Busy Busy Busy

oh boy y'all! It has been a very busy few weeks. Ever since I put it out there that I am focusing on the homesteading business--as in booking classes and setting up at vendor events--things have gotten crazy. Crazy busy in booking classes, forging local partnerships, getting ready for the May 25th vendor event. But also taking pie and cake orders too! And experimenting with pie recipes. Drafting class proposals. It's been so busy, but oh, so good.

Let's talk pies for a minute. And cake. Let's talk cake. If you've followed along for any length of time, you'll know we live at a fly fishing lodge. I don't think I've explained that in great detail (but I will in another post). Suffice it to say, people book fishing trips with guides. The guides live in the same house we do for the season (April-October). They're not here full time that whole time but during the first part of the season they are. And most of them have birthdays in May. It's crazy, but true. They usually do something nice (or funny) for each other. This year I get to bake the cakes. And some of them are...ahem...let's just say the recipient will think it's hilarious. But that also means I'm baking 2 cakes this next week plus a pie. Plus our coffee and pie chat pie. The pie for this weekend you've seen before except I need to make it gluten free. So I found (via someone's suggestion) gluten free gingersnaps. So we used GF gingersnaps in the Butterscotch Pie with Curry Crust. I need to tweak it a little (I added too much butter to the crust). But I think it will be a big hit. We are starting to do some informal dinners on the weekends here at the fishing lodge for our customers and the guides but one of the customers is gluten free. So we are trying to accommodate that need. I've been wanting to branch out into substitute cooking so this is a good way to start on a small scale. We'll make meatballs this weekend and we'll have a small pot of them for our customer that is GF. And the pie will be GF. I'll make another pie too since there will be about 15-20 people for dinner.

We've been continuing our walks in the woods. We've been dog sitting our friend's labrador retriever these past couple of weeks. She's 12 but acts like she's a pup when we're on our walks. Plus we have 2 other dogs that belong to 2 of the guides. We all share responsibility of the dogs when we're all here together. But it's been interesting trying to get all 4 dogs exercise. Do you have a minute to read about some of our adventures? I'll try to be brief. One day I took 'our' two up the hill on the long walk through the woods. I couldn't find Anna but then I heard a noise. Like something calling another animal. I think it was a bear cub calling it's Mom!! Uh. Anna, let's get out of here! Another day I took 'our' two plus the little Corgi up through the woods. That was a HUGE mistake. Three dogs at once?!?! Thank goodness there weren't any hidden cameras! I think you can use your imagination to figure out what that looked like. And then just the other day I was taking 'our' two through the woods and they found a porcupine. Again, you can use your imagination. Thankfully it was only a few quills to the face for one of the dogs! And they came out relatively easily.

As I said above and in my previous posts, I've been working on some homesteading classes. I've been working on proposals for the classes that I offer. I've been thinking about how to take things to the next level. I've been preparing for the vendor event. I have almost everything ordered now. I'm still working on my rack cards that list all the things I have to offer, but those should be finished soon. And lest you think I do all this by myself, I don't. I have help. The Mister helps me with things and I have a friend that is a design guru and computer nerd. She takes my ideas and puts them to paper, so-to-speak. Then we send them off to the printer (in the case of business cards, rack cards, and postcards we've been using Moo. If you decide you want to use them, please send me an email. They don't offer discounts all that often but if I 'refer' you I think they offer a new customer discount. Plus I get some points or some such so I get a discount too). But, back to the main event. I have all my labels ordered, bags ordered, jars for salve. Everything seems to be on track, except my knitting! But now that the details are out of the way, I can focus on knitting. I've also picked up some commissioned knitting work the past couple of days. That's exciting too. Plus I got to order yarn. That's always fun.

If you follow me over on instagram, you'll know that I rode my bike for the first time in 2 years. I bought this bike right before we moved to the fishing lodge a year and a half ago. I'm not a great bike rider. I mean, I know how to ride a bike. That's not the problem. The problem is two-fold. I don't know the gears and the muscles it takes to ride a bike. Not happening. At least not right now. But I did it. I went for 3 miles on relatively flat land. It was hard. I stopped a lot. But I did it. And I'll do it again. My time has been occupied with getting things ordered and in order that I haven't had much time for anything else. But I will. And hopefully I'll develop the appropriate muscles and learn those gears. As someone said on instagram, when it's hard (peddling) shift gears! I like that advice!

I've been stopping to smell the roses a lot lately. Or in my case, take pictures. I was driving back from a very successful meeting about homesteading classes and future plans (with some very good peeps) and the sun was setting over the river. I had to stop and capture some pics. Can you tell which ones they were? And that sticker on the back of my car? That's one of my Chicken Librarian stickers! This car. I think we're up to 246,000+ miles now. I just can't seem to give her up.

I think this just about sums up how I feel lately. Things are on track. I'm making progress. There have been some speed bumps. I was trying to get my products in a local store so I contacted some of our local stores. Some I didn't hear back from, but one was, um, let's just say I won't be patronizing that establishment. People really need to learn business etiquette. So I was telling the Mister about the whole experience and how disappointed I was. It doesn't make sense. We are a small town. Shouldn't we try to help each other? I don't have the extra funds to purchase things from stores (I would purchase things from a gift shop if I had a need, but just to walk in daily, weekly, and purchase something isn't in the budget), but we can support each other by sharing social media posts, talking on our social media about local resources, etc. Is it the same as walking into the store and giving them money? No, but it's the best I can do right now. Anyway, long story short. I was telling the Mister about the whole ordeal and he said "just put them in the flyshop". Duh! Why didn't I think of that? It's local. It gets good foot traffic. I can advertise that my products are for sale there. He even said he'd put them in his online shop as well. And you know what? Within 2 hours of doing so, I had 2 commissioned hat sales! And I sold one salve! I don't think I would have gotten that if the products were in a different shop. So problem solved. I don't have to worry about that end of things. I can now start to shop around to other towns and other shops. I'll update you more on the flyshop soon!

I hope you aren't tiring of hearing about all the exciting things that are happening right now! I just can't help but update you all on it. But tell me what's happening with you. What's exciting to you lately?