If you’ve called the farm recently, you’ve heard the answering machine message about our order volume going through the roof this summer.

It was a sudden shift from one week to the next. For no apparent reason, one week our order volume was as it had been the last year or so and then suddenly on Monday alone we had as many orders as we usually had in a week with each day of the week much busier than ever before. And so it has continued all summer.

I have always felt the Angels and Elementals have a lot to do with the order flow here. As you may recall from previous blogs, I never imagined my life much beyond weeding a garden, smelling the Roses and keeping the home fires burning so much of this business, maybe all of it, has been a big surprise to me. The Angels and Elementals would probably describe me as the brakes in the operation and them as the gas, and this would be true. Each time they push us to some new level of activity, I go through a period in which I can’t believe we (or rather I) will be able to make the uptick. After each of these shifts, hindsight is 20-20 and I can see what a good plan the changes were. During the shifts, I take my Flow Free and talk smack to the Angels.

After a number of weeks at this new volume, my smack talk has died down. We have come into equilibrium with this growth spurt, and the new flow feels great. We are connecting with a lot of old friends and a lot of new ones too. During this uptick, it took some extra effort on the part of the two legged Sheehans as opposed to the Sheehans with four who refused to alter their summer vacation plans.

Even without the support of the feline and canine population (who remained adamant that the Dog Days of summer were for naps), we rode the wave until now when we begin to welcome new staff to help us keep the orders flowing. Each Monday for the next month a new person will be starting here and then two or three more are slotted to begin later in the fall. This week we welcomed long time Staff Goddess Sophie’s brother Tom. His first days were a whirlwind of packing orders but he hung in there wonderfully well. We are happy to have him aboard. Well, the people are happy. The cats remained focused on getting enough ZZZZZs.