13 Days…22 Hours…5 Minutes…

But who’s counting?

Even though this Pumpkin Station experience has been the best we have ever had, we are still counting down to when we will be on our mini vacation in between this and the Christmas tree lot.

Hooking up, getting some work done on Maggie, overnight on Catalina Island without Maggie, play days and the Boat Ride on the Colorado River we have been anticipating for years is just a few of the many things we have planned for those 18 days.

Getting out of California for a little while will be a treat, we have been here for months and are looking forward to heading to Arizona and Nevada for a few days to just unwind and cross things off on our Life List.

Managing this lot has been a great experience; we have learned what it is like to truly be appreciated for our skills and to work for a very well-oiled company.  They do everything top-notched, their systems work and we are happy to be a part of this family. 

The only complaint we have would be about the hired workers but we have weeded out the bad apples and are finally down to the very best of the crop.  Many of the workers have been coming back for years and as I informed one of them that in all actuality that only means they have worked for a few months since this is a seasonal one month job, not the years they continue to state they have been with the company.  Many of them took advantage of the other managers and took long breaks and even hours on company time, did not show up for shifts and then expected to just show up for their next one and work.  That is not how we operate, this is a business, not a day care center and we hire adults who need to give us their all while they are on our time, if not they can find other work.  We run a tight ship and once that word got around we began losing people which was really a blessing.  Now, we can relax and have some fun since all of our workers are now exactly that, they are workers who understand that this is a business.

Now that we are on the last part of this, we will continue getting busier each day.  Pumpkin sales will rise and so will the traffic but that will make every day fly by and before we know it, we will be on vacation once again.

For more photos, check out our Picasa Web Albums.

The Games Have Begun

It has been a strange opening for us, we piddled around the lot while the workers did the rest.  Ah hah, we now know what it is to manage a lot and not work a lot…big difference and we most certainly can get used to this.

By not destroying our bodies with all the setup, we now have plenty of stamina to take care of the staff and the customers the way they should be treated, not from the pain and tiredness but from relaxed and ready to work side of us.  Love it!

Norm and Linda Osborne and their son Mike have owned this family business Pinery Christmas Trees and Pumpkin Station for many years and they do a top notch job keeping these businesses flourishing.  We had our employee orientation and hired around 50 people, Linda came by and facilitated the event and it all came together and went pretty smooth. 

The pumpkin business is much different from Christmas trees.  With the tree business, it booms on opening and slows way down towards the end.  Pumpkins on the other hand begin very slow and then booms for the last two weeks.  By then we feel we will be ready for it and will have all of our best employees prepared and then head out on November 1^st with a satisfying feeling of completion of a job well done.

The weather has been a bit draining, since El Cajon, California has been in the 100’s for days now, but we are told that today should be the end of the 100’s…we are hoping that this time the weather forecasters are correct.  Wouldn’t you love a job where you can be wrong 90% of the time and still have a job?