Propagation

Now at work I am referred to as "Propagation Pete". In the prop group, that is. I guess I am technically assistant propagator Pete, alongside Lindsay the other assistant and our fearless leader, Propagator Paul.

June 25th was really my first day. So far my tasks have been sticking cuttings, moving cuttings, and prepping plants for potting. We root a lot of our own plants, for our home farm, as well as the Main farm. This means that if the other farm is ready for planting, we have to prep all the cuttings, put them on racks, and send them over to the other farm. This coming week we will be sending over all of the grafts that we grafted this past winter to main farm. A few 53' trailers and all the grafted under stock will be there. Then our flowering shrub cuttings will be next. It looks like I keep moving into the faster paced parts of the nursery, even as the pace picks up! What a rush! Fortunately my Spanglish is also improving!

three years ago...

..H1 was born. I can't believe he has grown up this fast. Three years seems like a short time unless looking with a parents perspective. What is three years to an adult? For some children it's more than a lifetime!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOOTS!!!!!!

Lake to Lake Classic 2007

I did it!! Not near the front, way ahead of the back, right in the middle! I finished my 50km race in about 3 hours. Nothing to brag about, just a great personal accomplishment. I registered 5 nursery staff, myself included, plus one more that registered the day before. (there were only 5 slots left)
1050 people were at the starting line at 11:00am, and started arriving at the finish in under two hours later! Only 850 people crossed the finish line. The others had flats with no spare, spills, cramps, bike issues, etc. One of "our" guys had problems with his derailleur, thus not making it quite to the 1/3 mark.

Results:


After all is said and done, we are all already looking forward to next year!


*PICTURE ADDED JULY 20'07*


Finally, made it!

when the cats away..

...mice will play. But not in my case. It seems since C & the kids went out west, I've had no time to really relax. Thankfully. Otherwise I'd be pretty upset that they are not home with me.

Tuesday: to the airport, followed closely by house work
Wednesday: work until 6:00, go home and do more house work, mow the yard
Thursday: work until 5:00, go to the local pub for a friends birthday (just a quick one)
Friday: work until 5:00, go biking to get ready for Sundays race
Saturday: work until noon, yard work, visit mom who just got back from China
Sunday: Lake to Lake Classic bike race with 4 co-workers. (others are placing bets as to who will not finish) I'm not on that bet
Monday: work until ___
Tuesday: work until ___, mow the yard
Wednesday: work until 10:00, pick up my family from the airport, possibly head back to work depending on how busy we are.

and that is my week in a nutshell!
So much for playing!!

Driver Sales

I guess you do learn something new every day. Today I learned that in our area of Niagara region, nurseries are starting to try out "driver sales". This whole idea is not new to me, I used to do driver sales into New York State. Namely Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. The idea behind it is simple. Load your truck full with flowers (or perennials) and drive from door to door and sell your plants. I have experience with cut flower sales, not potted perennials. Today our company is getting ready to try this out. We are trying to do the "buy this whole cart of plants and receive a discount" approach. On my end in the nursery, I had to help set up the whole cart display. I was given some plant suggestions to pull from the nursery, but the final say was mine. I could change to whatever plant I thought would be the nicest. We brought some patio planters over from the main farm as well, but most of the product was our own 2 gallon and 1 gallon plants. Tomorrow morning, 2 co-workers and myself have to finish it up. Tagging and such is all that needs to be done. The straight truck that we have can fit 14 carts. Each cart has 2 layers of one gallon 6-packs, (8 six packs per layer = 42 pots) and either 2 layers of patio pots, or 1 layer of 2 gallon plants.After all is said and done, I have to admit the carts look great. Not only my own opinion, but co-workers as well. We will see on Monday how the first run works out, and if it's all good, we keep on doing it!!

Home Alone :(

This afternoon I drove my wife and kids to the airport. They are on their way to visit grampa and gramma in Saskatchewan. Grampa and gramma are ecstatic about the visit, phone calls and pictures are only so good. Even uncle Lance and Catherine are planning to meet up on the weekend. Now for some great one-on-one time at their reunion! C. is also excited to head west. She is a natural born prairie girl, and always talks of the land of living skies.

This is the first time that I wasn't there on the plane to help with the kids. I can only hope that they are well behaved for her. A three year old and 18 month old can be a handful in the backyard, let alone a confined aircraft. On the plus side, our children are usually very well mannered, polite and obedient. Of course the phrase "monkey see, monkey do" comes to mind. If H1 can do it, so can H2. That being said, I hope H1 listens to mom so H2 can follow suit.

I, on the other hand, am staying to watch the home front. And working. Oh ya, and biking!! I have had numerous invites from co-workers and family to keep myself occupied. And of course the daily phone calls from the kids will help pass the time.

I now have a very mild taste of what my Mexican com padres must feel when they come up here for months on end.

back on earth

Well, no, I didn't fall from the face of the earth, just crazy busy.

We are near the end of our busiest shipping days. Kind of. In a couple of weeks, most of the perennials we planted this spring will be ready to ship. At least we will have some students in to help. As much as possible, the Hombres (Mexicans) have been doing nursery work. This entails things like: pruning what needs it, spacing what needs it, condensing other blocks that have been decimated by shipping, moving to free up more houses, and of course potting new crops.

I have also been promoted to Assistant Propagator. A new challenge is always welcome for me, as this means more hands-on experience. I have done other propagation in greenhouses, (geranium, chrysanthemum, poinsettia etc.) but never in the nursery. Yet. I will now get to learn perennial, flowering shrub, and hard-wood/softwood rooting and maintenance. And of course grafting in the winter. Coincidentally I seem to have worked up the ladder in an odd fashion. Things seem to have gotten lighter! First I was on the Main Farm, shipping and learning nursery work. (the smallest pot-size was a one gallon, all the way up to a twenty five gallon container.) Mid-summer I was transferred to the Home Farm where I am now. Most of our containers are one gallon, but no more than a three gallon, ornamental grasses in a five gallon excepted. Now I will be handling trays of 18 pack, and jiffy trays.




I will post new pictures soon.
Till next time, cause you never know when that may be!




(pictures added June 12'07)