In the Market for a New Backuup Drive
8 years ago
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- 8 years ago
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Front wheel drive vs. rear wheel drive
Comments (34)I tried both and I find the rear-drive very awkward and very difficult while pivoting the mower to the other direction. With front-drive, all I do is raise the front and quickly turn the mower to the other direction. My target is to quickly and efficiently mow my lawn and not tinker with the clutch at all; who wants that? With rear-drive, I have to disengage every time when I need to turn directions ... making my expensive mower a push mower during the attempt and tremendously slowing my momentum ... and of course, I have to engage again to move forward. If you have the mower on fast while doing this, you will find yourself fighting the mower every time you want to start on the new direction. You are not controlling the mower, its controlling you. Think about it, being able to raise the front wheels will allow you to turn the mower on 2 wheels; that is turning on a dime. If you have 4 wheels, you are going to make several small movements to realign your mower to the new direction while stroking your clutch on every attempt. IÂm returning my rear-drive today for a front-wheel drive....See MoreAdvice for new market grower with a microfarm?
Comments (22)I was up and through Peoria a couple weeks ago on my way over the Dadant's in Hamilton. We are a little south and east of you - the home place is between Decatur and Champaign and I live down in the Mattoon-Charleston area. We do two markets in Decatur and one in Monticello during the season but know a fellow that has been IIRC to the Riverfront Market in Peoria (meat seller) and liked it OK. Bloomington is a bit farther from you but has a really good market, as does Springfield. I really do not know much about the smaller markets in that area but U of I Extention had a website listing a bunch of them. As you probably have figured out the easy part of our job is the growing - marketing takes a little more work. My observation has been that the first year or two you need to work on building your customer base. In an established market people know who they have dealt with in the past and IIHO tend to favor them at least for their primary purchaces. After people get to know you and your produce you'll develop you own following - especially if you can find a nitch product that others do not have. That means your going to have to sell yourself as much as your product. I try to greet as many of the people walking by with a simple "Good morning" or something to that effect. Most respond back; quite a few will stop and engage you in conversation. That both creates the potential for a purchace and makes your booth look busy. Busy looking stands tend to draw more people. Learn as much as you can about your produce and be willing to share that in a concise way. As far as the organic draw - I really could not say. My gut says that most of our customers are more interested in the freshness and locality of our produce than if we are or are not organic. That is going to depend a lot on the market so you may find different. One thing to do is look into taking WIC and Senior Nutrition Farmer's Market vouchers. They are easy to do and free to sign up for but it takes a little time to get set up. It opens another avenue of revenue and frankly are great programs. Tom Here is a link that might be useful: Illinois Farm Direct Market Search...See MoreNew year and considering a new market
Comments (14)I am worried that if I go to the larger market that I will lose my niche as a small organic grower and not be able to compete with the other small growers. Ever wonder why every city has "dealer's row" ... a couple of miles of car dealers, side by side? It helps comparison shopping and increases sales for all of them. Same with the larger market - you will be one of many organic growers, but will have far larger numbers of people looking for what you are selling. it's a 'watering hole" and you benefit from the others. Keep your competitive edge by working on being the FIRST with something popular, or by offering less common items. One area to explore would be things used by "ethnic" chefs ... check out the international student population and cater to their recipes and let it be know that you will do it. ASK them what they can't find - locate their Facebook page and ask what things they want to cook with they can't find grown locally. Often it's not something exotic and hard to grow, it's just not being grown....See Moresellers are driving us nuts!
Comments (13)Talked to our realtor today. Apparently, their agent refused to eat the $375, so that cost got shifted off to the sellers. They did agree to pay it, but there hasn't been any communication from them since we refused their proposed closing date. Oh well. The other bummer is that we had our eye on another property and it got taken off the market yesterday as someone put in an offer for it. You win some, you lose some, I guess. About the assessment - to be fair to the sellers, they only found out about this at the beginning of January. Still, I think they could have mentioned something about it in the original listing. But pebbles, your assessment didn't go back down?? That scares me. Seems like so many of these condos have exorbitant fees, and you have to wonder sometimes - what is it really paying for? In the area we're looking to buy, we've seen condo fees as low as $145 and as high as $600, all of which basically paid for the same things - water, trash, insurance, etc. For the condo we made the offer on, there isn't a pool, common area, the building's in good shape, there aren't really any lawns to mow... Speaking of lawns, DH and I nearly laughed our @sses off at one listing we went to see - the condo fee of $315 didn't pay for any utilities, but said (and quite proudly too, I might add) "fee covers lawn care and maintenance." Well, we spent a good 5-10 minutes looking around the building for anything resembling a lawn. Finally after some time had passed, we noticed a little planter with a patch of green peeping out - it was so small you could have covered it with a small bath towel. airforceguy - thanks for the tip on suntrust. I looked on their website and they are actually offering the same rate we are getting with SDFCU but they are charging an additional 1% orig fee. Also, as you said, you need 20% down with them, which SDFCU doesn't require. We do love Falls Church though - we actually live near EFC metro now and love our neighborhood. Its just too pricey for us to actually afford anything here. Ah well, back to the drawing board. Thank goodness we have a vacation coming up in March to decompress from all this nonsense!...See More- 8 years ago
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