First talk to partner #2

Talked to Eric yesterday. He's thinking about the sweet corn. The thing is, I realize that he doesn't need me to grow sweet corn. But I said for me, I'd prefer to be more involved in the labor and seed cost and split the difference than just take 10-25% (don't know what the going rate is) for selling it for him. Plus, my markets won't like that.

I've talked with Laura at Clintonville about how this partnership idea is definitely the future, if markets want to keep small growers. She's going to talk with the board about it. But I don't think they're going to want me to just sell what other people grow unless I'm more involved. She seemed to be open to the idea of partnerships, though, as I described them.

As a doctor, Eric can spend an extra day at the hospital and make what I make in a month. A week anyhow. So I can understand how he has to look at things. He loves his farm, though. He's raising two pigs and three calves. He's hoping to train two of them to do oxen work. He and his lovely wife Liz mostly want to be able to feed their family and just enjoy their farm.

I suspect that if Eric decides to do this with me, it'll be because he's got a heart bigger than Dallas and he wants to help us. If he does, I just want to make sure that whatever we do doesn't take too much extra time on his part, and that I don't cause him aggravation.

I'm calling the EQIP people tomorrow. I hope they are encouraging. Once I get a sense of how likely it is that we could win the grant, I can present the scheme to Dad and see if how much of an obstacle he's going to be. What I hope for is that after his initial declaration of impossibility, that he'll kinda get excited about the idea.

So today is pins and needles day. Well, every day is pins and needles day. Some just more so than others.