Mrs. David's Garden Seeds®

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Human Resources Issues

Sometimes, we have human resources issues that come up here at David's Garden Seeds®. Our production manager, Jay, does our HR stuff for us. He keeps track of hours, absences, and infractions. When someone gets interviewed for hire, he is there to ask questions. When someone is written up or is terminated, he is normally there. He helps with managerial decisions and we trust his judgment. We have paid to send him for HR training and seminars.

When you own your own business, you may have to handle human resources issues, or you can hire an HR specialist to handle human resources issues for you.

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Human Resources Issues - 7/5-7/11/2021

Monday, July 5, 2021 - Human Resources Issues

Good Monday morning! Our team has off today due to the fact that I wanted a day off from work. Human Resources Issues like days off are an important consideration to any business. Jay, our Production Manager, also acts as our Human Resources liaison and he and I discussed having this day off and we were both in agreement. It is good for morale when a holiday falls on a weekend, to give our team members off from work when we can.

Today, Nacho and a helper are here doing various things for David about the property. As you know, we had to lay off our outdoor team last week because no money was being made for the business from that department. This can create human resources issues, but we did a Reduction In Force so those affected employees can qualify for unemployment.

Summer is our business slow time so they should have picked up the slack by making sure plenty of produce was growing. Instead, almost all of what was planted died because they did not use the fertilizers and organic products that we supplied to them to use. The watering system they started over three months ago remains unfinished so the crops never got enough water to produce.

The well water filtration system was bypassed and never hooked back up, so our well water is still coming out with brown iron in it. This was supposed to be hooked back up a few weeks ago.

I am getting things cleaned up in the house, as well as on the websites. We are hoping that the surgeon will remove David's drains this week when we go to see him, but there is still a lot of fluid coming out of them. I don't think they will be removed. I hope I am wrong.

Nacho and Ryan stayed until after 6pm. Around 9pm, I heard thunder and then the rain started.

One of our laid off team members called this evening around 6pm and said he wants to slaughter our rabbits and in exchange he will take a few with him as payment. What? Maybe this is a human resources issue. Of course, we said no thank you.

If you are just jumping in to our farm journal, my husband is David of David's Garden Seeds®.

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Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Not sure how much it rained in the night but everything was soaking wet when I let the dogs out this morning. My mistake this morning is that I did not go out right then to feed the animals. About 30 minutes later, the heavens opened and I had to go out in the rain with an umbrella. It is like our farm is right in the middle of a flood zone because everything was in standing water. Good thing I have good chicken rain boots.

I fed everyone and then our team members started showing up while I went to feed the fish in the pouring rain. Today is payday so I am sure they will be coming.

We have no well water so I could not use it to water the animals. Nacho had to shut it off because it is not hooked up right. In fact, the well guy had to come out yesterday afternoon and show David how it should be hooked up. Seems some of our folks redid things so nothing is working correctly.

The new website has potential problems. Some items have duplicates or are out of stock. Some bulk items were put up as being in stock, and one of our orders was flagged as fraud. I emailed the customer twice now on the "fraudulent" order, but she will not respond.

The customer responded and verified the order but now Shopify gives me an edit that says 502 Bad Gateway so I can do nothing until it is resolved by Shopify. These are all new things that I have never had to deal with before.

I am working inside my home office today until I am needed in the store. Right now, one of our team members is in there.

I have not spent much time in our farm store over the last two weeks because I have been spending my time by David so he won't do anything he is not supposed to do. I am covering the store this afternoon and I just noticed that my Apple iPhone charger cord and plug that I keep here in the store for my use and my use only is gone. I asked about it and another team member let someone who is no longer with us borrow it last week. How nice.

I believe the rain has finally finished. It is so humid and hot out there.

Earlier today, we met with some marketing people and got some ideas. Since corona, customers in the farm store have been sparse. Hopefully this will help. We talked about radio, TV, billboards, emails, direct mailings, and internet ads. We will not do all of these, but it is good to hear options.

This afternoon, Molly ate more of Lucy's new bed that she just got two weeks ago. David ordered her a new one.

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Wednesday, July 7, 2021

It has been raining off and on here all day long. It is now 2pm and it just started pouring again. I am in the store so I need to go out in to go potty. Fun times.

Earlier today, a new state health inspector stopped by. She told us that we have to refrigerator our canned goods and since we did not that we have to throw them all away. David tried to show her the rules but she said they were wrong. She kept calling her supervisor. So the stuff that we canned on Monday had to be put in the dumpster because she doesn't know her job.

Anyone who cans things in mason jars and gives them a water bath per the Ball Canning recipe book which is required in the state of Texas, knows that you don't refrigerate your canned goods. That is the whole idea. You preserve your food so it is good to sit on a shelf until it is eaten or sold. This was our first time to be inspected. We hardly ever use our commercial kitchen because we have not had much produce. The "inspector" told us that they will be sending out a seasoned inspector in a few weeks. Why two of them in two weeks? It seems fishy to me.

As she was here, the pest control people who come once a month came and sprayed in the commercial kitchen as she was in there talking to her supervisor on the phone. It was hilarious.

Matthew cleaned the chicken coop out for me and two high school grads did additional work out back.

I put together Lucy's new bed. The thing is gigantic and heavy and came in sections. We are trying very hard to keep Molly away from it. Molly has now eaten four dog beds and they are not cheap. Lucy needs a bed because she has arthritis.

The rest of the day was busy with rain and animals. I was so tired that I fell asleep during Masterchef and I love that show! In fact, David had to wake me so I could see the ending and put the chickens away for the night.

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Thursday, July 8, 2021

Good Thursday morning, fellow gardeners. Once again, it is raining on and off. We have had to run company errands and had business visitors. Three of our staff chose to take this day off and David and I leave in a few hours to see the surgeon. I am so hoping he removes David's drains. I know I haven't said too much about them, but they keep on draining blood and I have to measure it from each drain. So gross. I don't believe they will be removed today because there is still so much coming out of each drain. I hope I am wrong.

Today, I am finally out in the store so Matthew could go eat lunch. We haven't had any customers, but I am sure it is because of the rain. It is not a good day to tour the farm and get wet sand all over your boots.

We still can't find all five fish but the large orange koi was hiding away for over two weeks when she finally reappeared so we won't give up hope yet.

We went to the doctor today for a 4pm appointment with David's surgeon. Around 4:40pm, we were called back. Then we had about another 15 minute wait. The surgeon came in and he removed David's three drains and all of his staples. He said David would continue to drain fluids until the holes shut up, in about 24 hours. I was so happy that I would not have to empty bloody drains again.

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Friday, July 9, 2021

Good Friday morning! It is raining again this morning, sometimes very heavily. I went out to feed the fish early this morning and unlock the buildings. I got to the fish pond and there was a nasty snake swimming around in there. It was kind of dark and I did not get a photo. The fish did not eat. They were swimming for their lives.

Then I unlocked the fulfillment and production buildings. On the doorknob of the production building, there was a mini frog. I screamed out loud and then realized what it was and took a photo. He is very pretty but that stupid snake spooked me!

Matt and Jay chased the snake out about an hour later and said we have four fish left. I am so disgusted. Of course, the snake repellent that was supposed to be put out once a week, was hidden up on the hill inside of a shed and hadn't been put out in about four weeks. I do not understand why our outdoor crew would not do the things we told them had to be done. We paid them very well, probably double of what they would get in San Antonio and still we could not get things done.

Every time the snake repellent is put out, there is a nasty, distinctive odor and I have not smelled that in a long time. Anyway, I just went to feed the fish again and there are only four but there have been four all week long. At least he did not get another one today. Matt will put the snake repellent out today. I wonder if it will do any good since it is pouring.

This afternoon, we had a power outage and after an hour, we sent everyone home and we closed the store. We cannot check anyone out without the internet and electricity...

When the power came back on, the pump in the pond did not. I have no idea where the reset button is.

Human Resources Issues

Over the course of the almost six years that our business has been outside of our home, a lot of human resources issues have come up. David and Jay have handled them. Again, Jay is our production manager but he is also handling our human resources issues for us as he has been trained for human resources issues. He is very good at handling most of our people.

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Saturday, July 10, 2021

This morning, we had a few of our team members come and chop cucumbers to make pickles. While here, one of them reset our pond pump button and showed me where it is. The pump came on and the fish feel better. The water looks considerably deeper, but the rain has been way too much. We still have standing water in the back forty.

This morning, I found this amazing, colorful vine growing on the side fenceline with pretty little fruits. I picked one and peeled it open. Just covered seeds in there with some juice. I tasted it and it was a sweet flavor but there is nothing to eat. The vine has green, yellow, orange, and red fruits holding on to the fence with tiny tendrils. It is beautiful.

The chicken coop is still partly under water as well. The sun actually showed itself as it came up this morning. The skies were beautiful and then overcast again as clouds moved in. It poured again early this afternoon. The air is thick with humidity and awful heat. David and I went to Walmart to pick up a few canning supplies in the rain.

I did a bunch of laundry. It is almost time for Svengoolie to come on MeTV and we will be having Chinese takeout. Yay!

David's wounds from surgery are still leaking out so I just changed the gauze again.

Okay, the Chinese food from a restaurant in Natalia, was delicious. I loved it, especially the dumplings. This was the best Asian food I have eaten since we moved out here almost two years ago. Fantastic! The place is called Natalia Thai, Chinese & Fah. We will definitely get food from there again.

The Svengoolie movie was I Saw What You Did from 1965. It was a black and white movie with Joan Crawford and some very stupid teenage girls. I was amazed at how little there was for teenagers to do back then that all they could think of was making prank phone calls. I was creeped out for sure.

Human Resources Issues

We recently hired back some of our college aged team members who were temporary and part time. We laid them off a while back. One of them texted in his notice of quitting. He is moving back to the town where he goes to college to work there. That is too bad but we won't worry about it because he was temporary. Ordinarily, we would want a formal written notice with a two week notice but because he is just a summer worker, we won't have any human resources issues. You need to pick and choose your battles and your human resources issues and if he wants to move back to College Station early to go to work there, that is fine.

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Sunday, July 11, 2021

Happy Sunday! There are rain clouds out there again, folks. We have standing water in the yard and algae is growing on the sand. We don't need more rain. There is still water in the chicken coop. We need a lovely, warm, sunny day to dry all of this water up.

I went out to feed everyone. Then I picked the red Balsam Gourds for the seeds. I am going to see if I can get some to grow as ornamental fruit plants. If I can, I will sell them at our store. I did some research on them yesterday. They are Texas Native plants also known as Snake Apples but their proper name is Ibervillea Lindheimeri. That is a mouthful. This plant is a vine that grows up fences or a lattice by making tiny tendrils and gets from six to ten feet tall. The one on our property is fairly short as the fence isn't even five feet tall.

It looks like it is time for a party with these pretty fruits. I looked all over the property for more of these vines, but this is the only one. I guess a bird brought a seed over or the wind blew it in. We did not have this plant last year. It would have caught my eye.

After I came back inside, I changed because I was drenched with sweat. The humidity is through the roof today. I put out our first newsletter of the new website, David's Garden Seeds®. I am not really liking the template but I will continue to experiment with it. Sign up on the home page for it.

Human Resources Issues

Human resources issues will come up if you have a small business. Make sure you have someone trained in this field who can help you navigate the sometimes troubled waters of dealing with employees. If not a person, buy and read some books on the subject of human resources issues. You will need the information sooner or later.

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