May 29, 2016 The Plan Defined

When we began this project, on our twentieth anniversary trip to get an Elvis re-nup, the thought was that we had to find a suitable property with a house and add businesses to it in a manner where if we failed, we landed on safe ground. The only intolerable failure would be to lose our home.

The current farm plan

Our plan was to use a philosophy which involved very little bank financing, except that required to purchase the land. In this we failed somewhat because the land we bought came by way of a private party contracted sale.  Finding the Farm, and making the purchase without much cash, put that part of the five years plan ahead of schedule about a year. At the point of my writing this, there is no bank involvement and we intend to keep it that way. But there is no house present on the property as yet. So Step Two, build a house, then add businesses to the property, is where we are in the today. But the plan is multifaceted and always was.

At the onset of the Plan, we knew that we had no money to do this big thing. We only have the money which we might earn along the way. Step One was always to re-enter the dog business first because the it was something we can do from our present home which offers fairly large chunks of cash with which we can go forward. Though progressing slowly at first. Buying our dogs was right on schedule and we have had two litters of puppies so far. But that part of the plan is exhausted until we have a house built. Like every other plan, the dog business plan is much more extensive than simply having some puppies every once in a while. So I hope to explain here how we intend to get to the ultimate goal, a wedding venue with a farming theme.

These are the steps we have mapped out so far. Each might make it, all will likely change as we approach them, none will likely survive intact. But failure is a part of the Plan and none of what we intend to do must succeed in a big way. We need only succeed a little at a time.

The central idea in Phase One is that we must first replace the income that I earn working outside in the real world, so that I can stay home and build the new businesses.

Step one – The Dog Business – Status: We are already in business.

Buy two females and one male and begin making puppies – Done.

Build a kennel facility on the Farm and get USDA licensing - Pending a house.
The Kennel facility, the thing which gets us our USDA license, involves building a kennel which has the following sub-plan: 

1. A purpose built trailer with three rooms
   1. An open kennel where our dogs live.
   2. A central covered potty area where they can do their business when the weather outside is bad.
   3. A veterinary area with grooming and whelp capacities.
2. Buy four more females after obtaining the USDA license. This should provide about three litters a year and replace about half of my income.
3. Open the remaining kennel capacity (fourteen dogs) up for boarding. This should replace another half of my income.
4. Find a real doggy person who does grooming and obedience training, then give the business over to them as a share crop. This frees up my hands to build the next phase.

The Kennel replaces all of my current income with new income obtained entirely from the Farm, but does not take up all of my time and energy. After the Dog business is well established it can be given away to a share cropper. And while we build all of this there are many other things are happening.

Step Two – Build the House – Status: To be completed in the first year.

Find ten acres with a house – We failed to find this.

Find some acres – Done, but it has no house so we need a plan. Even having found the property and getting a good deal, bank financing to building the house is currently impossible, so we have to pay cash. This involves a sort of shell game approach because we have good equity in both our current home as well as the Farm property. 

1. Build a new home without bank financing. 
   1. Find twelve thousand dollars cash - Half way there.
   2. Renovate our current home, roof, flooring, paint, landscape. - $8000
   3. Buy a “park model” travel trailer to live in after we sell our current home and build the new home - $4000
   4. Sell our current home to realize the equity in cash - $80,000
   5. Build the new house quickly - $30,000
   6. Furnish it - $15,000
2. Build the Kennel in Step One using the park model trailer - $2000
3. Build the Pie Shop caravan and one guest house caravan - $20,000

The house, even before building the Kennel business, also replaces much my income entirely because the current house payment is no longer being made to the bank. At the point where we move I have replaced my income twice over and since we'll have a well, a septic system, and solar power, we no longer have utility bills to speak of. All of which adds to our good fortune.

At this point, once we have the house and are living on the Farm, we must lose any idea that we have the next steps well thought out. Much can change between the second and third steps which we do not know about. But if we fail at the onset of step three we still have a home and a business which provides sufficient income to live comfortably. But the plan is MUCH bigger. . .

Step Three – Build the Farm – to be completed within four years.

The Farm is intended to be extraordinarily intensive agriculture involving peach and pear orchards, chickens and chicken products, strawberries, and row crops, all sold through a Fruit Stand / Pie Shop located in the parking area.

Initially the Fruit Stand will likely be a tent of some sort, but it might be possible to build the Pie Shop caravan early on if the stars align properly. We hope to remodel another trailer to create a fully enclosed pie shop / kitchen / retail space. The remodeled trailers are one way of avoiding the permit process, while maintaining the ability to roll assets out of the way of any flooding if it comes. The Fruit Stand gives us a place to sell our farm produce, but there are many others, such as: consumer supported agriculture (CSA) programs and farmer's markets. If money is not the issue, we would rather sell directly to the public from our property. Once the Pie Shop is built and the level of business is large enough to support life, I will try to find a baker to set up in business as a share cropper. This would likely mean better food to sell while freeing my hands up once more.

During step three I will also endeavor to find a farmer to come into the business to handle day-to-day farming operations for a share of the proceeds. I am hoping for a nice Mexican couple with the sort of know-how Americans once had during my grandmother's lifetime. The Farmer will help build and operate the farm plan during Phase One. I am also hoping to find a nursery willing to partner with the Farm to sell non-food live plants.

The Planting Plan is quite large for the space we have, but currently available sustainable farming practices should allow us to layer crops onto the land without depleting the soils and without buying soil amendments. Our soils are very good, very deep, properly moist, and should talk organic amendments very well. The map show much of the following, but there are a few things not shown above:

1. The front fence is lined with columnar apple trees to provide fruit to the fruit stand, cider, and products to sell the fruit stand / pie shop. There should be three types of apples available for three months each year.
2. Rows of orchard (peaches and pears for a uPick operation) allow for chicken tractors full of meat chickens to roll between the rows.
3. Those spaces between trees where the tractors don't roll allow for three foot width beds where we can plant crops in small bunches. These beds would include cut flowers, bulbs, salad crops, and herbs.
4. Our strawberry operation will be vertically built and under full cover to allow for a uPick, as well as provide crops for preserves and products in the Fruit Stand / Pie Shop.
5. Other crops are in open field rows to provide root vegetables, melons, gourds, and corn for the Fruit Stand.
6. There is a separated Chicken run for egg and chick production which I hope one day to support a cooperative meat bird facility, but that will provide meat for our home and product for the Fruit Stand.
7. And there will be an area near the house dominated by full sized fruit trees like cherries, plums, apricots, nectarines, and citrus. These would be used to make products or sold as fruit in the Fruit Stand.

The Farm at this point should be three thriving businesses, all operated by people invested in their own success in a cooperative economic system. They will pay a portion to the house and use the house's products, philosophy, and planning. The Farm should provide food and animals to the world through direct sales, internet business, and consumer support agricultural subscriptions. We should have preserved foods as well as fresh produce and on-site edibles available to the public nearly the whole year around.

But as we go forward the Pie Shop / Fruit Stand will certainly be out-grown, while customers will be finding us in ever increasing numbers. We will need to add more customer spaces and reduce the amount of farming being done on site. Our next step will be a very big one.

Step Four – The Barn Store – to be completed within five years.

The Barn Store will contain a cafe, antiques, curiosities, consigned goods, and other consumer products and programs. The Barn Store is an entirely retail operation and part of a much larger retail strategy. During Phase one we will be building botanical gardens all along the back and east fence line. The idea is to add a reason for people to come to the Farm, and give them reason to stay for a long while. We will be installing wide walking paths, sufficient for people to stroll about, which run between seating areas where people can come and enjoy the day. We will openly invite people to come in and sit down. Read a book, disconnect, reflect, and rest. All the while making our products available to them.

At this point I will likely begin looking for help managing the general operation while I concentrate on the next phase of the build out. I am hoping to find a couple of college grads who wish to build something beautiful and then take over day to day operations as we partially retire from farming to begin building the next phase of the project. Our hope is to give these people a ten years contract after which they retain a continual share in the proceeds from the Farm, and after which they retire to do as they please. After ten years the couple can find another couple to take over in their place. And so on  . . . We hope to give away the entire business to our share partners and employees before we are through, but will retain a share of the proceeds for ourselves as well as the land on which all of this is built.

The coming of the Barn Store is the end of Phase One, and also the beginning of the hospitality phase of the project. This will include a bed and breakfast, and the wedding venue we were building when all of this started. There will be more partners, more employees, and more opportunity to fail or succeed.  But I will leave all of this for a future posting.