We have had a couple of questions regarding how much food we are getting and if we have "extra" food to sell, why is it not automatically included in the box. The question goes something like this. "Aren't we supposed to be sharing in the bounty?" I will try to explain our reasoning below.
A small share = 1/4 bushel of food.
A small box = 1/2 bushel of space (look at the label on the box)
This is done so we can ship larger items or special orders in the box too, however, we tend to like to deliver fuller boxes because it looks better.
QUESTION: Are the boxes being delivered pretty full?
If they are, then our members are getting twice as much as they are contractually supposed to get. Over a season, we usually provide at least 50% more food than people sign up for. This is historically true every year for the past 7 years.
The same logic applies with the big boxes.
Additionally we grow for restaurant, country club and caterer sales too. Sometimes they don't always take what we anticipate they will take. We put these things up for extra sales.
Beyond this, we take any other overages that spoil and feed my livestock with it to recover part of the cash. Now we could deliver all of this food to the CSA customers, but then we would get complaints that people can't eat that much food and to please stop delivering it. A person can only eat so much cabbage, and for that matter, so many strawberries. Very few people ever take those berries and actually make jam or jelly... they would probably rot and they would throw them away. People might feel like they are getting more value, but that would only be a feeling in most cases.
It's a delicate balance and we find it difficult to please everyone. Most people would be surprised how many people quit because the amount of food they get is too much. At the same time we get people disappointed. We have yet how to figure out the dilemma of making everyone happy.
If we consistently provide boxes that are full then, in our minds, this fulfills our commitment to pass on "the bounty."
We hope this explanation meets everyone's satisfaction and clears up any confusion. I there is something we haven't considered, of course, we want to hear from you.
Regards,
Tim
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Well, I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on what's going on. It has been a good week and, for the most part, the flood is now a part of Avalon Acres history. We have some more fencing work to do, but that can wait.
We have had some misunderstandings about the first delivery we missed. I was a bit afraid of that. We had some people were confused as to why they were charged for the missed delivery. Fortunately, after people understood that this is being part of a CSA and that everyone helps absorb the losses, most were ok with it. Just to let everyone know, we are absorbing a very large part of the losses in the chicken. We plan on delivering some sort of meat substitution and that is coming out of our pocket. We did not want our customers to take all the hit. We also paid an enormous amount of labor to repair all that was broken and some crops rotted on the vine because we couldn't pick them all.
We took delivery of our new canning facility. Lots of work to do on this and we will furnish pictures as we progress so you can see your money and support at work. We are really excited.
I know it don't look like much, but to us its beautiful. A good washing, some awnings, a deck and plenty of work inside and it will look really cute. We'll be sure to show you lots of pictures as the worl progresses. We hope to have it up and canning by this July... ambitious and we may not make it, but we're gonna give it a go. Local health inspectors are coming out to give us tips on how to progress tomorrow.
We will be building a suspension bridge over the creek this winter... the moving the trucks to the other side of the creek, the guys get soggy shoes is they dance through the water to clock in and out. I am inspired by this guy's work and want to blatantly copy it... I am shameless! Why reinvent the wheel, if you ask me.
Suspension Bridge Photos This guy did a great job. With our adoption plans come thoughts of being able to get to the other side of the creek if the little bambino (or either of us) is ill.
This week we are really trying to refine our procedures, work out bugs with deliveries, take care of quality issues and more on-the-job training. We like to call it "baptism by fire." We have so many new people this year and it takes time to show them the ropes. If for some reason you don't get the service you have come to know and love, please be sure to e-mail me directly.
mailto:farmers@avalon-acres.com
I take your satisfaction very seriously and the only way I can make sure things are good is if people tell me when they aren't. We'll make it right by you... I promise.
Well its late, and I better be heading for bed... the morning comes all too quickly around here.
Tim (& all the Avalon Team)
Psalm 46:1-31 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.
I had an opportunity to attend church this week. It had been a couple weeks since I had seen my friends and those to whom I usually minister. This past week, they ministered to us through specific, targeted prayer. So many of you did the same for us, and I will tell you that it made all the difference in the world. This week we were uplifted, kept safe and had a security that could only be supernatural. This was not a "pick yourself up by the bootstraps" week. I don't believe in that. This was a week when we were kept by God in our meekness and weakness and our frailty. He (not I) is strong.
There is nothing like a natural disaster to make you feel your finitude... to really drive home how small we all really are. It is when I feel this vulnerable and I really understand that we are all one breath away from death or at least a major life change then I am amazed and ask the Psalmist’s question "Who is man that you are mindful of Him?"
Thank you all for your unwavering support. Thank you for your donations. Thank you for your prayers and your words of encouragement. Thank all of you who reminded us of God's words which fed us spiritually. Thank you for showing us you meant what you said by paying for food you never received. Thank you for giving us the best jobs we could ever ask for.
We love serving you. This past week you served us... you ministered to us... and we are more grateful than you could possibly imagine.
I believe with all my heart and soul that God is good... He is sovereign... and He always in control and no one can accuse Him of doing wrong. He knows best how to accomplish His purposes and we must rest in this knowledge. I know I will sometimes, but I know I should never ask Him “Why?” It is enough that God has given so much to me in His Son, Christ Jesus. Like Job I know that what God has given me is Himself… and this is enough… this is enough for eternity. No… I did not get what I deserve… I have been afforded infinite mercy because my sin was infinitely offensive to an infinitely high and holy God. I have been forgiven through no effort or work of my own. I have been forgiven by God because His Son paid my sin debt... He crushed His Son for me. Anything that I have been given is more than I deserve. But God wasn’t simply merciful to me… no, He gave me an inheritance in Christ Jesus… I have had grace lavished upon me.
I have nothing to complain about. I am blessed wildly beyond my imagination. This week has changed me… made me more aware of my dependence upon Him.
Tim, Jennifer and the Avalon Acres Team
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If I can personally be of service to anyone that hears the gospel call though my testimonies… please do not hesitate to write me personally at mailto:farmers@avalon-acres.com If you want to read more about my theology, visit my other blog http://thepotterandtheclay.wordpress.com/
Well, we had our second build of the season today and we are so glad to be back doing what we've been preparing for all winter rather than spending all of our waking moments repairing. This was a long, hard fought week, but God was gracious and our efforts were fruitful.
Our new parking lot was finished and all the electrical is hooked up. We plan on changing the plugs out on our trucks and making the switch on Monday morning. We also have the pasture bush hogged where we are going to put our new commercial kitchen facility. We are so excited! We can't believe God has paved the way for us to have this so soon.
We think we are going to put the permanent fencing plans on hold until the fall... the temporary fence seems to be working and we have a real freight train on our hands picking and packing and delivering food. Our RECIPE blog will be up to speed again on Tuesday and we will be identifying all your foods for you. Sorry it's a bit late, but just getting all the information in the PC to make deliveries has consumed all of our time, playing catch up and all. Angel, our customer service person just came back online yesterday... it took days to get power back in Centerville TN.
Anyway, our spirits are high... the farmers are growing, picking and washing and we are trying to figure out how to do it better than ever before. Our new crew is learning and growing in the midst of the heat of battle... no better way to learn than to make mistakes and fix 'em! We just hope and pray that our mistakes are transparent to you. If they're not, please be sure to let us know... our mission is to delight you. Well... here are some pics of this week's progress.
These are all pictures of the new parking lot we built for the trucks. It will be so nice having the trucks out of our front yard and also knowing that mild wet weather won't prevent the trucks from rolling on time. Of course, this area was completely under water last week, but God willing, we won't have it that bad for a very long time.
Building boxes again!!!
A standard share... very pretty box!
Armie and Michael and Yordy are pulling the meats for this week's build.
This is Tommy, our Production Supervisor, being all shy and stuff. He is an awesome addition to the team... we are blessed to have him (as well as all the others)!
This is Chris Monk (our Operations Manager) explaining himself to the Queen of Finance (Jennifer)! All kidding aside, this guy works his butt off and is so passionate about what we do.
Yordy is our Farm Supervisor and Line Foreman for our builds. He really has such great energy and he's a real moralle builder. We love Yordy.
What else can I say... the woman of my dreams! Can you tell we love what we do?
Thank you so much, each and every one of you for making our lives possible. We mean that from the bottom of our hearts.
The Avalon Acres Team
Hi everyone... still so much to do. When all the guys (and girls) go home, sometimes they don't realize that we keep working. IT is when they are not needing out attention and input that Jen and I can get what we need to get done. Ordering parts, doing computer maintenance, writing blogs, etc. I'll tell you if any of you want to start your own business, be prepared to work your tail off. But still, having said all that, I still wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
Well, we have the brush hog welded back together.... mostly anyway. Chris, our operations manager is also our welder. I didn't get a picture of it because I was butchering chickens and training a new man on the line. Well, he will be welding some new parts on the tractor mounted post hole digger that I broke (oops). I just had to make that hole just a tad deeper in the rocky area... didn't I??
We just added a third killing cone station and I wanted to try it out for myself. It's a big improvement in speed. We butchered the only surviving field chickens (excepting a few odds and ends). We did 340 birds in around 5 hours. That's almost 70 per hour... pretty good.
The temporary pig fence is holding them in. We made a dry run out to Russell Creek to make sure produce pickups would go well. The roads we a mess, but passable and crops look good. We are excited about building boxes on Saturday again! YAY!. We love what we do and we do so want to delight you. We hope all you Wednesday customers aren't too upset with us. This was all well beyond even our hope to control. We'll make you smile next week... promise.
Oh! We found an awesome double wide commercial building really inexpensive. We are so excited as this will become our commercial kitchen/bakery/canning facility we have wanted to build. I am always so amazed when God just decides its time to do something. It doesn’t seem possible and then He finds a way. We’ll take plenty of pictures when it arrives next week. Thanks to the recent weather, we know exactly where to put it so it doesn’t get damaged I n the years to come…. Hmm… isn’t that convenient information to have? Oh well, just coincidence I’m sure. We’re putting it someplace that wasn’t flooded….
Well... here are the pictures I promised. I'll write more tomorrow and try to post some other pictures of our people and operations… it’s just that the flood sort of dominated things for awhile. Anyway… talk to you soon.
In His hands,
This is the driveway all washed out. I finally found the culvert pipe, so it's not in 5 inches of water anymore.
You can see how much earth and gravel was wahed away. Most of the job is moving gravel from one place to to another.
This is gravel that washed up in the Avalon pasture... I guess I will just leave it and move chicken pens around it... I dunno when I will have time to mess with it.
At least we get to keep this nifty pipe that is now on our property. I am sure we'll find a use for it somewhere.
Free range pisgs (before we spoiled thir fun). They sure seem to like the shade of the tree and munching they get to do on the tree.
Washed out fence... it was just twisted barbed wire, so do over!
Ok... so it ain't so straight... we were in a hurry!
This really is more of a dry creek bed than a pasture. See howe high the water table is?
Not too bad for a city slicker with a tractor, huh?
It even looks good from the other side! (I know... modest, aren't I?)
Can you tell I really like the water fall??
Bless you all and see you soon.
I am really tired, so I am not going to upload a lot of pictures tonight... I will take some time in the morning.
We had a productive day. Because of the communication problems with the Amish, many picked and brought food for the build and Weds. delivery... oops. We bought it and will try and sell some to the restaurants and feed the rest to the pigs. Praise the Lord they have it.... I'd rather make sure they have income than turn them away with the picked food. We made commitments to them and we try and keep them when we can. No matter what we could not have had a delivery becasue our administrative assistant couldn't get a cross the creek and we were too busy fighting fires than doing data entry for packing lists.
The pig fence was in worse shape than the other front field fence. The best we could do with that was salvage teh t-posts and wad up 100's of feet of tangled barbed wire and take it to the dump. We put in a temptorary fence pretty quick and electrified it. It should hold 'em in... 1,000 volts. They get zapped once and they learn. Maybe i nteh late summer/early fall when its dry we can actually dig a hole. Right now you go down 12" and hit the water table... all the auger makes is lumpy chocolate milkshake and posts won't hold.
The front drive repair is complete. We found the culvert pipe with a metal detector and dug it out... got the water flowing under the driveway instead of over it. Lots of gravel moving and grading and it's all ready to go. The parking lot for the trucks is another matter. Going to have to bring in some big dumptrucks of gravel as most of it just.. .went away. $600 in gravel just washed away. This happened last year too... to the day. I figure with those odds, if we have a drought in the summer I will just order some gravel and pile it right next to the creek... it'll be sure to rain!!
Anyway... I am going to get some rest. I'll post pictures tomorrow in the morning. Good night and God bless all of you.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB95)5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
I am happy to report that most is not all the spring crops HAVE SURVIVED! We are SO THRILLED! It looks like we will be online and delivering once again THIS SUNDAY! It appears that we will have only mised one Wednesday delivery and we will be hurting on chicken for a few weeks.
God has been merciful to us, and we lift Him up in praise.
Back to work!
You can't really get an appreciation for what we're dealing with here until you've seen the video. The pictures don't really do it justice. It's not obvious that all that water is moving and the force behind it.
Here is a video clip...
I am tired... I smell like diesel exhaust as I have been on the tractor all day... and I am blessed. Today I got to work side-by-side with a group of fine men that I am mentoring. Today, because of God's grace and mercy, I got to walk in a Christ-like manner so that He might be glorified. Today I awoke after a good night's rest in a warm, comfortable bed with the woman I love. Today I got to be outside all day long and be in amazement that God has placed me in such a position of responsibility over so many and so much... oh my cup runneth over. Taste the Lord and see that He is good!
It was hard today... but we made good progress. We got the road about halfway done and the front field fence is fixed so the horse, donkey and llamas won't be out on the road causing a hazard. The repair went better than expected... we sort of lifted the whole thing up with the tractor and lots of man power, then re-drove the T-posts and added a few. God provided the raw materials of plenty of CREEK GRAVEL to pile around the bottom of the fence!
We also picked up and composted all of the dead birds. It was not fun, but my men handled it well. I am proud of them. They all worked hard today and no one complained. It appears that we will have a 3-week gap in the chicken production. Not that bad as it could have been 6 weeks.
Preliminary reports from one of our farmers in Lobelville are that they have stuff to pick and they don't want us to take too long of a break. We will know more about Ethridge tomorrow... we couldn’t go today because Tommy was busy re-delivering Sundays shares and Kevin our produce foreman was busy here helping us stop the bleeding here on the farm. We aren't sure yet... we know we got hurt... but things look a bit promising. We still have a long road, but we got a good start.
We cannot begin to thank you enough for all the support that is FLOODING IN! We have gotten so many e-mails, so many offers for help and people sending in money in advance to help with the cash flow... wow. We are truly humbled overwhelmed with the loyalty that our customers have shown.
To those that have offered to do physical labor, I want to thank you but we aren't going to take you up on it for the following reasons. 1) the devastation is localized, as it appears and we are limited by how much power equipment we have... namely the tractor. 2) We need to keep our men working to provide them the income they need and 3) the emergency is casuing a bonding of the team that will be paying dividends for years to come. We thank you, and if we needed it, we would take you up on it.
The way you can help is to stay with us... don't back out or stop paying... have patience and see us through as we bounce back. That is more than enough help for us to get though this... and of course... keep praying, as that is the most important thing. We covet your prayers.
Below is some video footage from the flood... this should put into perspective all the rest of the pictures of whatt we are actually repairing and why. I still can't get my mind around it.
Below are pictures as we progressed through our first day.
The front fence was flattened... that's creek gravel in the pasture.
Hit is harder Yordy!
Lots of stuff to pick out of the fence.
It came out pretty good... I was pleased with the repair.
The water scoured out all the gravel under one side of the bridge.
started working... couple of hours... long way to go.
Filling in the hole and stopping the water flow...
Can you tell the chickens were hungry?? The pied Piper is Chris, our Operations Manager.
Looking better!
Looking a LOT BETTER.
ok... it ain't pretty... but it keeps the pigs in...
OK! ... it's not a motorcycle ramp anymore! It's a DRIVEWAY!!!
The flooding water scoured away a lot of gravel. The upside is that we now have a really cool waterfall!
Pump's all repaiored and working...that's how we water the pigs and chickens in the field.
The apples are sure looking good.
The rain sure didn't hurt the flowers!
I don't care what happens... I wouldn't trade a second of my life with anyone else... we are truly blessed. Tomorrow we keep digging... now it's time for some sleep.
Good morning.
As I write this, I realize I have little time to write... I need to be coordinating... so this will be brief.
I did not want to get up today. I also understand that I exist to bring God glory... and that if I grumble against His sovereign hand then I am telling Him his plans are not good... that He is not wise and that He does not care for me.
No... today we begin rebuilding because it is His plan that we walk through this. He knows best.
... so we will walk by faith and not by sight.
Praise God.
A trying day. I almost tuned over the tractor trying to get and employee out of a ditch. The gravel under the left tire just came loose. It was the closest I have ever been to having it go over on me. I had to lean out to the right and it slowly came back down and the rear tire touched down. I was precariously balanced like that for about 3 or 4 minutes as I ever so gently (while leaning) wiggled my way into a more stable position. I am reminded that farming is dangerous.
The road on the other side of the creek is a mess... as I expected. I wish I had a bigger tractor. Praise God I have one at all and that it’s running at the moment. I got a start in the dark with headlights smoothing it out to get a jump on the morning. I will need to be up around 5:30 tomorrow to be ready for the crew.
I am in a position of such total dependence upon God and the mercy of others at the moment that I am struck by how much I rely on myself. Perhaps this is exactly where God wants me to be... to learn to depend upon Him wholly. I am remionded by my Pastor in my head saying "focus on what God's trying to teach you in the trial." Wise words, but it's hard. I am scared that this could ruin us. We desperately need people to honor their commitments to the farm... to support us during this time, even if our deliveries are terrible. If people walk away because it is going to be a tough start to the year, we will sink. All I have now is prayer.
So we walk into the unknown and lean on him. I was supposed to preach Psalm 23 tonight at church... isn't that irony? I'll put it hear for you to read... it has brought me comfort today.
Psalm 23:1-6 (NASB95) A Psalm of David.1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
... and this is one of the last things I saw today.
I am still in a bit of shell shock, but I have taken some time to reflect... do some praying. I still need to pray more. Times like this certainly make one wonder about their faith... like how much is it worth? How fragile we are.... am I only happy when times and circumstances are good? How much of my contentment is based upon whether things go my way or not? Do I really believe that if I am a “good person” that God should bless me? These are deep questions.
Things are so far out of my ability to control right now that I am still having trouble processing it. My operations manager has spent some time on the other side of the creek after returning from the dismal delivery day. Apparently my neighbor no longer has a yard... he is in his late 70's and we need to go see if he is ok. The 3' culvert has washed out from under the bridge on Piney Creek. The river on the other side (which is not really a river) has wiped out 100's of feet of my fence in the sheep/llama/chicken area. My animals were out on the road. a full 10' of my creek bed has washed away. It will probably take me better part of tomorrow morning rebuilding the road so that my help can get into the property and start the process of rebuilding. By the looks of it so far, it will take a week or so just to stabilize the situation.
We still don't have a lot of good data on what's happening in Ethridge. The cell phone signals are terrible but I got some sketchy information. Apparently the fields have flooded and in some cases you could only see the tops of the tomato plants at one place Cane Creek says there will be negative impact, but no telling how much until its dry enough to get out there and look. There will be no picking tomorrow, that’s for certain. Here's a few more pics... will write more tonight.
Well... it's times like this when you find out if what you believe about God is really worth anything. You can run around saying "God is good" until a natural disaster happens. Well... God is still good, but this is gonna be rough.
We started this year out with the most customers on day one we have ever had... record year. The spring was perfect... no late frosts or anything. Crops were looking great. We had our first build yesterday with the finest crew we have ever had. We made contingency plans for flooding by installing electrical outlets and a parking lot on the other side of the creek. We drove the trucks back out to Ethridge so we could run.... then the rains came... and kept coming.
This morning I was shocked... just blown away. The creek had turned into a river. Pigs are on an island about 10 feet across. 12 of the 16 pens of chickens were carried "downstream" a few hundred feet. Looks like we lost around 1200 chickens. Fortunately the brooder is ok... the deep bedding kept the baby birds dry. The basement/office is flooded about 4" deep. Most of the electronics were salvaged. The big issue right now is the $5,000 pig fence we put in last year is obliterated. We will have free range pigs soon.... I can't even begin to repair it in these wet conditions... I don't know what to do.
We were doing so good this year. All the hard work is ruined. We were butchering 96% of all the chickens we received as babies... our mortality rate was so low... and in one day we lost 70% of all we had. It's hard... I don't know where to even begin to rebuild... I can't get my crew on this side of the creek to start working... maybe in the morning they can get in... we will have to rebuild the road first as most of it has washed away.
We don't think we can deliver Wednesday... we don't really know what will be left of the spring crop at all. We have talked to our Lobelville Amish and they said the Buffalo crested over 36' and that's 18' higher than the record. The crops are hit hard. We don' know yet about our Ethridge Amish... Tommy is out doing recon and checking on them now.
We are devastated. We were so excited about starting this year and all the improvements we made. Now... we just have to pick up the pieces. We will start tomorrow morning, if God wills... and we will begin the process of rebuilding. Today is a day to just sort of rest in the wake of the devastation and know that he is God.
We are blessed... no one is hurt. We just pray for those who have it worse than we do.
God is still on the throne and He is still good. Praise His holy name.
Well... we will keep you updated... here are some pictures for you.
