As you are reading this, we should be on our way home from a relaxing few days hiding out in a cabin by a river in the Blue Ridge mountains. When we get back life goes into overdrive. “And why?”, you ask. Because we are opening a new business!
A little background. D. is planning to retire next summer. He has spent his career stuck indoors. Torture for a guy who would happily spend 90% of his time outside. Even though he will have his retirement money, it’s not quite enough to cover our current requirements, plus I don’t need him hanging around in my space all day either. So for a couple of years he has been planning his retirement job. It is still indoors, but it is only for a few months.
Ok, don’t go EWWWW when I tell you.
It’s a wildlife meat processing and taxidermy business. I said don’t go EWWWW! He is a hunter, we don’t have a wildlife processor nearby and where we live is a huge hunting area. As in, people come from out of state to hunt here! Yes, I think I will be wearing blaze orange this fall as well as my dogs. There are days it sounds like a war zone around here in the Fall. Anyway, it is only four months out of the year and the rest of the time he can work here on the farm, train horses again and we can travel, etc.
We decided to go ahead and start the business this year because we were able to get the location we wanted for the price we wanted. It’s not pretty, but it is in a prime hunter hangout location. Picture a big, red, metal building. Guess who will be keeping it open and taking orders. Yep, yours truly. NO, I’m not going to cut up deer. I can’t cut up a chicken from the grocery store without getting sick!
What does this mean for me? Well, I’m hoping it will be a good career move. No, not the meat processing, the building. My current workspace is our second guest room which is tiny. I work on several projects at once and need room to spread out. Right now if we have guests, I have to shove everything to one corner then sort it all out again when they leave. It’s just not working for me.
The big, red building has plenty of space for me to work as well as D. The actual meat processing takes place in a separate cold room so the main part can be mine to spread out in. Perfect? Not quite, but I think over the long run it can work if we can both make enough money to pay the rent year round which is the plan.
I am also desperately needing some structure to my time and having to work around the business hours will give me that. I can do my work at the same time I am holding down the fort at his business. Right now, I’m still a little lost from not having a second job and get distracted by crazy stuff like laundry and yard work here at the house.
Hopefully next week I can give you a tour of the new workspace. Have a lovely week!
Pencils, Paint & Paper 