With such intense heat this summer, and every summer for that matter, we all become quite aware of how much water and electricity we are using. Both bills tend to skyrocket and I know at least I try to turn off lights I’m not using (which I should do anyway) and not get carried away with watering.

As a very new iPhone user, I have wasted my fair share of time this month messing with my phone and seeing what all it could do. For years, I've seen [seemingly] EVERY ONE of my friends and EVERY STRANGER I MEET have their smart phones and be able to do so much with them. Now that I actually have one, it's almost overwhelming. What apps do I download? What's all the hullabaloo about Angry Birds and why are they so mad?

Testing your water source for your nursery on a regular basis is important. Changes around your property can affect the water quality of your well or the surface runoff into your ponds and reserviors. One local grower noticed an almost overnight change in the quality of his crops on his nursery. Through some water testing and visual inspections of the property adjacent to his nursery, he discovered toxic levels of an elelment that they attributed to some drilling that had happened recently on the property next door.

It is amazing to think back to how much I did NOT know. I did not know what a bill of lading was. A customer wanted me to send a “bill of lading” along with the delivery. I had to ask him what that was.

When we started the building process, I did not know how to make fertilizer.

I did not know any customers.

I did not know what slow release nitrogen was.

I did not know how to set up a set of accounting books (we did not have computers back then).