Another Heat Wave…Breaking Old Habits

We didn’t have much heat while we were at the ranch this summer, but California is certainly making up for that now for us. They are predicting temperatures in the 90’s here in Saratoga for the next few days, just as they were when we were setting up the patch…not looking forward to that at all. It was getting really nice the past week, high in the 70’s, lows in the 50’s, but now…too hot for working outdoors, that is for sure.

Long Island Cheese

Are you one of those people that expect too much of yourself?

We once again have turned back into that type of people and it is so hard to change those habits. It’s about that old recording we playback in our heads, telling us that if we are not working as hard as an ox, then we are not doing enough. That old stinking thinking that we are never good enough to do anything else but to work our bodies until we end up actually hurting ourselves. We get into that frame of mind that makes us believe that doing for others and neglecting ourselves is acceptable behavior. We get so busy trying to make everything so perfect that we neglect taking care of ourselves. We don’t eat properly, we don’t take those moments to do what we should be doing so that we don’t get burned out. It’s not others that tell us to work that hard, it is our own selves that take our ethics to a level that is truly unhealthy.

Jarrahdales

We are working 12 hour shifts, the lot is open from 9 to 9 and there are times that we are not busy, but for the most part, we are so busy. Not that we are making many sales, since most folks just come in to allow their children to run rapid throughout the patch, destroying pumpkins and then getting upset with us if we ask then nicely not to allow them to do it. As I said in previous posts, it is only a small percentage but we allow those few a day to almost wreck our days. Learning hard not to let that happen, but not always accomplishing that lesson.

Speckled Swans

As you can probably gather from these posts, most likely, we will not be doing another pumpkin patch any time soon, at least not this kind that has all this FREE activity. Working in a lot and selling pumpkins would be ideal, not having all this free for all with the children is the problem. We are told, but we doubt it, that all these people will come back and buy pumpkins later…NOT! We have had several folks, the truly buying ones that said they did not appreciate all the kids running around as if this were a park. Trying to maintain some sort of sanity has been the most difficult task for us, the parents always come back with the same arguments, “We have always been able to do this in the past…blah…blah…blah” Maybe they had, maybe not, but what matters to us is that we have to tell them over and over not to allow their children to run through the pumpkins, pick them up and try to carry them around, walk all over them, or so many other things that they do to disturb any sort of sanity. Then there have been a few of those parents that drop off their children and either leave completely or sit in their cars the entire time. We have tried to stop that from happening but many times, there are so many people in this lot that we can’t tell who is with who.

It’s a mad house I tell you…it’s a mad house…but it’s only for 20 more days…

Flying Saucers

Would love to hear from anyone out there who has done a pumpkin patch in the past, or are doing one now that can tell me if they are all like this one.