I hope I remember how to do this. You know, write a post? And I hope some of you are still out there!
It has been a long time since I have been here with any regularity. I thought it was time to jump in and let you know where we are at, what is going on and what is coming.
First, let’s take a minute and go back a bit in time. I started this blog in 2010. I was doing some cleaning up on the site today and I was very sentimental about how different blogging was back then. We all had “buttons” and we shared to each other’s sites and we joined “parties” or “blog hops” every week. I can remember so clearly struggling even to just get a photo loaded into my site because I had not yet learned how to resize my images. My photography was terrible but I loved being creative each day. It was all so simple and we all dreamed about what it would lead to.
Then, three years ago we started down a very different path and began making our own products – specifically our organic maple syrup in our sweet sugar house. You can read all about how we ended up on this journey HERE.
When we started, we had no idea fully what we were getting into and that was the beauty of it. We had to grow to support our business and our family, but with growth comes lots of complications. We are still running the business out of our house. In fact, right now there are three of us sitting at our dining room table on laptops and our shipping manager is in our garage. Some days, there are four of us here. There are “work” things everywhere. Two days ago we finally made more room in the “warehouse” also known as our garage, so we could get all of the candles out of our living room. The full truth is, we have run out of space and we are limiting the business by being here still.
Our team has grown. We have several part time workers including a bookkeeper, shipping manager, sales and marketing assistant, several part time helpers for deliveries and canning and labeling and a product development / sales person who helps me with a lot of my side of the business. I will introduce you to them soon, but in the meantime, lets talk about all of these people being willing to work out of our garage, dining room, kitchen and basement at times. We are very blessed.
And then there is the side where there is always someone in our home and there is absolutely no separation from work and our personal life. That has begun to drag on us all a bit.
And so where does that leave us?
We have built a new sugar house!
Actually – the front right is the sugar house and behind that is a warehouse (praise the Lord!). Then, on the left side we have a packaging / bottling room, a kitchen, a retail space and event space. Upstairs we have offices and a family space for our kids to be able to relax in when we are there. It is very close to our house so we are fortunate to be able still have that type of flexibility.
We are still a few weeks – to maybe more than a few weeks out to being able to get in here, but it is close. With this new building will be able to hopefully continue to grow our business, host events, run our retail shop (part time) and who knows what else it may lead to. I share updates pretty regularly on Instagram – mostly on stories if you want to see it come together in the final weeks – you can find us at FindingHomeFarms and Dana is at FindingHomeFarmsDana. And I will continue to share more updates here on the blog as we move into these final stages.
So, let’s get down to the real nitty gritty of this stage. We all look at social media and see the styled images, the dreams being lived, the big risks being taken. And of course, we want to see the good side – and there is a LOT of good. But I thought I would share where I am at in this point in the process with a little more “truth” than what you might see on social media.
I have dreamed of this type of project for so long I have lost track and now it is here and I am admittedly feeling very overwhelmed. We have run this business with low risk and under the radar for so long. Now, we are no longer “low risk” and we are definitely not under the radar. I have learned a lot about myself over the last few months of this journey and I realize I am more conservative and “risk averse” than I realized.
And I have learned a lot about Dana over these last few months. He is more confident and determined than I have ever seen him before. His belief and his determination are my bright light right now.
From the day Dana left his “secure job”, I have felt a peace about this journey. I am seeking that peace a bit more these days and turning more and more to my faith. I think I am very much in the stage of “do something that scares you every day”. I watched this video the other day about facing fear. It ends with this quote: “Everything you want is on the other side of fear”. That is what I am banking on right now.
I am white knuckling it a bit now and holding on. I can see the “dream” of what the future holds and I am praying and putting my faith in His plan. Somehow even sharing this side of this here helps some.
When we started this journey, I said multiple times – even if we fall flat on our face, I would rather fail than not have tried. And so, the worse possible outcome is we fall on our face and we start over in a new way. I don’t know what is coming next, but I am trying and learning more to trust. To try and not worry and be anxious about the things I can control and work my buns off on all the things I can control.
So what comes next?
Well, if you are local, I hope you will be able to join us once we start planning and hosting events. As far as the blog, I am actually really hopeful that getting the business out of the house will open up my creativity to taking care of my home more and having projects to share on that front. I also will have space in the new building for photography and sharing ideas and projects. I really WANT to blog more. Really. It is has just been a matter of capacity and space and our house being in such chaos. So, no promises, but fingers crossed! And of course, we hope to continue to share all of our products with you regardless of where you are.
I will end with a question. Do you want more of the “behind the scenes” side of the business on the blog? Do you want information about our events even if you are not local? Any feedback or thoughts would be so appreciated.
As always, thank you so much for your reading and allowing me to share. It felt good to be back here today.
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