At this time last year I was being cautiously optimistic about my future as a flower farmer. I had decided that my fourth year in business had gone alright. Good enough to continue for another year but not good enough to make any plans beyond that. I had worked a lot of hours and I broke even financially. But I was beginning to question the personal sustainability of this path. I needed more land if if I wanted to make more money. I needed more money if I wanted to get more land. I was uncertain if this situation was going to work itself out. I told my husband that if things didn’t get appreciably better in the coming year I would quit. I’m not sure what I was going to do if I quit. I knew that I could not continue to spend so much time and money on this endeavor if it would not actually provide me with a career that would benefit my life now and in the future. Considering I hope to have a lot of future ahead of me, this is an important detail.
One year later and I am still in business, I did not quit, things did get better. I made a profit. I am full of optimism and quite a bit of anxiety over the coming year. We have been looking at farms for over two years but never really had the money to cover a loan payment of that size. Well now we do and the search is on.