how to make a negative into a positive

[Jared77]

Look at that all the options! Go get 'em!!!

 

[897tgigvib]

Working in someone elses greenhouse is a great job!

Even better would be owning the greenhouse and making your own priorities!
Sounds like ya got it going on Chickie!

 

[Mattemma]

Best wishes!

 

[897tgigvib]

You know ChickiesMomma, that work in a greenhouse is awesome! I have so much to say!

I worked in a greenhouse nursery for a good number of years. I got my job by making an offer, and just by being in there doing the offer, and when things needed to be done, just assisting and doing them, even raking leaves and cleaning. Inside a month I was working there. My offer was to grow and hybridize tomato heirlooms for them to sell, but just leave me the best plants for seed, and any that didn't sell would become salsa the owner's daughter in law, a friend, wanted to make.

My suggestion to make sure you get that greenhouse job is BE THERE doing stuff, uppotting, propagating, making sure you know the heating and fan systems real good. Be behind shelves cleaning, bringing in the bags of soil mix, helping with any shipments that arrive. Be there before it opens. Next thing you know, they're giving you the key so you don't have to wait...next thing you know "just to make it official fill out the application form and by the way can you be here 40 hours a week?"

About starting your own business doing it, think about the business of propagating plants, just the raw numbers first: Take one Dahlia for a simple example. In one year, it can go from being one seed from a packet of 20 seeds of a special mixed variety. By October it has made 3 to 8 tubers! Not only that, but during the season you might have started 5 cuttings from it, that make small tubers you don't yet want to divide. So, next spring, from one seed you have something like 10 plants. Each of those make 10 plants by the following spring. That's 100 plants!

Well, as you can see, even before you start your own nursery of any kind, now is the time to begin getting your future little moneymakers going!

Let's say you can start Crabapple trees from seed. They breed "kindasorta true", and more or less so depending on variety. One year old trees are little 5 incher seedlings worth maybe 3 bucks each in 4 inch pots, (whatyever it is these days), but let them grow another year, now in gallon pots they are 10 dollar trees. Let those puppies grow another year and they are 25 dollar trees in 5 gallon pots. Getting the idea? I don't think stock in xerox in 1935 ever grew that fast!

Perennials that are dividable, shrubs that make growable seed or good cuttings, same with trees; these things make a great pre nursery start!

If you can do the same with your pond plants, even better, because that's what you love.

 

[Nyboy]

Grow low acid white tomatoes and market them to people with acid reflux. Thread on here about white tomato beging low acid. As someone with bad acid reflux I would pay good money for a sauce I could eat.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

thanks. i think some of the yellow tomatoes are also supposed to be low acid. but i know you need to do some research to find out which ones.

 

[Teka]

A while back, I was "let go" because the bank I was working for needed to downsize -- they'd built a new gym at my facility... The lying worm that did my job at the office where the big wigs lived got to keep the job because he was the "breadwinner of the family".... Too bad I'd signed that clause to not sue....

I was devastated especially when I realized how many lies I'd been fed by so many.

I had a sweet severance package that included job counseling, and was quickly offered another banking job, with more pay. Instead, I chose to follow a different path, telling the counsleor that if I was going to work with 3rd grade mentalities, I'd prefer that they be 3rd graders. I completed my masters of ed plus coursework for 2 certifications in a year and a half, working the entire time as a substitute in every grade k to 12. Expecting to wait a few years to find a permanent position, I had one in 2 months.

I've been teaching 17 years now, and after a devastating shoulder injury, almost lost my job while I waited for surgury -- but landed in another teaching position I love even more!

I truly believe the wheel of God turns -- good begets good. I've mentioned 2 silver linings here, but have experienced many. Hang in there and follow your dreams!

BTW, I miss you guys! In the summer I have more time to spend on the forum; during the school year, precious little.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

good to see you Teka. been awhile!

they gave me a decent severance package for the nearly 9 years i was there as the only person to do my particular job. i had about 56 hours of earned time left after taking off as many days before the end of the year. we're not supposed to carry over more than 40 hours so i guess i had a few more hours accumulated than i thought. and they gave me 3 weeks of pay along with covering my insurance till the end of March.

i really did feel like i was back in high school again. every time i got pulled into the boss's office i felt like i was heading to the principal's office and i was in trouble. i got more negative feedback than anything positive with this boss. i've had 6 bosses over the years with this company and this is the only one that had an issue with my performance. i worked with a lady that spoke in baby talk to coworkers and that drove me nuts. she also was chummy with the boss and another coworker but it always sounded like she was making fun of them. if anyone remembers Saturday Night Live skits of the water cooler guy, i had been working with another woman sort of like that guy. all you had to say was a certain key phrase and she would break into song too. when it seemed like everyone had a nick name except me and i was told to keep out of others conversations i really started feeling like i was back in school again. i had my headphones on most days just to drown out all the chatter to focus on my billing. my blood pressure and stress levels were causing a lot of issues this past year and now i have IBS from all of this.

i was in the banking industry just before this job and i remember how much i didn't like it because it was sort of the same situation towards the end of my stay. i think a lot of people don't realize how much selling of products a teller needs to do just to keep their job or to move up the ladder. also, a teller does not do customer service, that is actually a position and not an attitude according to the place i worked at. i was actually told this by a supervisor when i answered the phone lines and we weren't busy but our customer service area was packed with people waiting for simple things to be answered.

i look at loosing my job at this time as a blessing since we thought my dh was having complications from the flu and his type 2 diabetes these past 2 weeks. his flu symptoms started shortly after i got it. after spending hours in the ER, a CAT scan, chest x-rays, blood work, getting fluids and meds to drop his heart rate, the doc thinks he had a small stroke. i'm glad though that i have the time to take care of him right now. his blood sugar has been on the fritz since New Year's Eve and i thought he could have had issues from those spikes because of the flu, but i was thinking pneumonia. i've been bugging him to get to the doc but he has always been stubborn and wouldn't go. on New Year's Eve he had some slurred speech but it seemed to me that it went away after a good night's sleep. this past weekend he started with slurred speech again and then i noticed he seemed to be having issues with weakness on his left side while trying to stand. i finally get him to the doc and she gets upset that i should have taken him directly to the ER and probably that first time he spiked on New Year's Eve. this week we have to go though scheduling lots of doc appointments to see how much damage there might be and how long ago it could have actually happened. i'll be toting him around till he gets a doctor's ok or when he feels better about driving again. it's a good thing he has insurance where he works. but now he's lost a lot of time. i'm hoping his work will let him take home a laptop to get some stuff done between rest to help keep his mind working. he's not liking that he's missing time at this job while i'm out of work.

 

[thistlebloom]

Hang in there Chickie
It sounds like the timing worked in your favor so you could take care of your husband.

I really like working for myself, and you probably will too. I never have liked working with a group of catty women, there always seems to be some kind of back stabbing and butt kissing going on. At the same time!

We're all pulling for you!

 

[897tgigvib]

:bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet :bouquet

Yea Chickie, do what you need to and can. Get the future started best you can a little at a time.