February ended up being exactly what I needed, at least the last half of the month.
After I found out about my missed miscarriage and had the D&C procedure done, I definitely had an active grieving period when I felt down and cried quite a bit. Once I started physically feeling better again–for the first time in over two months–that definitely helped how I overall felt.
We had also opted to send a bit of the baby’s tissue in for testing to see if they could figure out why I’d miscarried, and they found out the baby had triploidy, which means he/she had an extra set of chromosomes and had a very low chance of surviving until birth. While the loss is still hard, the news of the condition did soften the pain — I at least knew that there wasn’t anything I could have done differently to have a different outcome…it was just one of those things.
After a long January and all that it entailed, plus the loss of the baby, I desperately needed a change of scenery and some fresh air, so we decided to take an impromptu 4-day vacation to Moab and visit Arches National Park over Presidents’ Day weekend. The getaway was exactly what ALL of us needed, and the sunshine and warmth and quality family time we had made it so that when we got back home, everything felt like it would work out.
My first priority for February was taking care of my mental and physical health, which I accomplished. Matt and I even started some gentle strength training exercises for 10-15 minutes a day so I can start building my core back up and hopefully avoid further injuries to my back (which I severely injured during exercise over 3 years ago). I’ve also been going to my specialized massage therapy once a month since December, which is also helping my back to get realigned so that I can fully function again.
All of that meant that less progress was made on some of our other goals, but it’s okay — I needed the break and the self-care, and now I’m hoping that for March, I’ll feel well enough in all aspects to go full steam ahead on flower farming.
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February Goals
File taxes- Because of all the prep work I’d done in January, this was actually pretty straightforward, and we were able to file our taxes really early in the month (which meant we got our refund not too long thereafter!).
- Plant first two successions of ranunculus in the ground + the first wave of stock
- I thought for sure that we’d finish the high tunnel last month, but we didn’t, so this line item wasn’t possible.
- Finish the high tunnel
- We probably *should* have spent the long holiday weekend working on this, but that’s okay…we really needed the break. It means we’re behind on getting this finished, but we did make quite a bit of progress in February, and I believe we for sure should be able to complete this now in March.
- Pick up load of compost
- It was cold and snowy all month long, which meant it would have been difficult to pick this up. March already has a lot more warmth in the forecast, which makes this easier.
Open up CSA bouquet subscriptions- We opened our subscriptions up at the beginning of the month, and we’ve already made double what we did last year for them! CSA subscriptions are bouquets that people pre-purchase at the start of the season to be available for them throughout the season to come pick up or get delivered to them. The upfront money helps with all the flower farm expenses that come in the spring, and it also helps me to know I’ve basically pre-sold a certain number of bouquets every week, so it’s not as daunting to have to try and sell them all just on the spot.
Order business cards- A big mistake I made last year was not ordering any, so that was one of the first things I did once we started getting income again for the farm. I went through Vistaprint, and I’m super happy with how they turned out (and felt like they were a decent price).
Prepare presentation for entrepreneur seminar- Our local college asked me to do a presentation on campus about my first year as a business owner, and I’m super pleased with how it went. It also opened up further job opportunities for me down the road during the off-season, which I’m really excited to pursue!
- Find new dentist for the kids + set up appointment
- Nope, although Matt and I both went to our own dentist and got our regular cleanings done this last month. (Our dentist doesn’t take the kids’ insurance, which is why they didn’t come at the same time.)
- Set up Hyrum’s well-check appointment
- No, although we did go to the doctor three times in February for the other kids thanks to pinkeye and ear infections…
Take the puppy in for a haircut/grooming- We did this (which I documented in my Day in the Life post last month), and he looks hilarious 🙂 I’m more used to it now and like that you can better see his coloring, but boy, that first look at him made me just about lose it.
- Make a trip to the donation center
- Still no, though we have quite a lot to take. I’m seriously debating doing another Declutter 1,001 Things Challenge, because we just have so. much. stuff.
- Organize master closet + remove tape from painting
- I did put more things back into the closet and started removing the tape from painting, but I haven’t finished.
- Fix doorbell
- Nope, but we really need to.
Fix leak in master bathroom- This was a major line item we got done at the end of the month, thanks to a connection my neighbor put us in contact with (who made the repair for a fabulous price). It’s seriously such a relief to have this out of the way.
- Fill 5-gallon buckets with long-term food storage.
- Still no. Sigh.
Finish editing final photo shoot- I finally edited the last photo shoot I hadn’t done yet, which means I’m 100% done with photo shoots for the foreseeable future, since I’m no longer doing paid client work and since I finished up everything I’d done for free for family members.
- Make new quiet books for church
- Still didn’t get to this, and I’m going to have to shelve it until a later month when flower farming stuff dies down a bit.
- List Buick
- What do you think?
March Goals
For March, the absolute #1 priority is getting the high tunnel finished ASAP since we’re already far behind my ideal schedule for planting under that. Because I need to prioritize flower farming tasks since they’re very time sensitive, I’m shelving a lot of the nonessential goals for now just so I can focus on what the must-do’s are for the month.
March and April are truly times of insanity when you’re a farmer. If this year is anything like last year, basically all other tasks end up falling by the wayside, like keeping a tidy home, cooking more time-intensive dinners, and reading for fun. Thankfully, we already have lots of infrastructure in place because of everything we did last year, but we also have three big ticket items to accomplish in the 2022 season: 1) the high tunnel, 2) building several more raised beds, and 3) setting up a drip line irrigation system so we’re not having to hand water everything this year. Two out of the three of those need to be completed or nearly completed by the end of the month in order for me to stay relatively on track with my planting schedule.
Here’s how March’s goals currently look:
- Finish high tunnel
- #1 focus, here we go!
- Get both successions of ranunculus and stock in the ground
- This will happen ASAP after the high tunnel is completed.
- Direct seed and/or sow indoors all hardy annuals
- I’ve already started many of the hardy annuals that need to be sown inside under cover, but I can also start direct sowing many of them this month (like ammi, bells of Ireland, larkspur, poppies, etc.) If you want to read the best book ever on how to correctly time your plantings of hardy annuals, you absolutely must check out Cool Flowers by Lisa Mason Ziegler. It seriously changed everything for me. And if cut flower gardening or flower farming interest you, I also recently published a post on my other blog about my favorite resources I use for flower farming.
- Pick up load of compost
- Rollover goal.
- Order soil amendments for roses + landscape fabric
- I believe the bare root roses I ordered will be arriving by the end of the month or by early April, so I need to make sure I have all the soil amendments in place before they get here.
- Build at least 2-3 raised beds (ideally 4-6)
- We’re planning on building 7 new raised beds this year for the flower farm, 6 of which need to be planted by early to mid-April. Best get cracking!
- Find new dentist for kids + set up appointment
- Rollover goal.
- Set up Hyrum’s well-check appointment
- Rollover goal.
- Fix doorbell
- Rollover goal.
- Clean out fridge
- About every 3 months, I do a huge fridge clean-out and wipe-down, and since I haven’t done this since December, it’s time!
- Buy tickets for Hawaii trip
- We’re planning on going to Hawaii at the beginning of summer, and, thanks to our tax return, we can start looking at buying tickets. Depending on what prices do this month, this line item may or may not happen, but I’m at least starting to check Google Flights daily.
- List Buick
- I’m keeping this on here, but I doubt it will get done this month either. We could use the cash from the sale though, so this is finally going to have to happen relatively soon!
Just two and a half weeks left until the official first day of spring! What’s on your to-do list for the month? Any fun garden plans this year? (Seriously, I LOVE hearing about other people’s garden plans — drop me a comment below and let me know all about it!)
