This week’s misc. tidbits:

**Wholesale Inquiries:
Please note: Country Meadow does not release any wholesale information until we receive your business license etc. We have had several wholesale inquiries the last few weeks but no follow-up with tax ID/business license copies.

No Validation – No Wholesale Account

**Pandora Radio = Way Cool!
Now listen to your very own music via your computer. Just enter in your favorite artist and it will also add similiar artists!

I have Phil Collins, Riverdance, Neil Diamond, Bad Company, Melissa Etheridge, The Three Tenors, Marc Cohn, Josh Grobin and Piers Faccini!

**Kiva Milestone
As of October 31, 2009 Kiva has raised 1 Million dollars in loans!

Around 2pm today (Happy Halloween for those in the U.S.), Kiva hit a major milestone:

It’s a wonderful accomplishment involving 584,189 Kiva Lenders in our first 4 years of operations. What’s even more amazing to me is that it took over 1 year to raise our first $1 million . This year alone, we’re on track to raise nearly $60 million. On behalf of the volunteers, staff, microfinance field partners and the entrepreneurs they serve — thank you and congrats to Kiva Lenders for reaching this incredible milestone!

**Shows
For the last few years I have been concentrating on our website and obtaining more wholesale accounts and as a result we dropped all local craft shows.

This fall I decided to dip my toes back into the smaller, local craft shows and our first one is tomorrow.

Since we do not have a retail store and are not really set up for walk-in customers selling at local shows is a great way for people to come and actually see and SMELL our products!

I have our van packed full with just about every soap we make and have a small selection of soap logs available as well.

So stop by, pick up a free soap sample and say ‘Hi!’
We will be HERE from 9am – 4pm Saturday, November 7, 2009.

**New Family Member
We have dogs (English Bull Terriers) and fish (both pond and aquarium), and finch (Zebra, Society, Gouldian) and our youngest daughter has moved back home for a while so it’s not like we were looking to fill up empty space (if you’ve been to our house you know there is NOT room for anything hence the remodel idea in a year or so!)…

But sometimes things just happen.

Sometimes things just fall in your lap without any effort at all.

We have a new addition to our family as of two weeks ago.
Lemon is a 4 year old, male Umbrella Cockatoo and he is unlike any bird we have ever had!

I did two weeks of research before we committed to bringing him home. I wanted to know exactly what we were in for:

Extremely LOUD calls and screams both in the am and pm
Extra time to work with him out of his cage
Cooking and preparing fresh food

This type of bird is not for everyone. You cannot keep a cockatoo inside a cage 24/7 or there is a possiblity that they will get bored and start feather plucking. They are highly intelligent and people friendly once they get to know you. They are also very expensive to maintain!

Lemon didn’t come with any toys so we had to go out and buy half the pet store’s toys. He was also on a 100% seed diet (a huge no-no) so we bought pellets (which he is not really into) and the fruit shaped colorful food (which he is eating) and are converting him over to what he is supposed to eat with just a little bit of seed! Fresh fruits and vegetables are a must plus there are bird recipes that you can actually cook for your bird.

I have also ordered various soak/cook/bean/rice/bread mixes as well as toy components so we can start making our/his toys (how fun will that be!)

Cockatoos are shredders which means he needs toys he can shred which can cost upwards of $20.00 each (ouch!). The huge shredder toy we bought two weeks ago had its last day yesturday! I found a good one at the pet store for $8.00 so we will see how long that one lasts!

I have only been able to take a few short videos of Lemon.
If you want to see them (and others I will upload as soon as I have time!) click HERE for my Youtube link.

Plans are:
Build Lemon a tree perch so he doesn’t have to play on his cage top all the time

Build an aviary for the finch

Get Lemon a bigger cage

Does anyone know how to squeeze an extra day out of the week?
Seems we are running a little short!

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com