Will work for food

Ok, gross overstatement there but today I was paid for consulting with a quart of olive oil.  How? Why?  Well that is an interesting story…

So you might remember that I was sad that my CSA from last year was not doing a CSA this year.  They cited a few reasons that were real reasons but something told me it was worth a phone call.  I’m getting brave in my old age, I guessed the worst they could do was say they were just not happy with whatever and they never plan on doing a CSA again (last year was their first year).  **aside** some of my braveness is coming from my text writing job – I’ve been a bit of a regular writing on elder/retirement stuff and since I’m obviously not living that life I research for each thing I write and then mush it together with some common sense and some extrapolation/imagination and I’m fairly happy with the product.  Anyway, the point to this is one of the things I suggested post retirement was to volunteer for things you believe in, things you can give professional support to, and/or things you want to learn about – I said to just go ask a company, don’t wait for them to ask you.  Not that I’m retired, but, I do have some time so I’m putting my money where my mouth is and picked up the phone and called the farm…

That conversation was very fruitful (pardon the pun) because as I suspected their problems are with organization and management techniques.  These are things I like, studied, and it is a use it or loose it skill so while on the phone I got the vibe that he was looking for help with the front end of the business and so I asked if he wanted to meet and I would see what I could do.  That meeting was today and it was a very nice way to spend the afternoon, plus, I do think I can help.  One of the other problems with the farm is due to various levels of red tape  (this isn’t your average family farm) they can’t pay people with money so he proposed to pay me in veggies.  Win win for me, I want them to get sustainable on a business side and I like their produce and it is stuff I like to do.  I did make it clear that I’m not really a good farmer but he is so that works fine for me.  I’m excited to see what I can do, and, I’m going to make myself a t-shirt that says “will work for Kale”

I’m so very glad to have this time in my life both for being there for my kids but also being able to explore some other businesses.  I am starting to feel like a smurf with all my little incomes all over the place but I can do them and not miss out being a mom.  I also think that when I do go back I’ll have things to add to my resume and that is really just icing on the cake.  Who knows, maybe all my little incomes will grow up to be real incomes.  There are so many things I would love to do I like to imagine that I’ll have time to at least put a toe in each over the next few years.

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