out I never would have noticed it or the ‘*’ code on the labels.

Which, of course, was exactly what they’d intended.

They were doing what they were supposed to do to the letter of the law, but no more. When I asked how long they’d had that posted, she told me it was new as of this summer. So when we purchased the ‘jade’ that policy was not yet enacted.

With the very questionable products coming into this country from the likes of China, it is more important than ever to know what you are selling and CYA. We have no idea what rubbed off that ‘jade’ and on to Matt’s neck. I also have no idea what stone it actually is. It may be jade, yes, but it also could very well be something else. If this had happened to a paying customer I’d have been mortified.

Liability comes in to this, too. I would have to have a case of Your Necklace Caused My Cancer. Keeping receipts that actually document the altered stones is very important to me now. Fortunately, I have in most of my listings made sure to mention that I do not use altered stone. I DO use dyed pearls. I just like them, I have no other reason why.

So, I'm curious:

1. What do you think of all this?
2. Would you buy altered gemstones knowing they were altered? Why or why not?
   
3. Should I do business with these people again?

Commission #2 Done!

One of my creative hobbies (aside from jewelry making) is a Japanese embroidery technique called Temari. I've been doing these for more than 10 years. It is a dying art in Japan, from what I'm told, but the detailed, geometric patterns are gaining popularity among American embroidery artists.
A few years ago, I made a Temari ball for my cousin's wedding. I did it in silk with primarily gold and various shades of neutral cream and white on a creamy base. I also did a 4-strand braid as a hanging loop, and I added a small tassel on the bottom.
A detail showing the gold threads between the intertwined layers.

My cousin's wife liked it so much that when they were up this winter, she asked me to do one each for their two sons. This is the first:

She picked out the more turquoise-y color and I matched around it. The thread in this one is all cotton.
Many Temari patterns are floral based. They use geometric patterns, but the effect is very floral. I wanted this to be more BOY, so I chose a different kind of pattern.
I really like how it turned out.
The dark color isn't black, it's navy blue. My cousin and his wife met while they were both in the Navy, so I figured I'd add that. The next one will also have navy in it.

1 Commission Done!!!

3 to go....
A friend contacted me about a pair of earrings she saw on Peruvian Connection. She asked if I could do something similar. The ones in the catalog were too long and way too pricey. I said I'd give it a try.
Some people scoff at artists copying work. I don't have a problem with it, really. If we didn't copy other work we would be reinventing knitting or metal smithing with every generation. Copying a style is how you learn. This is a skill set I can now use for other work.
The leather really threw me in this, until a coworker told me about soaking leather and molding it. Some cultures do this to make masks. I tried it and....well, it worked!!
The center is abalone shell. The beads are all sterling silver, gold fill, or faceted glass.

Latest on Kiva

My first jewelry business Loanee, Edith Elena, has completely repaid her loan. Congratulations, Edith!

This means I have my $25 back and I can reloan it. I did a bit of searching and finally decided on the Santisima Trinidad Group. They are from Peru. Edith was also from Peru. This was totally unintended on my part, I had actually wanted to loan to some other part of the world.

But, this group (in part, at least) makes and sells jewelry. So, it was a no brainer! Another reason I picked this group is that it should be paid back within 6 months, so I'll be able to make another loan by September.

Manvel in Armenia is paying his loan back, too, although it will be a LONG time before I see that $25 complete again. He is a beekeeper and has purchased the truck with the loan, you can see a picture on his profile.

I was featured in a Treasury!!

Getting featured in a Treasury on Etsy is a big deal. I think this is only the second I've been in that I know of.

Almost Got Fired Friday!

What an exciting end to a slow and boring week! I won't go into details, but suffice it to say the head honcho needs he ego stroked way WAY more than even I thought, and after he'd calmed down everything was cool.

Still looking for other jobs! You're darn tootin' I am!

Oh, in other news, my Kiva loanee, Edith, has made 3 of her 4 payments back! Go Edith!

Also, I made a 5th sale on Etsy this weekend. I'm advertising over at Bright, Bold & Beautiful for the next two months. I hope it helps, so far, so good!

3 More Etsy Sales!!!

I made three more Etsy sales. The first was something I had only listed a few days before:
It is fairly simple. Lightweight and cute with two colors of Swarovski crystal. Would be perfect with a prom gown, actually. It is living in Ventura, CA, now.

The other is one of my favorites:
Yup, one of the ice pictures. I love love love this stone. It is Red Rainbow Jasper. The person who bought this asked me if I had earrings to match, so I made a pair and she bought those, too:
These are living in Prince Edward Island now.

Omigod, I Have Fans!

I created a fan page for my jewelry business last night on Facebook. I tried vainly to navigate adding some bells and whistles to it. I gave up because I was tired and getting frustrated, but I did add a 'fans' button onto my blog (see right) and I did update my Facebook status with a note that my business had a page, come see it. (Yes, this is the same Facebook I was going to quit. I decided to give it one more go but this time as a marketing tool).

I then completely forgot about it.

And OMIGOD, I have fans! I was so surprised to see FANS this afternoon when I logged on here. Fans. Me! FANS!!!??? Hee hee hee hee hee......

First Kiva Loan

When I started my business, I decided that as of January 1, 2009, I would start giving something to charity. I'd decided on 5%, which isn't a lot really, but I wanted to start small and then if/when I could I would increase the amount.

Since then I stumbled across Kiva.org. Kiva is a microfinance aggregate. They take information from microfinance organizations all over the world, list the information on the loans/individuals, and then you and I can donate as little as $25 to an individual or group.

When I found out that Kiva's lowest cutoff amount was $25, I decided that if I didn't have enough to donate I would just, you know, do it anyway. So I did.

Meet Edith. She is from Peru, where the average income is in the $6000 ballpark. She is asking for a loan of $300, which she will use to purchase used clothing to resell. She also is the coordinator for a program that supplies milk to low income families. That's why I chose Edith, I thought it was kind of a double-whammy in the doing good thing. I also chose her because she looked happy, if a little bashful.

Currently (as of this morning) 58% of her $300 has been raised from people in the US as well as Luxembourg, Canada, Spain, and Belgium. Watch for updates on Edith as money is raised and as she repays her loan, which should be paid off by May 2010.

This is the coolest part about Kiva: after the loan is paid off I will be able to re-loan it to another person. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving. In fact, I'm giving out a few Kiva gift certificates this year for Christmas.

Also, in the section that lists donors on Edith's page, check out William from Washington. If you click on his picture, it will take you to his portfolio. He has....1853 loans either raising funds, paying off, or paid off. Go William!

I just stumbled across Manvel in Armenia, too. He's a beekeeper. Doesn't he look proud of his field? I think I'll donate to him, too, as a personal thing (not business). That way I'll have two. It is addictive....

Etsy Sale!!

I made my first sale on ETSY!!!!!
Finally!!!!

PMC Class

Over the week of Thanksgiving, when I was laid off (furloughed) from my job, I signed up for a jewelry class. This is the first jewelry class I have ever taken. Seriously. Everything else I’ve taught myself. I’m one of the lucky people who can look at something and figure out how it was made. I credit my dad with giving me an overly-analytical mind, almost photographic memory, and a 3D perspective…which didn’t help him at all recently with the truck incident, but still.

Any-who.

About a year ago I purchased some silver Art Clay through Fire Mountain Gems. I’d been seeing a lot about precious metal clay (PMC) for the past couple years. PMC is a cool newish product to come out of Mitsubishi. In the process of making something, Mitsubishi had a lot of silver and gold dust as a byproduct. Why they couldn’t melt it down and reuse it is beyond me, but they didn’t and instead they hired a bunch of people to find a marketable use for the dust.

PMC is the outcome. Basically, you have a grayish very dense and heavy playdoh-like clay that can be molded, rolled out, cut, dried and carved, and then fired either in a kiln or with a torch (depending on the type of clay). The outcome is 99.9% silver, which is higher than Sterling (92.5%). So you can call this ‘fine silver’ jewelry when you sell it because it is. Gold PMC is 22K. They are also making PMC copper and bronze now.

Like I said, I’d purchased some and thought I could just ‘pick it up’ by reading some tutorials, watching some video, etc. Didn’t happen. The clay I bought was crumbly right out of the package and I got frustrated and put it away.

Time passed.

This class popped up on my radar and the time was right so I signed up. Turns out I’m the only one who did. Apparently, word had gotten out (she said, ominously).

First, the negative:

--If you are going to be teaching a class that is scheduled for 2 hours and you KNOW it runs over, change the time to 3 hours.
--If you know the class is going to run over, don’t schedule the class to run over into the time you have to pick your kids up from school.
--If you know the class runs over, don’t hold a 30 minute conversation with another woman about another class that may or may not be scheduled on Sunday, February 1.
--If you are looking to see what day of the week February 1 falls on in 2010, don’t look at the 2009 calendar. Ahem.

Also, I must say that I have taught crafts classes and, while I know there were problems with my classes, I have always found it better to actually have a project for a beginner class that will teach the basics and produce a finished product for the students to take home. She did neither, and basically said “Here’s the stuff, there you go! Now, what am *I* going to make? Hmmm….” I learned what to do by watching her, not by any instruction. Wouldn’t take a class with her again. If there had been others in the class it would have been a disaster.

In a more positive light, though, I did learn what I needed to know, and had the chance to make two items that I’m fairly happy with as beginner projects. She was big on plastic texture sheets for clay (any kind of clay) and rolling the clay between two sheets so there would be a different texture on each side! Imagine that!

So, that’s what I did for both of mine. Basically getting a feel for the clay and what I can do with it. As it dries out a bit you can mix in a bit more water to make it more pliable again. After you get the design where you want it, you must let it dry before you can fire it. She accomplished this with a hot plate, and it worked well. Then, you can file and sand it down to get the rough edges off (this helps a lot because after you fire it it is SILVER and needs to be filed with metal files forever to get edges off).

For the firing, this type of clay was PMC3 so you can use a torch to fire it. She used a crème brule torch. I fired the pendant at home (because we ran out of time!) and I used Matt’s propane torch. I thought the propane worked better, got hotter faster, etc. In semi-darkness, you place the item on a fire brick and start torching it. It will smoke, then it will actually flame quite a bit. This is the organic clay binder burning off. Then, you need to bring the piece to glow. It turns a pretty whitish-cantaloupe color. You need to keep it there for at least 5 minutes. Then, let it cool about 30 seconds and push it into a mug of water. It hisses.

When you take it out it is coated in a dull white gunk that you need to scrub off with a brass brush. Then, you can file it where it needs filed, drill it, and polish/burnish it. Done!
Earrings shown here, this was my first project. I’d had the wire-wrapped stone beads done on my beading table for a while (another technique that I’d wanted to learn and taught myself from pictures). I thought they went together well. The holes are drilled before firing, she made sure to remind me to make them bigger than I think they should be because the clay will shrink about 10% during firing.
The pendant is similar to a few pendants she had done. I drilled some holes before I fired it and added the copper wire because I wanted to play around a little with some embellishment. I think what she taught is (quite frankly) kindergarten stuff compared to what I know people are doing with PMC right now. I know she was really impressed with what she was doing, but I really wasn’t. Sorry. Rolling clay between textured sheets is not much compared to this and this and this.
It turns out the most likely reason the clay I bought last year was crumbly was that it was Art Clay brand and not PMC. Also, it may have just been old when they sent it. I’ve since rehydrated it and am hoping to try a few new projects when I get some extra time (ha).
This technique and skill set has opened up several new creative doors for me, I’m so tickled with it. I have so many ideas floating around in my head to try. I can’t wait.

Silly things and Fire

A general ‘update’ post for the past few weeks. Not much going on here, so I’ll try to do a few Subtitles to break down my thoughts and make it all just a bit more organized, if not interesting.

General
Still waiting on a measurable snow here. Several dustings and some ice, nothing serious. I was sick a week ago, some stomach virus. Ick. Max and Matt are well. I’ve joined Facebook. Ordering seeds for spring, check the garden blog for that stuff.

Visit
Matt’s brother came out from San Diego for a week between Christmas and NY with his wife and their daughter, who is 12. We don’t like or get along with Bro. By ‘we’ I mean the entire eastern seaboard. Ok, I’m exaggerating, but only a little. They couldn’t get gone soon enough for me. I get along OK with the Wife, and the 12 year old is a blast, but the Bro is a….piece of…..work.

Fireplace
I may have mentioned this before, but we (ok, Matt) installed a propane fireplace in the house which has helped tremendously with heating costs, as propane is cheaper than heating oil right now. Propane makes me nervous, and I was concerned about this unit, but all’s well.

New Car
So far, the new car is very nice. We’re averaging about 32 MPG. There are a few things I don’t like. I hate the security system. I keep accidentally setting it off, and I don’t know how I do it. I think once I accidentally hit the PANIC button on the keyfob, but otherwise I don’t know.

This car has an automatically adjusting rearview mirror. It senses light and automatically dims, which is pretty nifty, with the exceptions of the following:

• It doesn’t do it during the day, so if you are getting tailgated by anyone with their lights on you just have to live with it
• It doesn’t do it during dusk, see above.

I would happily rip the thing off and replace it if I could. I’m still adjusting to the controls for everything being different and apparently designed for a space alien with arms at least 1 foot longer than mine. When I’m sitting in the car and need to close the door I have to practically get OUT of the car to reach the door handle, which defeats the purpose.

Mom
Mom recently had her first cataract surgery. It seemed to be easier than just about any other ‘procedure’ out there nowadays. She goes in for her second one the beginning of February.

Business
My jewelry business is slow, and I’m to blame. I did do some sales before Christmas and have been doing some restringing for friends. I really need to get over my shyness and get out there to some shops and schmooze.
I also can’t seem to get into the Business Blog I started, and the last time I updated it was before Christmas. I just don’t know what to write about. I need to get on the bandwagon for this again.

I’ve also decided Etsy is a lost cause for sales….but a really nice option for a cheap online showcase that looks professional, so I’m going to stick with it. It is just not my market. I have

I did pay my 2nd round of PA state sales tax ($5.05) successfully. And I’ve got my books done for tax season, so yippee for me.

Work
We have a new administration with new leadership on the DHS level, but so far nothing has really changed here. There are some presidential appointments still needing to be filled (FEMA and USFA administrators, their deputies, etc), but I don’t expect some of them to be filled for months. Probably little will change here.

Our contract is up this year, but I’m going to do a separate post about that special, special process.

Food
I haven’t been cooking as much as I usually do, I’m just too tired by the time I get home from work. I MEAN to cook, but I just never get there.

We found a new, really nice restaurant called Café del Sol. They do salads, wraps, Panini, pasta, specialty pizzas, and the best homemade potato chips I have ever had. Really great place.

New blog...

...which means I'll probably be spending more time there in the next few months. Please visit it, link to it, send people to it, etc etc. I'm trying to drum up business to the



NEW ETSY SHOP I JUST OPENED!!!!!



I KNOW!!!! How exciting is that? So anyway, go over and look, tell me what you think. Be honest, I really want to make this work.

I am adding Etsy links to all my blogs but I am NOT adding links FROM my jewelry blog TO this one. My personal life is the business of people I know, or those I met on here (that's you, YD). In other words, I don't want my coworkers, etc, reading some of the things I write here. =O

General happenings and comings up

On the home-front, not too much has been going on. Summer is winding down noticeably with nights in the 50s and sometimes 40s. The leaves have been changing colors. Max has been sleeping under the bankies with us to keep warm, which we don’t mind but would probably freak some people out. I find it very comforting in a cave-dweller kind of way when he cuddles up to me. Humans and dogs have been doing that for tens of thousands of years.

Speaking of Max, on our most recent trip to see the Opth doc we had good news and bad news. The Good News is that his corneal ulcer is totally healed and the internal inflammation is going down so he can go off two of the anti-inflamatories and the antibiotic. She did put us back on another steroid anti-inflamatory, though, but that still brings our total med count from 7 to 5. He is totally de-coned, too, and the pressure in both eyes is normal.

The Bad News is that he still has no functional vision in the eye and she did an ultrasound to confirm her hunch that he did, in fact, have a detached retina in that eye. So unless we want to have another surgery to reattach the retina (not) he is totally blind in that eye from now on. However, it doesn’t seem to be affecting him much at all. He gets around fine, he runs and jumps and plays fine. He just can’t see anything that you do off to his left side. If you hold a toy or biscuit on that side he can’t see it, and if you are walking towards him from that direction he can’t see you but usually can hear you if he’s paying attention and not zoning. I think he’s just ok, the only thing we need to do is keep sure that the eye remains healthy. He’s a sweet dog.

I will be posting part 2 of the cruise here soon, maybe next week. I have off next week, I’m going to be doing quite a bit of computer work (mainly business related, I’ll get to that in a minute). Matt and I will also be leaving this Friday for a mini-vacation. We haven’t had one this year at all. We’d planned a few day trips to DC and a couple other places over the summer that never materialized due to the Dog Emergency. Friday we’re driving down to Lexington, VA, to stay with a former coworker for 2 nights. We will be visiting Monticello, Tommy J’s old stomping ground, and the Natural Rock Bridge. Then Sunday we will be driving to West Virginia to see one of the National Radio Astronomy Observatories and to Cass Scenic Railroad. We’ll be spending the night in a B&B, which we’ve never done before. Then heading north to Blackwater Falls and whatever else we may run into that strikes our fancy, and to a lodge with a really interesting chef. Then home on Tuesday. I hope to have some really great pictures.

On the business front, I published the website last week. I still need to tweak it and add a lot of pictures to the Gallery page. I made my first sale yesterday!!! Two pair of earrings to a friend of Matt’s mom. Yippee!!! I need to celebrate somehow. The only down side is now I have to pay tax.

Business update

I'm working slowly to get my jewelry business going. I purchased the domain name and (barely started working on it. I will let everyone know when it has been 'published.' I have been working on getting some better photographs of my work so I can easily post them on the website, too.

I also have been working on tags for the jewelry, which are mini cards I purchased from Moo.com. My bud Tim told me about them, they are the cat's meow. I have grommets and a grommet gun that I'm using to make durable holes with a bit of color, then using thin ribbon to actually attatch them to jewelry.

I also bought a 1/16 inch hole punch to make earring hang tags with. all the card came printed on the back with my business name, website, and a blurb about me. They are really high quality cards, plastic coated. I would highly recommend them. MOO now has business cards, too, which if they'd had them when I'd been in the market for them I'd have gotten them from MOO.

So, it's going. Slowly, but that's what I wanted. Stay tuned.

Accomplishments

I had off this week, and thank god because I had a lot of work around here to do. And I got almost everything done that I wanted to!

I did a lot of weeding in the veggie patch, it took me two mornings but I got it done. I also got newspaper and hay around the squash plants to keep the weeds at bay. Almost everything is blooming, except the pumpkins, and I have two little baby zuchs and a few tiny yellow squash. The winter squash vines are starting to run. I have no idea how long they'll get, but the time I grew pumpkins they must have run over 20'!

For more on the garden, visit my garden blog, I'll be updating it Monday or Tuesday.

We're still waiting on the greenhouse, it should be shipped tomorrow.

We also made our semi-annual pilgrimage to the local liquour store and, as usual, bought a lot of different stuff. It is interesting to me to just go in and look around a good liquour store because you never know what you're going to find. This is what we bought:

• Sweet & Sour mix and a bottle of Triple Sec for my favorite cocktail, the Sidecar.
• A bottle of cheap but good white wine.
• Matt got a bottle of single malt scotch, his drink of choice. He actually has a book of scotches that talks about all the distilleries in Scotland and what they produce. He's going to try to get one of everything in the book to try. Hey, everyone needs a hobby.
• Matt also got a good ($$) bottle of tequila and a matching ($$) bottle of coffee-flavored tequila. The coffee one is very very good, I can't drink but a tiny sip of it but the aftertaste is wonderful.
• I got a bottle of Chocolate Zinfindel white wine. I haven't tried it yet, I'm waiting for an appropriate occasion.
• I also found a bottle of Maple Cream liqueur, which I've already cracked open and found it wonderful over ice.

I think that was it. I'm not going to tell you how much all that cost.

I finally received my business cards, they look great. I also ordered some mini cards from Moo.com to use as hang tags for my jewerly. I purchased a gorgeous brown leather 3-ring binder to use as a portfolio to take into local shops and show my jewelry. I bought some stuff at AC Moore to finish the portolio pages up and some grommets to use with the mini cards, I'll try to take pictures and post it all sometime in the future.

I think that's about it. I took a nap while I was off, that was exciting. :)

Busy busy!

I still haven’t received my business cards yet, but I am in great anticipation of getting them. I also haven’t yet bought the domain name or the moo.com mini cards, but Friday will be the day. I’m also thinking of opening a store on Ruby Lane. Go check out the website and tell me what you think.

I also haven't gotten through to anyone at the PA State Corp Bureau about changing my mistake on the form. I've left voicemails, not returned. I used their online form, which told me (twice) that the information I was trying to view had expired (WTF?). Typical state bullshit. Stay tuned.

Garden is fooming, all is well there.

We will be starting work on and around the house this weekend. Crush & run was delivered this morning for the greenhouse foundation, we’re hoping to get the forms up and pour concrete this weekend. Also on Saturday our buddy Joe will be up with his bobcat to do some work on moving land around. I’ve already taken some ‘before’ pictures and will post them with the ‘after’ pictures….after. We have quite a bit of outside work to do to get ready for that….

We did a lot of outside work this weekend, including but not limited to getting the asparagus bed finished and cleaning up the two flower beds in front of the house.

I also cooked a leg of lamb last night, which was a first. We both agreed that it could have used a better crust on the outside but all in all it was very good. We also tried to duplicate the lime & mint frescos we had at Olive Garden and they weren’t exact but they were pretty good.

My mother gave me a great cookbook recently called The Horizon Cookbook. It is a history of eating and dining through the ages and through various cultures. The first half of the book is all narrative, the second half is full of hundreds and hundreds of recipes from Roman times through present from all over the world. I’m just thrilled with this book. Tim, you will have to go through it when you come visit next, lots of French, Spanish, Jewish, German and South American recipes.

Greenhouse, Father’s Day, Veggies for Sale

This week was a relatively so-so week for me. I finally finished the business license. It took me forever and ever to get it done, mostly excuses. So of course when I finally do it I put in a date wrong and have it listed that my start-of-operations date is June 1st instead of July 1st, and now I'm trying to find some idiot in Harrisburg that can comprehend what I'm asking them and fix the damn thing. *sigh* Bureacracy. Not hard, right? I also ordered business cards (see above) in two different designs, and I'm hoping to add more. I'm also going to order mini cards for hanging tags, but I haven't gotten there yet. Oh, and I need to purchase a domain name. And I need to do the township permit (yes, you need a permit from the township to open up a business, $25).

Anyway. We ordered the greenhouse, Matt went to get the building permit (yes, you need a building permit to put up a greenhouse, $50). We’re in the process of trying to clear the place for it, get some crush & run stone and cement bids to do the base for it. We won’t get the actual greenhouse until sometime in the beginning of July.

Trimmed the garlic scapes on Friday and took them to David’s to sell. Tried to hill some potatoes but the ground was really packed so we decided to wait until it rained to loosen it up a bit.

Took my dad out for lunch, I’ll write more on this later.