Got the ball rolling yesterday. Over the weekend my cousin helped me construct an indoor growing shelf of four 78”x5.5” boards bolted to two pallets. There's room for a third at the top, but my measurements were off and it has snowman proportions. I'm considering it a feature; built-in organizing for plant height.
While filling out my downtown FM (Farmers Market) applications I discovered just what type of insurance I'm required. Minimum Liability Insurance of “$100,000 per person; $250,000 per occurrence; and $100,000 property damage.” I've known this was coming so I call my two prospective insurance agents.
The first I called at work, my uncle's agent whose receptionist told me from my receptionist desk downtown that she'd be sure to tell his daughter as he'd be out of town for a few more weeks. She called me back and I stumbled through a conversation where she teased out my situation and then said she'd get back to me. It was an education.
The other number I had from last year from the chicken farmer. I'm not normally great at business calls and find myself hanging up with words barely stumbling out of my mouth or sometimes shouting at the last moment with one last neglected question. But I called the chicken farmer's insurer and told him I was calling for him, how I got his number, why I wanted it, who I was, and what I needed. In that order. And then I told him I was more or less a squater on my uncle's land and had no existing insurance, or even anything to insure. Unless, would a company vehicle work? I didn't think so and I don't have one yet.
It was a mundane business conversation that went without a hitch, a wonderful change from the past year's blubbering through phone calls with plant, irrigation, seed, and apiary suppliers. I spoke with him while watching the rain by the door and realized I might be talking a little too loud because of it so I stepped away and lowered my voice as he said he'd get back to me in the morning. And then, with a suddenly softer voice, I flubbed my farewell and said, bye. See ya, bye. So I'm still stumbling a little at the end, oh well!
Tonight I take my first steps towards mushrooms (I'll stomp stepping all over these walking metaphors) by sterilizing distilled water with an autoclave and rehydrating my spores from last year. I've never used a pressure cooker before or been concerned with sterile environments, practices and techniques, but it's only the beginning of March and I have a good dozen mushroom harvests ahead of me this year.
