Have a great week.
HB, glad your son has a job coach. I agree that that boss should be black listed. And, yeah, God has this one. He will handle it in His time, and in His way. As for the hydroponics: perhaps you could get a grant to fund it. Have land available? If I were near by, and could join you in this venture, (I'd be all over it like flies on road kill) This is the dream I'd add to yours: Aquaponic green house: (add fish to the mix, with large tanks that would act as solar collectors, with the fish providing fertilizer for the plants, and the plants cleaning the water for the fish. Market the plants and the fish. Do some regular market gardening, add some poultry to the mix, sell eggs, perhaps spring chicks. By pass the usual "taking your stuff to the farmer's market" and have YOUR OWN market stand on site, staffed by disabled workers, and coaches as needed. Perhaps offer hand made items as well. Jewelry is a good seller, and would be good at teaching skills of all sorts.Phil, WOW! Really? Those are some really different looking chickens! LMK if you get overwhelmed! I would buy 3 chicks from you. Just to have around. Lol.
Blooie, Yea, I know that feeling. And around here it's the parents of the kids that starting things, shaking things up and fighting back like crazy to change the system for their kids.
Thanks everyone for your support for my son! No H.R. there just the one owner/boss/man. My son will likely not be going back there to work... ever. His job coach will be setting up a meeting with him. She hopefully be strong with him about how wrong that was and how much he really hurt my son. I hope they will now blacklist him as a job placement for disabilities placements. There has got to be a good placement out there that isn't paying sub-minimum wage, that he would use his gifts and he would enjoy with a boss that gets it. Just need to find it. And if I could take justice into my own hands, it would start out with a loud confrontation in spanish, planting poison ivy in his garden center followed by horrible online reviews.But As sure as God lives, He will be the one settling this matter from and in heaven and I am thankful for my own freedom to choose to leave it i his hands. He will care and provide for my son.
Meantime I have begun to think long term for him and my other 2 special needs guys. I am going to see if I can start a hydroponics tower garden business. Not sure how this will take shape but my dream would be to have a place for the towers to be with higher functioning students and adults come to work and then sell it back to the school or restaurant or sell at a farmer's market. That would produce many jobs such as growing the seedlings like kale, broccoli, lettuce, flowers, caring for the towers and plants, getting it ready for market, selling it etc. It would be vocational training so one would not need a 2 year degree to gain marketable skills. I want it to be solar powered as much as possible (and maybe even human powered?? like riding a stationary bike to power lights, appliances, heating water??). Still need to start at the very beginning so this winter I will be learning if I like this, if it is worth pursuing more, can turn a profit, and whether or not we can start small and sell at a farmer's market this coming year. If God wants this, then he will make it happen with me dragging my feet and all! He helped me homeschool that way for 18 years! Every year I would ask "Are you SURE, God???"Answer:"Yep,I sure am. Go get your big girl pants on and get ready for another year. And stop whining!"
Keep you posted on that one as I go..
As to FPU, now if we could get a budget going and really stick to it... It has been 26+ years of not doing it together. Separated that out a very lloonnggg time ago for my own sanity- one of us would have spent some time cooling off in a locked room or divorced. We are extremely different with budgeting but are getting nowhere with the other half in charge and me not helping in any way. Neither does having a plan for medical bills/debt, and all the other stuff that comes with raising a special needs family on a sub-minimum single salary in an expensive area.
On the lawn mower, weed whacker and poison ivy front,so sorry! We are having the same issue minus the poison ivy.
So awesome on the chicken sale, Rachel! Now what are you really needing to do with the extra $? And, yes, spend some on chicks!
I like going to yard sales! But I (true confessions here) like trash picking! Will post photos later what I trash picked tonight...
I have the same opinion about our local farmer's market. Just think it's too populated with yuppies and granola wannabees. I'd rather sell my stuff privately, as long as that option works. It's sometimes inconvenient to be carrying eggs everywhere, but even that has a benefit: I sell them at my convenience, instead of having folks dropping by my house at all hours. Love the chicken flipper!hb--that sounds like a wonderful plan. I think you should be able to do quite well with a product like that. Plus, lots of folks will support it just cause it's helping special needs gain employment. I'm seeing a spring launch.
Is your farmer's market a good place to sell things like that? Mine here seems....I don't know, very clique-ish and kind of closed. Plus, the fees are expensive. Too upscale, I guess is what I'm' thinking. For your product, that may be exactly your market though, or your market may be different.
I'm saving all my chicken $$ to go toward my new pens whenever we finally move. I have some pretty definite plans in mind, and they include housing multiple breeding flocks, so that will be a lot of pens. I want to do it right, starting with the footing, maybe cement for part of the area to combat the everlasting mud we have here. So, that money's getting stashed for more birds, just not quite yet. I was totally tempted to go online and order some chicks, but then I realized I really sold my barnyard mix for the same price, and I already have the parents for those, so why not just go with them.
I brought up the budget with Honey yesterday afternoon, wanted to go over it last night as we got paid yesterday. Didn't happen last night, but I want to do it today. We really need to get back on track, especially since he's starting school again and his hours will probably be cut back some.
After some cooler weather, we're supposed to be back up in the 90's today! Hope everyone has clear skies and nice temps.
Oh---at the sale, a man came by with five red sex links he said he wanted to sell, cause they weren't laying. Honey went ahead and bought them, cause I was busy with customers. Well, when we looked them over, they look like they're probably 2 year old birds who are just coming out of a molt. They did have a few lice----so I'm learning what to do for that. But here's the thing---Honey paid $25 for the 5 birds. The man then bought a hen for $15. So, we've got $10 in the hens. We got 2 eggs from them before we got them home, and 3 yesterday. He's going to treat them for parasites, then turn around and sell them to a friend who has been looking for some layers and make a little profit. I'm teasing him about his new career as a Chicken Flipper
Love it!"In the eye of the beholder"....got a fresh story for that!
Yesterday as we were leaving, I was getting in the truck and saw what I thought was a trash can lid on the side of the road. Went to pick it up and it was the end of one of those blue poly barrels, about 8inches or so. I tossed in in the bed of the truck, got in and explained what it was to Honey. We were both happy with that--it made a great feeder for some food stuffs we had to give to the pigs. He said something like "See, that's why we haven't been able to move yet".... I told him I was so glad we'd found each other. We would have made two "normal" people miserable!
