I Guess I Care About This Now...
Things I Never Thought I'd Care About
It's amazing how the things—and people—we care about change over time.
I don't know if it's turning forty, a growing awareness of my own mortality, or simply realizing that my brain is already full, but somewhere along the way I developed a very effective "not important" filter. If something doesn't deserve space in my already crowded mind, I keep it moving.
Six years ago, my role at the daylily farm was simple: help my husband and father-in-law during open season. That's it.
I was the sandwich maker. The pizza picker-upper. The occasional deadheader. I'd take photos, chat with customers, and run checkout when needed. The fun jobs.
I always considered myself a volunteer—basically completing court-ordered community service, except nobody had actually ordered it.
At the end of every season, my father-in-law would hand me a check. To his complete frustration, I never cashed it. It never felt like work to me.
I was just a happy little helper enjoying bloom season.
Funny how quickly that mindset changes when something becomes your own.
The moment Colt and I agreed to take over the daylilies, a switch flipped. Suddenly I cared about everything.
Not just the flowers.
The future.
The business.
The customers.
The weather.
The soil.
The marketing.
The accounting.
The education.
The labels.
The weeds.
All of it.
I never saw the farm as a source of income, let alone a centerpiece of our future. But overnight I became a business owner, a farmer, and—apparently—a co-CEO. My formerly carefree attitude vanished in record time.
And that left me wondering:
How exactly was I supposed to care about all of these things?
The answer, I think, is the same way you tackle anything overwhelming.
One day at a time.
One lesson at a time.
One weed at a time.
Fair Weather Fan
You can't spend more than five minutes with a farmer without somehow talking about the weather. It is mainly discussed when it is affecting crops in a negative way.
But we all have to have our water spigot talk.
I look at the forecast every day to plan my daily schedule with the daylilies.
On a perfect day, I want to wake up with the sun, go out and take pictures, pull some weeds because the ground will be a bit dewy and weeds are easier to pull, then go back inside for a while.
During my lunch break, I like to work on the books, social media, and email campaigns while the heat of the day does its thing.
Then in the evening, go back out for some more field work, replacing labels, or other needs. If the weather is rainy, all of that changes. But what if a freeze pops up? Or a drought hits? And that is just weather!
Adapting to whatever Indiana weather decides to throw at us has become one of our goals. Some days that's sunshine and productivity. Other days it's rain, mud, and questioning every life choice that led you into agriculture. Either way, flexibility is part of the job.
Another Beast
Marketing—or what I prefer to call customer connection. Marketing sounds so salesy, even though we do sell something. But really, we don't do this for the money, we have full time jobs!
Connecting with customers is a whole other beast.
Making sure to get our brand out there the way we want or communicating our main message of family heritage, pride, and legacy is so important to us. We want to share our story and earn the trust of the people we serve.
It could be a full time job in and of itself.
While I post on social media, I don't count that as our source of customer connection.
Really, emails and these blogs are what make me feel connected while we wait for open season. Our audience is still growing, but every email reply, blog comment, and social media interaction reminds me that we're building something real.
I love building connections with daylily lovers, flower enthusiasts, and generally cool people. You know who you are.
Accounting Schmounting
Me and math have never been friends. Not even when I was teaching it to fifth graders. I've always been a history-and-language-arts kind of girl.
Yet here I am building spreadsheets with formulas, tracking expenses, calculating revenue, and pretending I know what I'm looking at half the time. Don't even get me started on taxes, but let me toot my horn and say that I am a receipt freak now!
Currently, no profit has come because our season hasn't even started. I also have a sneaky suspicion that any money we do make will go straight back into the farm for a few years. I think that's normal.
But this math thing?
Bleh.
Grow to Learn, Learn to Grow
I'll end with this because this is our biggest goal for the year. In fact, we have a couple goals that really fall under education. We just want to learn. Learn from experience. Learn from others. I listen to podcasts almost every day. The Dirt on Daylilies and 6 Figure Flower Farm are my faves. These ladies got it going on.
But Colt and I are actively going to farmers markets to see if we can fit it in next year. We also joined AHS and IDIS so we can attend events, meet like-minded daylily "fans," and learn from people who know far more than we do. I'm most excited for this goal.
In fact, just yesterday, I went to my first IDIS club meeting. I drove an hour and a half, and it was absolutely worth it. I met some truly amazing, smarty-pants people.
Among them were Holly from Blue Barn Daylilies in Indianapolis, Gregg Beavers—an award-winning iris and daylily exhibitor—and Tabitha, who recently moved here from Texas and is learning just how different our growing seasons can be. Such a blessing to have met so many kind daylily lovers.
The focus of the meeting was on Garden Judging...didn't know it was a thing! I can vouch that this education thing will be my neverending story.
As someone with a bachelor's degree in education, a master's in curriculum design and educational technology, and enough certifications to wallpaper a small room, agricultural education was never on my radar.
Now it's all I can think about.
Maybe I should've gone to the School of Agriculture after all.
Side note: I have always told Colt (Purdue Grad) that I went to IU and Ball State, so maybe now I'll get a degree from Purdue and end our house divided:)
Care Then vs. Care Now
With all these things I never expected to care about, life somehow feels fuller.
What started as helping my family has slowly transformed into helping build our future.
Looking back, those years of "volunteering" weren't just preparation for bloom season—they were preparing me for this season of life.
Somewhere along the way, the flowers became more than flowers. They became a reason to grow.
And maybe that's how these things happen.
We help because someone needs us.
We show up because it's the right thing to do.
Then one day we look around and realize the thing we were helping with has become part of who we are.
So, what are you helping with right now?
Could you imagine it becoming your life?
You never know...
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