What a week!! Looking back on a week filled with hard things and some really wonderful moments…

A week ago today I found budworms (beyond disgusting!!) in our roses. We’ve never had caterpillars/worms/moths so I had to get my thinking cap on and figure out how to eradicate them quickly. They replicate so fast. Ryan had to suit up and spray all of our roses with neem and spinosad (organic rated) so we could stop their lifecycle. Our giant spray rig was broken all of a sudden, so he used the backpacks and let me tell you, it’s painfully slow. That’s what last weekend consisted of and it was super gross and not fun whatsoever. The budworms are gone and now we know to look out for them next summer!

Then Sunday night the water main coming into our community broke. We were without running water for two days. No toilets for 20+ people or water for processing our roses. Ryan brought in dozens of 5 gallon jugs of water. Our water is back, but we have to boil it for another week!

On Tuesday as we were plowing our back field, the electric to the back half of our property was ripped straight out of the ground! We had all the utilities flagged prior to plowing, but someone didn’t do their job right. Now our barn is running on very little power until we can get a new board installed this Monday. Thankfully our coolers are running, which are all we really need.

And today, a delivery man slammed into our gate. Our last farm had gate accidents as well, so maybe it’s just our luck. It’s been such a long week!

Great things also happened this week. We shipped more roses than we ever have in a single week thanks to our wonderful team. And what I’m really excited about is the total transformation taking place at our farm. We’re clearing and grading 10 acres of hillside, and oh my gosh, it’s looking so incredible. I hike up and tears start to flood my eyes. We’ll plant tens of thousands of roses on the hills very soon and I can’t believe it. It’s beyond my wildest dreams and going to be so beautiful.

The best thing this week is Seraphina finally walking on her own. She’s been able to walk by herself for about a month, but she always insisted on holding a hand. As of this week she’s off to the races and loving her independence. We can’t keep up with her!

We hope you had a nice week and restful weekend ahead! Crossing our fingers for no more drama here for at least a few days.