The weather!….Yeow!

I might have made a mistake coming home from Mexico for Christmas this year…might have?…no…It was a huge mistake. The day I arrived, after leaving 90 degrees and the sand and surf of Baja, a huge snowstorm hit our area. The drive from Olympia, just 100 odd miles east of here, took me 5 tortuous hours of white knuckle driving on Highway 101. When I finally skidded down my driveway in 4 wheel drive, I was totally exhausted. 2450 miles in 5 days, the last two days just scratching my way home. But now I’m here and happy. Staff continues to ship hundreds and hundreds of holiday orders and are holding up pretty well. The internet orders seem to be up somewhat this year and the store is really busy now. Jose, now that the snow is gone, is spending his days pruning the lavender plants. He does it all with a weedeater, yielding it like a paintbrush, he shapes each plant. I love looking out over the fields, taking in his creation. Each plant is symmetrical and flows into the next. He truly is an artist. Consider pruning over 40,000 lavender plants with a weedeater. Kind of overwhelming, huh?………On the days where the weather does not permit outside work, Jose continues to defoliate the remaining lavender in the drying shed. He has designed a machine that cleans the buds with a series of fans and screens and is quite ingenious. A very clever man, that Jose. My daughter, Sarah, will show up from her home in Eugene tomorrow. I can’t wait to see her as our visits these days are far and few between. She will be here only a short time before leaving for London the day after Christmas. My son, Jake and his wife Chelsea, will join me for a holiday celebration before leaving for Las Vegas and a special show just after Christmas. Kind of ironic that this is the first year I have spent up north in over a decade and the entire family has chosen to leave…oh well….I’m happy to just get a piece of them……happy holidays all. Mike