Life update...

I was thinking the other day that it had been quite some time since I had written...but I can't believe almost a month has past...!

We launched the new Veggie Website the first week of March (www.southmountainveggies.com), and we got almost 1000 customer sign-ups and we knew that we had to select only 350, so that was some hard decision making on Tony's part...it ultimately came down to the areas with the most density of interest and then it was divided out into 5 routes, and then we sent out the emails to everyone letting them know if they made the cut or not...most people were understanding...others not so much. At this point we are awaiting a decision from the bank on our loan and then we can move forward with buying a truck, setting up the bank account and cleaning up the space we are going to be renting to use as the warehouse and loading dock...our plans are to be making the first deliveries by June.

I have been having trouble with my stomach again and was in alot of pain and was unable to eat, so I got back in with the Gastro Doctor and had the Upper GI study done again (it has been almost 2 years since the last one) and although there was no ulcers there were many legions (basically if I would have let things go I would have ulcers again) so I am back on a bunch of meds again and I am feeling a lot better.

Gabe finished his winter indoor soccer season with 5 wins and 1 loss, and we invited the whole team out to the creamery for ice cream and all the kids played on straw mountain for awhile. Gabe has also been busy earning academic badges and pins for cub scouts and this weekend we have been trying to get all the achievements completed so that he can move up to the Bears in the fall. I also had another conference with his teacher and he is ready in all areas but his writing (meaning punctuation and grammar) to be moved to the 4th grade next year, so it is up to him at this point if he can improve enough in this important area or not.

Sophia just finished 8 weeks of gymnastics and I signed her up again for another 8 week session for the spring, she is really getting good and loves going. She is also reading now, and is very proud of herself! I got her signed up for Kindergarten and they sent home a packet of items that the kids needed to know before they started in the fall (ie matching capital letters to the lower case ones, counting to 20 and placing the numbers in the correct order when they are mixed up) and she took one look at it and said "that's so easy" so we sent the packet back to school and figured there would be another child that could maybe use it since she won't be needing it.

Tony has had his hands in a lot of new projects...we are getting ready to expand the creamery, because the milk price is at an all time low he is also trying to line up lots of wholesale accounts (something we really did not want to do before) but since we want to sell as much milk as we can thru the creamery versus sending it to the co-op we are now open to the idea. An article ran in a newspaper down in Virginia Beach, VA about us and now we have some interest in that area (which is 4 hours away) to do delivery and if we can get 1500-2000 customers we are honestly considering it. We have landed at least 2 ice cream accounts so we will be making ice cream every day starting next week to keep up with the demand not only for our store but for a store in Ocean City and one in Silver Spring.

All in all I would say life is treating us really good at the moment, we have alot to be thankful for, it is a nice place to be in!