Slow Recovery

Yesterday was a tough day on us. We are still trying to recover physically from our experience and we had to do lots of physical work to empty the trailer. We didn't get it done, so we will finish that today. We also cleaned our outside furniture and reconnected the battery to the Escape. We don't have A/C in the car, so we went to the dealership down the road to find out what is going on. Of course, Saturday, the dealer has a skeleton crew and they couldn't do anything except recommend some actions - such as downloading some software to enter into the "Sync" system on the vehicle. It used to be easy to fix things like this, but technology has successfully complicated simple tasks.

After a good night's sleep last night, we can feel a slow recovery taking place. I wish it would hurry up.

I promised to show a couple photos that we took and couldn't download yesterday. This morning, I have them. This first one is of our rig sitting outside the pumpkin patch just before we left. Notice the huge section of fence I had to open in order to get out:

This one is of Josie hugging her Escape, showing how happy she is to be home again:

We will try to wrap up the trailer effort today and take it back to storage. We also have some items we need to get at the store, such as a 9V battery for our Genie that isn't working and some nectar for our hummingbird feeder among some other grocery items.

Hopefully, we can get back to normal - whatever that is - very soon....

Home Again

It was a smooth transition yesterday to the new managers that came in from a lot near Las Vegas. They are back up managers within the company and have been with the company for 10 years. The biggest problem we had was figuring a way to get our RV out of the complex. I took down several sections of the fence and managed to squeeze out the RV.

The drive from the fairgrounds to home commenced at 11 AM yesterday. It was a long, long drive as we both were totally exhausted, hungry and anxious to get home. I forgot to gas up the truck until we started pulling out. Finding a gas station with about 100 miles of travel to get out of LA with only 60 miles to empty in the gas tank was a challenge. We exited at one exit on the freeway where we saw a Chevron sign and when we got to it, discovered they had not enough room for me to maneuver the truck/RV. So we drove around the area looking for one that would work. The farther we got away from the freeway, the fewer the stations were that carried diesel. So, we got back on the freeway and finally got to an exit where we could gas up. By then, I was driving with the message "0 miles to empty".

We made another stop at a rest area along the long and boring stretch of I-10 from Palm Springs to Blythe. I was beginning to feel drowsy and had to take a power nap or take a chance on falling asleep and crashing. I slept for about a half hour and was good to go again.

One more stop to gas up again in Quartzite Arizona - gas is about $1,00/gal cheaper in AZ - and we didn't get home until almost 8:00 PM.

We are so happy to be home and getting some rest. Today we will empty the trailer and try to return it to storage, clean our outside furniture, get the Escape running again and just try to collect ourselves from this experience. I have a couple photos that wouldn't download for some reason, so I'll enter those tomorrow if I can....

Pulled the Plug

Yesterday was the straw the broke the camel's back. Our zone managers were her most of the day and they completely disrupted our normal routine and interfered with all of our scheduled plans for the day. They treated us like one of the lot workers while ordering us to do nonsense tasks. At about 4 PM, I told one the zone managers that we wanted to pull the plug on our efforts here. Josie and I have been getting more and more frustrated with the lack of time to do anything that a normal couple should do - like sitting down to have a complete meal, having time to do your laundry, having time to sit around, relax and have a pleasant evening. Frankly, we were beginning to see real negative effects on our health.

We had to give it a try as it is something we have never done. The money is terrific, but misleading. I calculated our hourly rate for the hours we actually worked - meaning, minus our sleep time - and it came out to $3.96/hour! AND, it was such hard, physical work that even a middle aged couple would have a hard time.

Today, we will find out what the next step is in our departure. Our RV is boxed in at the moment so there may not be a quick exit from the site. We love most members of the crew we hired to work here and will miss them but know that they will understand.

Stay tuned....

Horrible So Far

I will do my best to try to keep up with daily postings, but there is barely enough time to even take bathroom breaks. There is no time to sit and have a normal meal and we are barely getting enough sleep. With all the reporting requirements on top of everything else, it makes it really tough to get any free time at all. We get to bed at midnight each night and are up at 7AM to do it all again. Perhaps the schedule will improve as we go along - it better, or we will be leaving early.

Right now, there will be no Christmas trees on our schedule....

Open for Business

Yesterday was a monumental achievement by our workforce. We were surprised when we got up at 7 AM to see the semi outside waiting to unload his truck full of pumpkins. We were not expecting to see him so early so we had to scramble to get some of our employees in early to help unload. There were 1101 pumpkins unloaded - plus lots of small small decorative pumpkins - and 82 cornstalks. We opened for business at 3 PM and closed at 9.

These shots will show us unloading the pumpkins and the final view of how it looked when we opened for business:

We were surprised that our first afternoon of business was such a huge success. In less than half a day we did almost $2,000 in sales. The consensus is that this location will be one of - if not the best location within the company. We do it all again today as we open at 9 AM and close at 9 PM. The weekends are a drain on us and it was too bad we opened on a Saturday. Weekdays are different as the hours are 1 to 9 PM Monday through Friday.

The jury is out on whether we made a good decision to come here. Josie says she is done and will not do it again.

We'll see how it goes the rest of the way....

Closer to Opening

It was truly a marathon day yesterday. We started at 7 AM and did not quit until after 8 PM. We only grabbed a snack all day and basically worked non stop the entire day. The owner was here all day and the Zone Managers were here all day. Our employee pool is now complete. There are 40 people signed up to work for the month and preliminary schedules are done. Actually, we had three of our new employees helping us yesterday for about half the day.

There was very little time to do anything except to ready the site for our pumpkins which will now be delivered tomorrow. The delivery was suppose to occur today but the farmers bringing them to us had to reschedule - therefore, our opening is delayed for one day. Also, it appears that we will not get any delivery of wood chips which is a disappointment. As a result of the delay for opening, we get kind of a break today. None of the managers will be here, so Josie and I have to do as much as possible ourselves. Fortunately, there is not a lot of heavy work left, so it should be nice for us.

These two shots provide an update on the lot appearance. One was taken during the day:

and this one taken in the evening from a different angle:

If it looks huge - it is.

We are still waiting for the fun part of this job to kick-in....

Non Stop Setup

It was one of the longest days I can remember. WE started early by taking things over to the lot before packing up and moving the RV to the lot location. It was around 10 AM by the time we got backed into the space. The next big job was to buy long hoses - 100 ft and one 50 ft - so that we could connect to the water source. The water is terrible by the way as we had to tap into the irrigation system. It looks like we will be drinking only filtered water from bottles this month.

We had prospective employees stop by off and on all day and we ended up with about a dozen applications handed out. It is important that we get as many people hired as possible for the month. Our owner was here most of the day helping with the setup and he left at 7 PM. These shots are just a sampling of the status:

We expect to get everything wrapped up today except for the delivery of the pumpkins and a few minor items.

There is one of the employees that we hired yesterday that will come in today to help relocate some bales of hay. So far, we are not real happy with the way things are going, but will stick it out to the end - if possible. We feel that there is not enough support for us as the company races to open all the other locations. It is that understanding that keeps us here right now. There is lots to do as far as setting up the cash registers and other office details.

Keep the faith....