'Just for fun' we took a few JamBusters! products with us on our holiday in The Kootenays to make two deliveries along the way. This is our pal Cheryl who was actually one of our 'Jar-A-Day Giveway" winners. We brought her the prize she won to her office in Kamloops, BC.
Well, I have to admit that I’m still not quite back to normal and October is almost over. It has been a kind of hectic period for me on many different fronts – not all of them related to JamBusters! I’m going to try to explain a little better what I mean as a lot has happened over the past few weeks.
The Kootenay Vacation
We ended last month with our annual summer/fall vacation. This year was our third and we decided to visit The Kootenays again. George did most of the prep work deciding on the route and this time around we went as far as Golden on the Trans-Canada Highway and then south from there. We ended up spending two nights in Invermere and totally enjoyed the region. Our trip was just over a week and ended earlier this month. It was a wonderful break.
The Oliver Indoor Flea Market
As we were away on holiday, we missed the first weekend of the month at the Oliver Indoor Flea Market. Fortunately, our vendor neighbours (Don and Sherrill, plus Maddie) all kept an eye on our booth and kept sales flowing. When we were in The Kootnays we did stop at outdoor markets in Invermere and Grand Forks to see what they were doing and bought items at both. Sales for JamBusters! during October was close to 100 jars, which sort of surprised me as I was expecting traffic to slow down. Our Watkins Products set and broke two single day sales records this month as we are clearly becoming better known in the region for having these products.
The Election
My life got a bit wackier this month with the local election campaign coming to an end. George has been seeking a seat on the local Town Council and I attended an all-candidates forum with him days after we got back from holidays. I was very proud of how he responded to questions and the people sitting around me all seemed to thing he ‘aced’ that event – it featured all 15 candidates seeking four Councillor seats. I also attended other functions with him leading up to the October 20th municipal election. He even stayed at Town Hall election night until almost 4 the following morning to get the final results and then was on the road with me only a couple of hours later to vend at the Oliver Market. By the way, George won a seat on our local Town Council.
The Canning
One more thing I’ve been trying to stay on top of is the canning I do for our JamBusters! products. I have a couple of systems I follow and they have worked well for me but I think I’ve got to figure out another way to streamline things. We still have a lot of fruit and vegetables coming at us from various directions so I’m trying to stay on top of things and some days it is a little harder than others. I think I’ll revert back to my small batch production to lighten the pressure and that should work. It has been a very intense couple of months at the end of harvest time that I don’t think I really expected, but will work around.
The Winter Season
We are slowly preparing our stock for the upcoming season. Normally we attend two or three pre-Christmas vending events outside of our weekly commitment in Oliver. This year we have chopped it down to just one and that will be the Chamber of Commerce Christmas Craft Fair hosted in downtown Princeton. We love vending in our home town when we can and this particular event has been a very good one for us over the past couple of years. Other than that, we will continue our weekly trips to Oliver and focus on that venue as best we can.
The Kootenay Vacation
We ended last month with our annual summer/fall vacation. This year was our third and we decided to visit The Kootenays again. George did most of the prep work deciding on the route and this time around we went as far as Golden on the Trans-Canada Highway and then south from there. We ended up spending two nights in Invermere and totally enjoyed the region. Our trip was just over a week and ended earlier this month. It was a wonderful break.
The Oliver Indoor Flea Market
As we were away on holiday, we missed the first weekend of the month at the Oliver Indoor Flea Market. Fortunately, our vendor neighbours (Don and Sherrill, plus Maddie) all kept an eye on our booth and kept sales flowing. When we were in The Kootnays we did stop at outdoor markets in Invermere and Grand Forks to see what they were doing and bought items at both. Sales for JamBusters! during October was close to 100 jars, which sort of surprised me as I was expecting traffic to slow down. Our Watkins Products set and broke two single day sales records this month as we are clearly becoming better known in the region for having these products.
The Election
My life got a bit wackier this month with the local election campaign coming to an end. George has been seeking a seat on the local Town Council and I attended an all-candidates forum with him days after we got back from holidays. I was very proud of how he responded to questions and the people sitting around me all seemed to thing he ‘aced’ that event – it featured all 15 candidates seeking four Councillor seats. I also attended other functions with him leading up to the October 20th municipal election. He even stayed at Town Hall election night until almost 4 the following morning to get the final results and then was on the road with me only a couple of hours later to vend at the Oliver Market. By the way, George won a seat on our local Town Council.
The Canning
One more thing I’ve been trying to stay on top of is the canning I do for our JamBusters! products. I have a couple of systems I follow and they have worked well for me but I think I’ve got to figure out another way to streamline things. We still have a lot of fruit and vegetables coming at us from various directions so I’m trying to stay on top of things and some days it is a little harder than others. I think I’ll revert back to my small batch production to lighten the pressure and that should work. It has been a very intense couple of months at the end of harvest time that I don’t think I really expected, but will work around.
The Winter Season
We are slowly preparing our stock for the upcoming season. Normally we attend two or three pre-Christmas vending events outside of our weekly commitment in Oliver. This year we have chopped it down to just one and that will be the Chamber of Commerce Christmas Craft Fair hosted in downtown Princeton. We love vending in our home town when we can and this particular event has been a very good one for us over the past couple of years. Other than that, we will continue our weekly trips to Oliver and focus on that venue as best we can.
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