At work today I figured out a better way to configure our email and calendar to work more effectively. That felt good. I don't understand how all of the magic happens, but I think I can recreate the magic for my employees, so I'm not sure understanding how it works matters. That was really nice.
On a down-side, I realized that some automation I want to implement can be done, but there are significant up-front costs and ongoing monthly costs that may make it prohibitively expensive. That's frustrating. I know what I want to do, and I know it can be done, but if doing so costs twice as much as paying an employee to do it, how do we justify that? I am not done yet; we are going to do more analysis on the costs and see if we can negotiate the price down. But it would have to come way down. And as I wrote that sentence, I thought of a contact who may be able to do the programming I need for much less money. I just sent an email and added this to my to do list…
Tonight I worked in the garden and got about ¾ of the way done putting in the drip system. I found a different type of dripper that puts more water out for the raspberries. I tested it out, and it looks like it's going to work great. BIG raspberries this year! Tomorrow I'll finish getting the tomatoes and peppers set for watering, then we need to plant the strawberries and sweet potatoes and clear the area for the pumpkin and zucchini plants. Those are staying in buckets for another month; Julie heard that if you wait until late June, the squash bugs (that have a bad habit of eating our plants) will all be gone. It's worth a try! Spencer, Neil and Isaac all helped in the garden, and it was nice to have them with me.
When I got home from work tonight Emma and Camilla were happily going into the Bates' house to play. That seemed strange to me, so I asked Julie about. Apparently Spencer and Luke Bates (same age) got together today and really hit it off. They played games, made cookies, and checked out Luke's hamster. The girls tagged along for some fun too. That's terrific! I'm so happy Spencer has found someone nearby who is his age to do stuff with. I hope they can be a good influence on each other and develop a meaningful friendship.
Thankful: Getting stuff done. Man, does that feel good.
Ministering: Just as I was wrapping up in the garden tonight I saw Carlan and Amanda Smith through the fence. We visited for a few minutes, and they showed me the blackberry bush they have planted in the back corner of their yard near our raspberries. I asked how they were watering it, and they said "by hand." Maybe they're way more diligent than I am, but if it was my plant, it would be dead by mid-June from unintentional neglect. I offered to run a drip head through the chain link fence from our raspberry line to water it automatically. They gratefully accepted. Score one for neighborliness! (And hopefully God will smile on this act of kindness and bless our garden!)
I hear a load of laundry calling me to fold it. More later…
This morning was beautiful. Here's the front flower bed on my way out this morning. (And the Preen we put down seems to be working... there aren't any weeds! Knock on wood.)
Maybe tomorrow I'll get a photo of the vegetable garden before it is dark...
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