I started out the week feeling like an expert, the inexpensive cardboard organizers fit just right on the freezer shelves, and with some custom labels from our trusty label printer the display freezer was shaping up nicely. So on Monday, Holly and I decided to do a test run of stocking the freezer to see how the products fit, how many look good in a box, what inventory system we would use to keep track of what was in the storage freezer, and how to transport from the storage freezer in the barn up to the farm store.
The project of setting up a new “mini” farm store has been a slow process, and a new approach for me. My tendency is to dive in, to the neglect of all else, and complete the project as soon as possible. With this project, however, I have been trying to be realistic with my project deadlines and my own time management and so I was very excited on Monday to turn on the freezer and get one step closer to ready.
Forethought and planning paid off and Holly even came up with the simple idea to load products sideways on the shelves for awkward sized products that don’t fit neatly facing forward in the boxes. We tried a system of inventory management that involved treating the farm store as a wholesale customer, we create a pack list for the store, which takes care of inventory management and lets us track the value of product going into the store.
I felt that rush of excitement as we finished. The store needed some buttoning up, some cleaning and organization, but the freezer was on, it was stocked full of our hard work and the square checkout system was in place! The day was coming to a close and I remember thinking, I should go get that wifi temperature sensor to keep an eye on the freezer temp…but the freezer had run fine during its test run and was used, yes, but from a dealer I trusted.
I checked on the freezer later that evening and even had a friend make a small test purchase! What success:)
The next morning Racey and I had a meeting with our accountant then I had a PT appointment. After lunch Racey went to the farm store to grab a few things and she called me with some bad news. “Um…the freezer is at 55, everything is soft and there are some packages that are dripping everywhere.” Damn.
Our afternoon plans changed, and we spent an hour or so unloading the freezer and putting the thawed meat in our own chest freezer. Then we took a break. I went for a walk down to the barn and Racey went back to the house to prepare dinner and get ready for the kids to come home. It has been a difficult pattern to break, the constant go-go-go. But I’ve learned that our body and mind is well adjusted to stress if we can embrace the cycle of stress and relax. The immediate crisis was over, thawed meat was back in a freezer, I was tempted to keep the crisis going, call the repair guy, clean up, calculate the loss. But my body was telling me “hello, this hurts to be in crisis for too long!” After my walk I returned to cleanup the puddles of meat juices, clean and sanitize the shelves, set all my cardboard organizers out in the sun and make a few phone calls to some refrigeration repair places.
The repair folks from J. Hogan were able to come down and diagnose the problem (bad start and run capacitors on the compressor motor). The equipment dealer we work with has said he’ll pay for the repair and we should be up and running by the end of the coming week.
Reber Rock Farm Blog 