Christmas Photo Update!

Thanks for the Bean Bag Chairs Mom! I also captured a picture of Anthony!

Merry Christmas!

Wow, October? I did not realize I was so far behind in my blog. 

We had a great Christmas Eve! The kids and I opened presents this morning and I always love the look on their faces when they open the gifts. They get so excited. 

It has also been snowing quite a bit so we have a beautiful blanket of the white stuff. Six inches last night and it is still coming down hard now at Midnight. It is supposed to snow through Saturday morning, I love it. 

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Attached is a pic of some wall art by Holly called "Copper Canyon". I love that piece and had it framed. And some kid pics!

Jeffery

Murphy

Murphy visited the Watson house...

1. Alexia sick
2. Jaiden sick
3. Dad sick
4. Evan sick
5. Truck has memory steering (huh?)
6. Truck needs tires
7. Garage Door spring breaks
8. Nanny puts in 3 week notice (we will all miss Jade)

The good news...

1. Alexia better
2. Jaiden better
3. Dad better
4. Evan not quite yet...
5. Truck still need to get to the shop
6. Garage door is fixed
7. Interviews are lined up for a new Nanny

~ Jeffery

Update

Hey, I know it has been a while...

Anthony - he is a Senior this year. I still can't believe it. Wow. He is hunting again as it is the season. He already has 3 deer one of which is a large 10 pointer. He is pretty excited about that. He is going again this coming weekend. Overall, things are good with him. No girlfriend but he still texts a LOT and the other day a girl came over for a bit. Does not sound serious though at all. 

Alexia - well...the nurse thinks she has H1N1. She stayed home today, her fever spiked to 102.1 today, although her fever is down tonight, we'll see how she is tomorrow. She is staying home from school for sure though. She is back in dance and is enjoying school. She is taking notice and more care about her appearance now, combing her hair every morning and every night. 

Jaiden - he is simply a happy little guy that wants to be outside ALL THE TIME!! He also wants to hunt with T. He is loving school and well...there is not much more to say there. He is such a good kid (although they all are). 

Evan - he is spirited. He is a daddy's boy like you wouldn't believe. He is doing well though, chatting up a storm and wanting to play with the big kids all the time!! 

Me - I have been pretty busy, again, nothing new. The Pickle did us well this year, we were up over last year, pretty nice. Pickles. Who'd uh thunk it. We are in discussions with the Fair for a bigger spot next year. We are actually looking at (or hoping for) our own building next year. We talked to the Fair and they seem to agree. We most likely will not find out until the spring if we get it or not, if we do...we will have a BUSY summer getting it ready. 

Things are going great with Jenn and I, she spoils me. All the kids love getting together to play!! 

Enough for now. Gotta Jet. 

~ Jeffery 

To California July 2009

 
 
 
 

Entrepreneur

Jaiden ran into the house and said "Dad, my first customer!"

He is 6. He is so excited about making money. So he pulled some toys he did not want, asked me to make a sign and away he goes. The sign the kids strategically placed right by the busy part of the street and he has a bin at the end of the driveway with his toys. 

Lexi then made Kool-Aid to sell. 

A generous woman stopped by and bought a little block for her baby. 

I think they will be working at the Pickle stand!

Jeffery

Cement Table

Hmmm. So my Mom and I have been talking for a while about a cement table for the patio. I was bored the other day and looked it up on the Net. Next thing I knew I was at Menards. 

$4.00 bag of cement.

$5.00 coloring solution.

$3.00 bag of white decorative rocks.

I realize I did not need the rocks yet, but what the heck. 

I built 2 small forms out of wood to play around with. I mixed the cement and coloring solution and ended up with red cement. 

The picture here is of the cement poured into one of the forms. The problem is I mixed too much water at the beginning so I could not take the water away. I was not thinking on that one. So the cement was very watery. That may have been part of my problem as the one form I took apart today and it still felt damp, it cracked and the edges are not the best. Especially for what is to be a finished product. 

Back to the drawing board. 

If you have any cement tips please let me know. 

Jeffery

Having a great time in cali!

Life is good!

--
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Cheesy Smiles

Blast from the Past

I tend to start things because I get bored. Some I follow through on such as the Pickle, others I don't such as Stick Art! lol

Mystery Bird Update

I think I found the Mystery Bird. I believe it is a Green Heron. The picture here is from Google Images and it looks VERY similar to the one behind the house. The only thing that seems a little different is the one in the backyard does not seem to be as colorful. The body style, size, beak, everything seems to match this one. 

4th of July Colors

Happy 4th of July!

Updated Mystery Bird PIC

AH HA! I finally got a good shot of the Mystery Bird! If you know what it is please leave me a comment!

Mystery Bird

You ever see the fuzzy pictures of the Loch Ness Monster? Or there are the fuzzy pictures of Big Foot? How come no one can take a clean, good quality picture of them? Now I know. It is because they are mysterious. 

I have a mysterious bird that arrives in the pond behind the house. I do not know what it is. When it, long pause, seeking out the right word....sings...it brings me back to TV shows talking about Dinosaurs. It has a very unique call. So I have tried to take a picture of it and as you can see by my other pictures they are clear and good quality pics. Every shot I try and get of this bird they turn out as seen here, I don't know why. 

When I try and get closer to take a better pic...it flies away. 

It is dark in color, it reminds me of something similar to an Egret but as you can see...it is short. 

Do you know what it is? 

~ Jeffery

Tired Bunch

Sleeping with their new pillow cases!! 

The Big Catch

She wanted me to take the pole, it was a big one and she could tell, it was a good fight! I said NO, you can do it which she then landed the Big Catch! :) 

5 Dozen Minnows and 2 Dozen Worms

The kids and I went to the Daggett Beach Cabin recently to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Watson for the weekend. The kids were excited about fishing and that is exactly what they did was fish, fish and....fish.

We had a blast and caught many Perch, Sunnies and Bass!

~ Jeffery

Cute Kids

Amanda

Visiting Amanda on Valentines Day. :(

PDMA

Interesting thought here. The Pickle boys have been considering trying to get their batter produced and sold in the mass market arena. This is not so much an easy task to do. But for the small guys we have come a long way in an adventure such as this. 

It helps that we have the MN State Fair to sell our product at now but we are looking for more. 

In 2008 we took the step of getting our product manufactured from a blending company. This gives our product much more consistency. Not saying anything bad about employers of ours of recent years but teenagers measuring with the 1/4 cup and making up 500 bags is not quite as consistent as a machine blending the product. When mixing 3 of the ingredients which are all white and you are there talking with friends, laughing and having a good time...next thing you know...oh wait? Did I already put salt in that bag? The machine doesn't have any friends and simply does its job, thus much more consistent and accurate. 

The blending company made up 1,000 consumer packages for us and also larger bags for us to use at the Fair. From a cost standpoint it was about a break even for us. After paying labor for what we called batter night, pizza and soda for the employees and the product itself, it turned out to be close enough in cost to have the blending company produce it for us. 

This in itself was not an easy task. Many vendors we spoke to wanted to know how many lbs of batter we were talking about. 3800. This is like a spoonful of sand at a sand dune and many of the vendors did not want to deal with us. We happened to get lucky through an introduction from my cousin's wife with one food blending company. It just so happened our contact from this company also had a booth at the MN State Fair. This common ground helped us get in and they have done very well for us. 

But what about the box? Our box as you can see is nothing like what you would find at the local grocery store or bait shop. This is the next step in the process for us. 

We then came across from an old friend something called PDMA. Through discussion we found out there was interest to have the Pickle Guys present our story at a future PDMA meeting. What is PDMA you say? It is a Professional Association made up of people from many different companies who work with product development. Some may be in engineering, marketing, product placement, etc etc. 

Talk about a fit. We met with the Director and the Program Manager of PDMA and they seem very interested in having us present. The date is set for Mid March. 

We will be sharing the Pickle Story, the trials, the errors, the beginning, middle and future goals, including our desire to market our batter. At the suggestion of the PDMA group they mentioned we could then break the group (30-50 people) up into small groups and each group may discuss one of the next steps in what they would do with our product. After this short recess bring the large group back together and share the outcome. 

Some of the break out sessions could include questions such as what would you do with the box design? What market would you try and introduce this too? Is there even a market for this? The list goes on. 

I am excited by this. I think not only will we get some great ideas out of this we may also make some great contacts in the industry. Many of the suggestions came from the gals from the PDMA itself as we wanted to make sure it was a fit for what they typically meet on. It sounds like this is right up their alley. 

We are also checking into the possibility of there being a kitchen at the meeting location which if that is the case we may make some pickles for them to enjoy. 

The next chapter in our book. The Box. 

i. introduction

ii. the idea

iii. the guys

iv. the county fair

v. the state fair

vi. the lines

vii. the customers

viii. the batter

ix. the blending 

x. the box

~ Jeffery

Updates

• The furnace was fixed. Root cause: Ice.
• The temp today was in the mid 40's. Nice.
• Today I made a football out of snow. 
• I also made the Roman Numerals for Super Bowl 43.
• The Frozen Pond had water on it today.
• The football looks more like a potato.
• The Roman Numerals is missing I.
• I have 3 kids here, 1 of whom is sleeping, 1 is watching a movie and 1 is traveling the house with an easter basket full of cars and trains yelling apple. 
• He already has had 2 apples. 
• Tomorrow Pittsburgh takes on Arizona in the Super Bowl.
• I like the Steelers, but would be nice if Arizona won I.
• Tomorrow's another day. 

~ Jeffery

Cute!

~ Jeffery