It’s been so warm I decided it would likely stay that way forever, and then it snowed.  I’ve never dug dahlia bulbs out of snow-covered ground before, so it was quite annoying.  The mud, snow, frozen stalks, and damage to the drip irrigation system due to not being able to see a thing made me mad at myself for procrastinating.

And I did the same with the fruitcake business, so it’s all kind of terrible right now.  I had no idea Country Woman magazine is sold in Canada, so imagine my surprise at new orders.  When I asked where they heard of my company, they said cheerily, “Country Woman.”  One woman added she was sure I was going to get tons of orders.

I really wonder why I spend spring and summer humming around, dreaming of anything but the fruitcakes, and then in the fall I feel sick.  Today at the bulk food store I said to the manager I really think nobody will want my product, and then I’m surprised each time.  Though now that it’s occurred eight years in a row, you’d think I’d plan for it.

Because I pretended I don’t really have a fruitcake business, I didn’t pre-order any glace fruit.  So when I arrived and jauntily requested my usual gigantic boxes of each kind of fruit, they said they were out, and the fruit was on order.  I felt momentarily perplexed, but then thought oh well, I’m off to Thailand in one week, so it’ll be here when I return.

The sad thing is when I return on December 2nd all jet-lagged, and if I have to bake like a lunatic that week, I’ll be mad.  But I’ll have the memory of the trip and the wedding to re-play as I chop pecans and chocolate and line tins with parchment paper.

Another interesting thing I haven’t bothered with is taking inventory.  Hence, when I looked at the number of boxes I have on hand I realized I have to order a few hundred immediately.  I’m also almost out of the bags for vacuum sealing, and they come from Vancouver.  It’s all kind of heart-stopping at this late date, I can assure you.

But then as I was lying in bed the other night, weeping, I thought wait a minute.  I decided I have to totally get a grip on this business, or it’s going to kill me.  When I started I decided to call the company Nuttier than a Fruitcake, because fruitcake was going to be my only product.

Then I don’t know why, I added on the idiotic chocolate bark idea.  And you know, tempering chocolate isn’t my thing.  You have to stand there, holding a thermometer in melted chocolate and it has to be to the exact degree.  I far prefer grabbing a handful of fruitcake dough and plopping it into tins.

So I said to my web designer please remove all vestiges of chocolate bark, because honest to God, I hate making that stuff.  Now I’m back to where I should have remained, which is solely in the fruitcake business. I’m now focusing on increasing web sales, as I just have a tiny amount of product in stores.

But here you have an example of one good thing that came from procrastinating.  Because I hate the bark, and therefore didn’t make any, I had to remove it entirely from my site, or I would’ve been pushed over the edge by orders. Hopefully now I can concentrate on my original goal.