April

Gotta make hay when the sun is shining and that's what I've been making. I had a record month and managed to pay off a nice chunk of our biz startup debt as well as secure many new customers. I'm up over 80 now, some weekly, many monthly, many more seasonally. Cory Straker stayed with us for a few weeks and helped me bang out 2-3 treatments a day, which I know doesn't sound like much, but they are usually 6-7 hour jobs for one person so you do the math. Cory also lectured, I mean educated, us on nutrition introducing us to such wonders as Cocunut Oil instead of Margarine, Walnut Oil instead of salad dressing, Yams instead of Chips among other things. It was great actually. Besides, we introduced him to stuff too ok.

May is beginning a bit slower than April mostly due to the fact that Cory helped me do six weeks of work in 3 - so today I am going to go back cold calling like I did in the beginning, to ensure business continues to move ahead strong. Actually I have an exciting meeting this morning as I'm sitting down with an ecologist to discuss eco lawn/landscape plans for the grounds of the local university. I'll let you know how it goes. Anyways, in case you're interested, most of our treatments involve power-raking, aerating, liming, seeding, compost top dressing and then 2 other treatments unique to our company that are garnering great results. Mycorrhizae Fungi and Effective Micro-organisms. These are the new innovations in lawn care and will be standard one day, especially in 2012 when Canada bans pesticides. Amazing stuff you should try in your lawn and garden.

Angie has been more supportive, helpful than is possible by continuing to make our company look good online and in magazines as well as keeping me fed and loved each night as I roll in exhausted at 8pm. In her spare time she works for Nurse's Next Door, is an excellent mother to 3 high energy kids and has transformed the clay pit outside our house to a lovely landscape. She also has been doting over her other kids, veggie plants. I can't get enough of this woman and I shudder to think what life would be like without her.

You may have heard about our Disneyworld plan. Next January we are flying down (thank you Visa Avion points) to South Carolina to visit my parents. They are only 7 hours from Disneyworld - which I know sounds like a lot- but not to 3 motivated kids. We made a deal with the kids that if they wanted to go they would have to work for it just like us. They called our bluff and said, fine, we'll start our own business. And that's exactly what they've done. Ethan and Lex are the neighborhood Pooper Scoopers and have gotten quite busy. In fact, Ethan said the other day as we were driving somewhere "I only have Sunday and Wednesday off next week." haha. Currently they are bringing in over $100 a month heading towards their goal of $1500 for the year. Maddie has been baking delicious cookies and selling them along with home-made lemonade and after a strong first Saturday ($50 profit), she's been busy the past few weekends but excited to get back at it. We never wanted kids who saw places like Disneyworld as a right instead of a privelage, so we're hoping that working for it will help.

As usual, I gotta get back to it, so tales of church, wine tasting at Averill Creek and movies will have to wait until next month. Speaking of next month, our good friends Darcy and Hope/Family are coming to stay with us for a ENTIRE night. Can't wait....to convince them to stay longer.

John