This spring was busy. My podcast The Wise Photographer Podcast was really starting to gain some momentum. March 17th is when the pandemic really started to shake things up here at the Weisz household.  The only big change was my new role as a homeschool teacher to our daughter Skyler.  Besides that not too much changed at first.  We still live in the middle of nowhere, and calving was about to start so that meant we weren’t planning on leaving the farm any time soon.  

As churches in our area started to shut down Sunday morning services I offered myself and my gear to help our church film services, and post them on youtube.  I figured it would be 2 maybe 3 weeks, it soon turned into months, and more churches started calling.  Then May rolled around and the Weisz Country Greenhouse opened up for the season.  I took on the role of online shop manager and in about 4 days input over 387 different plants into our new online shop, along with descriptions, growing information, and photos. 

We had no idea what to expect when the doors opened on May 1st, we sold 20% of our tree inventory the first day.  The greenhouse was crazy busy.  Weisz Country Greenhouse is a family-owned and run greenhouse which meant there were only 4 of us working, it was busy but we were thankful.  Everything was going well.  All these balls I was juggling seemed to be up in the air still. 

Then our tiny community had our first positive cases of COVID19. While there have not been any deaths in our community, and we have not had many cases, this first case rocked me a bit more than I like to admit.  You see the first case had been at the greenhouse just the day before test results came back. None of our employees got sick, and everyone was fine it still shook me.  

You see back in February I was diagnosed with PTSD.  In November of 2019 was the first time I really had a good look at my PTSD.  My husband Justin had a routine cardiology appointment. During the appointment, they found a couple of glitches with his pacemaker.  Is regular cardiologist was out of town so we saw his PA. Everything went okay and no one was too worried.  The following Monday we got a call that his cardiologist wanted to see him next week.  

This sent me into a panic of worry. You see, all of his surgeries started out with a phone call like this.  A phone call with not much news, just a message that we needed to go somewhere to get a better look at something.  We went into his appointment holding our breath.  We were so thankful that it really just ended up being an error with scheduling in all honesty.  We should have seen him in 6 months but for some reason, he thought we needed to see him sooner.  He double-checked the pacemaker and went over blood work everything was a-okay! 

But my mind and emotions couldn’t shake that panicked feeling. I felt like I was spiraling downward on the inside, even though everyone was fine.  It took me weeks to pull myself back up.  So in February when a trip to ear nose and throat for Justin’s nose bleeds did the same thing I knew it was time to talk to my doctor.  That’s when I was officially diagnosed with PTSD.  We did some medication adjustments and I started therapy. 

But even with all of the preparation in February I was not ready for what the rest of spring 2020 would look like, and when COVID19 case numbers started to grow close to home I started to panic.  At first, I really tried to grind through and push out content and be everything for everyone.  While I did do a lot of good for a lot of people it started to take a toll on me.  So I decided to take a step back.  Luckily church services were starting to start up again so I was able to take that off my plate. 

The greenhouse actually closed two weeks earlier then usually because we sold out, and school came to a close.  But I still needed to take a minute to refocus myself.  And ya know what I’m so glad I did.  We got a camper this spring and have been out enjoying it.  I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time in my gardens, and dug into some great fiction books.

 This little forced sabbatical has been so soothing for my mind and body, and soul. 

Chelsy Weisz

As July rolled around I could feel that restlessness start to bubble up, the want and drive to start creating again. So I’m easing back into my business.  I’m starting to plan out the rest of my 2020 podcast episodes and product launches.  And I’m really starting to grow more excited for you to see it all unfold.  

If you have made it this far into this email I want to thank you!  Thank you for sticking around even during my radio silence.  Thank you to those of you who reached out! Thank you to my staff for keeping this afloat. I’ll be back next week with a much shorter email! Until then check out this cute 30-second video of some of our summer adventures so far! 

Kids and I took an opportunity to get some photos taken of them on the beach on one trip!