Looking back, maybe juicy new wasn't a good choice of words.... Here's the update!

 This past week Cortney attended a Workforce Skill seminar  and she received this certificate as well as one of two award given out for Most Professionally Dressed. In this seminar she learned how to create a resume, a cover letter, the proper way to fill out an application, interviewing techniques and practicing interviewing . Then they worked on follow up skills such as; follow up phone calls a few days following an interview and writing a Thank you for their time involved in interviewing you. She did very well and we are proud of her.

Now for the interesting news and the blessing of how God works in our lives.....  You may or may not know that Mike is the manager of a Farm and Ranch Coop, has been for a little over 3 yrs, and this store is in the midst of a building a new facility, so currently the store is in a temporary location. Over the course of the new building being constructed Mike and his employees have been asked about the arrangement of the new store, what will be new, how many gas pumps, etc..... Well... this is where the story begins; Mike passed on some of the questions to the main store and asked how they should answer the questions, because they hadn't been told, in fact during this whole process neither Mike nor any of the 3 employees were asked for input of their ideas. Two weeks ago the Farm and Ranch boss and the main store boss were up meeting with contractors and stopped in to fill in Mike and his crew with some of the news of the new store. After everyone asked their questions and made comments the two bosses informed the crew that they needed to submit resumes and what job they'd like to have in the new store. Mike was then told that he too would have to re-apply, submit a resume and interview, as they were opening up his position via an ad in the local city newspaper. This caught Mike totally off guard, especially when there was never any complaints with his job performance, in fact quite to the contrary and the company had just shelled out over $600 to send Mike to a management training seminar, a two part seminar with the last week being completed just a week earlier. In fact, Mike did so well he received an award ( see below)

That Saturday the ad in the city newspaper came out. Of course Mike was barraged by all the local customers, asking if he'd resigned or been fired. He could only say neither applied and if they really wanted to know they'd have to contact the main office. It was very humiliating for him though. When he submitted his resume, he was told that the interview would be set up the following week, all of this was handled in a very cold and distant manner. The interview was scheduled for Wednesday at 9am, upon his arrival he was informed he was the first of 10 interviews being held that day for his currently held position. They also informed him they wanted to act as if he were a stranger to them in the interview. Many things didn't feel right and the interview ended with the question," If you don't get chosen for this position how will you feel?"  Well, really! how do they think he'll feel, he will effectively be demoted or possibly even laid off. Mike refused to answer that question. They then informed Mike they'd notify him by Friday of their decision( which they did not do). When he came home that evening we discussed this for hours, prayed about it and discussed it some more and prayed some more. You see when Mike attained this job, he wasn't looking for a job, but rather was approached by the company via a friend's suggestion. We'd always prayed to find a job closer to home but most local town jobs didn't pay enough to make our mortgage and other monthly expenses. Thursday morning a friend came in and out of the blue offered Mike a job, knowing what had been happening over the past few weeks. The job is a family owned business, working from 7am to 4 pm with weekends off, unless you so choose to work if weekends are needed to finish up a project. The pay offered is approximately the same as he's making as manager of the Coop. So once again God provided a job before it was even needed! Mike will give his notice, Monday being his final day. Considering the circumstances of how poorly this whole situation was handled, he would typically give a two week notice as a courtesy, but he considers the last two weeks his fulfillment of that courtesy. He starts his new job Tuesday morning :o)

    Herbs and millet drying on the front entryway.

More herbs drying, many have been taken down, and prepared for storage, stored in glass jars.

This week, we'll be canning pickled carrots........ After we stored all we could in the cellar we still had several gallons of carrots to do something with, so.. we'll store some in the refrigerator for immediate use as well as make pickled carrot sticks. :o)

 and canning tomatoes, they've ripened up nicely on the front entryway.  The salad crops in the hoop house are coming along nicely and have withstood several freezes. I'll be glad to enjoy fresh greens well into Nov. and possibly even Dec.

Blessings for your new week. :o)