Monday, November 12, 2012

The Humongous and the Sexy


Whenever it gets to be near the end of the year, I rethink how I want next year to go. I start making lists and marking the calendar for next year.

2013 is going to be a humongous year on Tortuga Flats. At least it should be. We have all kinds of ideas we're brainstorming. And then there's the baby! And then there's the hope I have for the mystery series I'm writing sold.
We'll need to quadruple this for next year

One of our last harvests
We're researching how we can get our other two acres farmed, what we should grow and how to sell the crop. Should we grow several things or specialize? What's our market? Two acres really isn't all that much land but still quite a bit for four people to handle. We're also brainstorming different ways to bring in help. I'm gathering Farmers' Markets information. Frank is researching crop prices and output per acre, etc. Lance is planning layout of the land and what equipment we're going to need. I'm looking into nontraditional avenues of funding while Frank is looking toward traditional means. Lance is on the lookout for the really nontraditional ideas. Hopefully, by the first of the year, a plan will unfold.

My sexy new hero looks like who??
I've established some self-imposed deadlines for my writing projects. I'm having a little trouble right now nailing down my latest hero, Mason. Who he is in my head is not translating on paper, but once I get that figured out, my newest novel needs to get completed.

I've decided to have a regular schedule for this blog and my web page newsletter. Next year I'll blog about the farm on Tortuga Thursdays. On Mondays I'll blog about writing. And occasionally I'll have guest bloggers on all kinds of subjects. I'd like to hear what you think about this sort of regular schedule. My web newsletter has only gone out sporadically when I've had something to announce. I'm going to start sending it out quarterly. If you'd like to get on that mailing list go here: http://www.brendawhiteside.com/contact.html#newsletter

Mom on her 80th last year
Last week, I spent three nights with my mom. The trip to the big city had three purposes - three month full body dermatology check, shopping with mom and an all day writers' workshop in Scottsdale. Mom and I shopped for two days straight at the mall. No wonder I'm under the weather today and staying in bed. I'm not a good shopper. But I felt like the country gal who couldn't get enough of the big city stores! My mom is eighty and she ran me ragged.

Wish I had some interesting pictures of Tortuga Flats to post, but this is that ugly in between time of year. In another week or so we'll (well, not me actually) burn and turn the land. I'll get some of that recorded.

6 comments:

  1. What about specialized crops? Growing items that you can't get at the store, such as, baby carrots, or baby anything vegetables, those small lettuce heads, ask a up-scale restaurant if you can grow items that they have problems getting. Fresh herbs, which if you package yourselves, could sell in a lot of grocery stores. They'd be fresher than anything they could have delivered.

    I thought about raising peppers, those hot ones and making my own hot sauce. LOL

    Good luck!

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    1. All good ideas and under consideration. Between Lance and Christie they have over 20 years of restaurant experience so they'll be approaching specialized restaurants who want local, fresh, organic produce. And we are also thinking about some of our jarred products. Hot sauce might be good - you should consider!

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  2. I can never get enough, hearing about your life in AZ! Love the thought of switching the blog around and having designated days. You have your hands full and I know you'll all be successful.

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