Jeanne-ology: TikTok. And Hoarders.

It’s Thursday and Jeanne is here with her semi-regular weekly series - Jeanne-ology. We’ve been super busy this week and I feel like I’ve only seen her for a hot minute. Let’s see what she has to say. - Rebecca

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Hello Thursday readers!  I actually have seen sunshine this week and I feel better and more optimistic.  I am sure you do as well. Hopefully Spring is around the corner in a couple of months!  Although this normally our slower time of the year, we have been much busier than Rebecca and I expected.  Celebrating Valentine's Day and getting ready to celebrate Leap Day on the 29th is keeping us on our toes. (Rebecca editing to add: She thought Leap Day was on a Monday until today. I just give information to her on as on-needed basis.)

Outside the usual daily pie baking, some of our staff have been making TikTok videos. Some have been posted and more are likely to come.  I try to stay out of the video shots! Our staff strives to incorporate me in some awkward or funny way.  Rebecca is to blame for introducing me to TikTok.  I soon realized that you could spend hours looking at videos.  My husband enjoys watching TikTok.  He cannot watch it unless it is on my phone. Thank goodness!  Otherwise, I would never see him. (Rebecca editing to add: That her husband is an unlikely fan of Tiktok really just makes this story everything and then some.)

In other news, we have new anti-fatigue mats.  They seem to help me so much and my back pain is very minimal now.  We are trying them out to see if we want to make them permanent.  I think they should stay! (Rebecca editing to add: She’s in charge.)

We ordered a custom made pastry docker for our pie tins.  Right now when we blind bake, we use a fork and make a million little holes into the pie crust before baking. This keeps the pie dough from blistering.  NO ONE likes to do this task, except me.  Maybe I am weird?  This process takes valuable time and if not done properly, defeats the whole purpose.  We have finally found a company in Canada that will custom make their pie docker to fit our pie tins.  Rebecca ordered what we needed.  Everyone was cheering in unison and cannot wait for the pie dockers to arrive. (Rebecca editing to add: In full disclosure, I hate forking pie shells more than anyone in the entire world. I would pay any price to not do it.)

Although we have double our old space, we still need space.  Rebecca and I are looking at ways we can provide storage without doing a complete build out in the back parking lot.  We are also planning to purchase another two door freezer.  Right now, we have been stealing freezer space in the front freezer, which doesn’t look very nice. (Rebecca editing to add: She did suggest that we purchase a fleet of old vans, remove the seats, and store boxes of boxes in the vans. I’ll chalk that weird suggestion up to the fact that she had to drive to Independence this week to get boxes and she was desperately trying to find any solution to driving. I’m going to take a hard pass on the killer vans.)

We could probably double our space again, just for storage of pie boxes, shipping boxes, tart boxes and jelly jars.  Right now, everything is stacked in the hallway and our office.  Part of me doesn't really mind the stacking of items, I had grown used to the cramped space from our old pie shop.  However, we we don't solve the storage problem soon, our hallway and office could be profiled on Hoarders. (Rebecca editing to add: Even I find it a bit overwhelming. When you can’t fully open the door to the bathroom because six hundred nine-inch boxes are in the way, you might have a problem.)