Say “WOW” three times, with feeling.

The project moves on. It is a whirl-wind of painting, sawing, nailing, screwing, glueing, sanding, filling, scraping. We eat mostly crap. Lots of beer and many bags of chips. I can’t wait to have some good bread and pizza on a regular basis!

We have had several visitors to the bakery this week. It is amazing to me that people are interested enough to come by and have a look! We only have to prompt some people to act very impressed (i.e., say “WOW” three times, with feeling), others are duly impressed all on their own. In fact, one group of five women, to-go wine goblets in hand, were so impressed we had to ask them to stop saying “WOW”!! They were especially impressed by the floor of the dough room. That elicited many excited exclamations (OK, maybe with a tiny bit of prompting). Paul, a former Wellsian now running Slow Rise Organic Bakery on Gabriola Island, said in an email, “There is a real sense of community and support in the building process, very precious. It is quite different the day after the oven is finished and everyone wants bread.” Smart guy. Another thing he said was, “One of the hardest things to achieve in a small community like ours and yours is the balance between baking the kind of bread you want the kind of bread everyone else wants.” Like I said, smart guy. But just so you all know – NO *&(^%$%^&#@ WHITE BREAD, no matter how many times you ask me!

Let me tell you the story of the floor. My friend Yael assures me we will sell much more bread if our bakery has a checkered floor. And I believe her, so despite the fact it is a lot of work to paint checkers on a floor, I am doing it. I started small, in the dough room, but the pattern will continue throughout the main part of the bakery. The day I painted the checkers in the dough room, Tim was slightly annoyed with the frivolity of it all, given he was up in the ceiling inhaling insulation fibres, wanting help. I am happy to report he has come around now, and believes in the bread-selling powers of the checkered floor.

We are going away for a ski week next week and so feel that we need to practice a little. The weather has been cooperating, with clear blue skies and lovely dry snow. It is a nice break from the long hours of renovations.

Another thing I have taken the time to do this week is to set up our book-keeping spreadsheet. I actually like book-keeping, so once I get going, I enjoy myself. Just in case you were wondering, so far The Bread Peddler is in the red.