Sunday, September 29, 2024

Fall 2024 Update -- cuttings sale starting soon

Our nursery has been temporarily closed since early January 2024 for medical reasons.

I am aiming to launch the Fall 2024 fig cuttings sale on Monday, September 30th around 8:30pm CST.  The listings will be posted on the "Fig Cuttings for Sale" page when I have them ready.

My personal health failed last fall and early winter.  The culprit appears to have been mold poisoning.  I'd had Covid late last summer, and though I quickly got over it, I believe it left me susceptible to a bad outbreak of black mold in my main greenhouse (where it is always humid) and in my bedroom (where I had decided to set up a humidifier for the first winter ever).  I became unable to sleep and kept getting sicker and weaker, both physically and mentally.  It felt like I was dying.  It was a scary, ever-worsening ordeal that went on for many months before I figured out what was going on, removed the mold, and began to improve.  

The backdrop of this is that both of my parents have dementia (my Dad also has advanced Type 2 diabetes), and my Dad was at death's door in early January.  He was not eating appropriate meals or properly taking his meds, and had withered away to a frail 150 lbs.  To try and save him, I stepped in and became their full-time caregiver, cooking their meals, overseeing their medications, doing the shopping, taking them to their Dr. appointments, etc, and handling the increasingly common emergencies.  I turned myself into the best nutritionist/physician/cook I could be, and by spring I had gotten my Dad back up to a robust 180 lbs on a Keto-style diet.  Since I was struggling so badly myself, though, I had to temporarily close the nursery throughout this period.  I'm sorry for shutting down like that, but there was just no time or energy for anything else.  I was like a drowning person trying to help other drowning people, and I dropped everything to do it.  Please forgive me.

Very best regards,

James

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Closed Until January 22nd Due to Cold Weather

Due to the extreme cold weather, the nursery is closed until Monday January 22nd.

We do our shipping through USPS, and they generally do a good job of keeping packages above freezing throughout the shipping route, but these temperatures are too cold.  Shipping will not resume until the low temperatures get back up into the mid-20's and the high temperatures get above freezing, which is not expected to occur until January 22nd.

The weather is expected to warm up considerably on and after Monday January 22nd, so we will resume normal shipping at that time.  

We will not be accepting any new orders during this time of closure.  

There are about a dozen existing orders that we were unable to ship before the deep cold arrived.  Those folks have the option of waiting (and choosing between an extra 10% off or some free cuttings to make up for the extra wait) or getting a refund.