Where Is Karen?

I have been staring at this blank screen trying to come up with the right words to explain where I have been for the last 3 months.  After the Lavender Festival last year I had to take more of an active role in caring for my elderly parents.  I know a number of my generation has also stepped into the same caregiver role.  Taking care of the ones who once care for them.  Oh, how the parent child roles reverse.  

My Dad fell in October and was hospitalized.  Although he was not injured he had other complications.   And because they lived an hour away from me I moved in with my Mom to care for her and visit my Dad in the hospital. I realized that taking care of them was a precious gift, one that I will cherish.

After 94 wonderful years my Dad passed on December 8^th.   He was a proud, hard working father who loved his family.  He spent a great deal of time on the farm. With a cowboy hat in hand he would wander the fields in search of spearmint and check on the lambs in the barn.  I know how proud he was of our farms success and me.  We moved my Mom from her home she lived in for over 61 years to be closer to us.  She is in a lovely retirement community and is adjusting.           

In honor of my Dad we have decided to start growing spearmint and start a new product line adding our own distilled spearmint essential oil.  In another posting I will go into the benefits of spearmint and its uses. 

What’s going in the barn?  A number of baby lambs have been born since December.  So Gary has been spending a lot of time making sure everyone is alright and well fed.  I’ll try to post more pictures.

 

This is the time of year we go through seed catalogs, design new gardens, decide what flowers we are going to grow and order new plants.  In January we attended the United States Lavender Growers Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas.  The weekend was full of information, inspiration and new ideas we hope to bring to the farm and the Finger Lakes Lavender Festival.  I hope to post more information on what we learned in future posts.

Thanks for listening.  I hope to keep you posted more often.