The To-Do list today started out pretty clear cut. The plan was to get an early start into town. I need more potting soil, a few groceries, and feed for the horses. That plan was nixed when I woke up and checked email and found a host of notices to alert me of the flurry of spammers that had been working hard linking to my website all night.

So “to-do”plans were rearranged to take care of that matter first. Then I’ll head to town, I thought, if it looks like I can get the errands run and make it home before more rain comes. (Update from later on in the day: of course it would rain before I got back home, and all the packages I had in the back of the truck and the feed too got wet.)

Working on March newsletter

I’m almost done with this and will try to get it posted before the end of the weekend. Maybe tonight if I’m lucky.

Still Writing on Bounty Hunter

This is my rural fantasy novel in progress. I’m at about 30,000 words on it now and approaching the main character’s first experience with making a hit on the character she and her co-protagonist are hunting.

Making business card and brochure card holders

I have other ideas for holders and things like this, using natural stone and wood and features from the land. Just haven’t had a chance yet to work on them. Maybe I will make a few and see if there’s a market for them at the booth this year. Pretty Wild Ozark things ought to hold cards on every business desk, at least in Huntsville.

Market and Nursery To-Do

roasting coffee

Oh how I am loving our new coffee roaster. I can do a whole pound at a time now, instead of the puny 1/4 cup the Jiffy Popcorn Popper could do. Now I’m getting all creative with the coffee blends and have fallen in love with the ginseng leaf coffee. It’s for sale over at the shop now, if you’d like to try it. I’ll have some at the booth too, but this is easy enough to ship out by mail. I roast once a week now, and if sales pick up I’ll roast more often. Next blend on the list is going to have roasted ginseng root in it. And a third option will have roasted dandelion root. So far only the ginseng leaf roast is listed at the shop, but I’ll add the one without any additions soon. Ginseng and dandelion root roast will come online after that.

making balms

I have some more lobelia infusing in oil now and will make a ginseng & lobelia sore muscle & cramp rub with it soon. It won’t have all the same ingredients as the last batch because some of those herbs won’t be ready to harvest again until the end of summer. So we’ll see how the more austere ingredient list does. More lip balm is on the list, too.

ordering books

I can’t afford to order any more books right now so I hope this month is a good one for sales so I can order books before market opens in April.

starting seeds

• chiltepin (tiny little pepper native to south Texas)
• dragon blood tree
• goji berry
• beardtongue (certain bumble bees, and hummingbird)
• still looking for the seeds I put up when organizing the office… they’re in there somewhere

looking for the return of last year’s starts so I can divide and pot up for market

• beebalm
• elderberry
• mullein
• wild hydrangea
• raspberry
• bloodroot
• goldenseal
• ginseng
• black and blue cohosh
• maidenhair fern
• doll’s eyes

Sign up for my nursery brochure with the form at my nursery page. These will go out sometime in April, once I have a good idea of what I’ll be offering at the booth.

Upcoming Speaking Gigs To-Do

There’s one in May I haven’t heard back from about, so I need to contact the organizer to see if we’re still on for that one.  Also need to follow up on making sure I have a booth at Fair on the Square in May. Then in June there are two scheduled- A short ginseng workshop at the Fayetteville Public Library and a Nature Journaling workshop at The Place on the Square in Kingston.

website issues

• spam galore, figure out alternative to paid Akismet. I’m trying the plugin AntiSpam Bee and so far it seems to be working well. When my budget rebounds a little I’ll make a donation to the creator of this one instead of renewing my Akismet since they were so kind as to make it available free of charge.
• updating to make AMP compatible
• trying to repair schema markup problems with the AMP pages

So there you have it.

That’s my to-do list I’m working on this month, not including the ever-present housework items that don’t get checked off nearly often enough. Rob will be home by the end of the month so I’ll have to step up my efforts on that end of things soon!