Business Plan...

Business Plan...

This is going to be a short (or long) post...I guess it depends how you look at it.  I am posting the business plan.  If you take the time to read the Business Plan...I guess that would make it a long post.  

This is our first draft.  I have gotten some feedback from one of my friends but I have not even had time to look at it.  I think we are going to take this year (2017) to perfect the Plan.  

I have sent the plan to the Small Farms U of I Extension personnel but they have not had time to get back to me.

I was at a meeting a couple of weeks ago and met someone from SCORE.

SCORE Spokane volunteers are real-world professionals with time- tested knowledge who donate thousands of hours to help small businesses like yours succeed. Counselors are experts in such areas as accounting, finance, marketing, technology, management and business plan preparation.

Services offered by SCORE include: 
Free face-to-face business counseling/mentoring -- by appointment only
E-mail counseling/mentoring
Workshops

He said I could send him the Business Plan and they would assign a Counselor to work with me through all the details of getting a business started and it's all free!  So, I am going to wait and get feedback from the Small Farms Coordinator and then make those changes and send to SCORE.

Here it is:  Business Plan

Constructive criticism is appreciated...happy reading!

Rendering Beeswax...

Beekeeping

Last summer when I was working in the top bar hive, I accidentally dropped a couple of honeycomb when I was trying to "fix" it and get it more straight.  I did not want to be wasteful so we strained out the honey and I attempted to collect the wax.  Let's just say it was VERY messy and not too successful.  I was just too busy to try and clean it up at that time.  I hear of a lot of beekeepers putting their wax in the freezer until they can get around to working with it.  So, that is what I did...

Last weekend, I finally decided to try and clean up that wax.  Also, I had added some more to it so I had that to render too.  Let me say that I was REALLY dreading this (and had been putting it off for weeks!).  It was not fun the first time.  It was a mess and it did not come out as "clean" as I was hoping.  So, I have just been putting this off.  I "googled" rendering beeswax and the first article that popped up looked promising and much easier than the procedure I tried last summer.  Find that tutorial HERE.

 I melted the wax down and then strained it though some cheesecloth into a cardboard milk carton.

 It was that easy and came out so nice and clean!  I was SO excited to find an easier way to harvest our wax!

So, what do you do with beeswax?  I used it to make lip balm and lotion bars for Christmas gifts.  Unfortunately, since I had not taken the time to render my own beeswax before Christmas, I just bought some.  Just add shea butter and coconut oil and you are set!

Here are a couple of recipes/tutorials that I used to make the lotion bar and lip balm...just click on the pictures and it will take you to the website articles...

Birthday!

As you may have seen on Facebook, Mark turned 16 years old this past week!  I did meet my goal of getting the business plan done.  I am going put it up on the blog in a couple of weeks.  I am sending it to the Small Farms Extension people at the U of I this week.

We went bowling for Mark's birthday and he really enjoyed it!

Christmas Gifts...

Christmas Gifts

I wanted to share some of the gifts I had made for Christmas but did not want to do it before Christmas (because I know my mom reads this...)

Bath bombs - I made these for my nieces and nephews.  I will probably make these again but I am going to stick to the smaller molds (like the Santa belt buckle on the bottom).  The bigger ones are pretty fragile and probably broke when put through the mail.

We have a pie cherry tree in our backyard.  I did make some cherry pie filling for ourselves and made the Tart Cherry Coffee Preserves to share with family.  We were told of an Italian Plum tree behind our house so I made up some Plum Barbecue Sauce (which is excellent to use in place of catsup/ketchup in meatloaf).  Also, I made the Italian Plum Conserve that I paired with a box of crackers and a small brie as a gift for friends here locally.  A little recipe was attached with directions on how to heat the brie and then add the conserve on top and serve with the crackers.

 I made this block puzzle for Myla (the baby in this picture).  She is now a year old so hopefully she will enjoy building this picture puzzle.  There is another picture on the back of just the kids.

My brother, Tyler, is working at eating healthy foods.  So, I made him a cookbook with easy, healthy recipes so he had some "go to" recipes. I also included some homemade seasoning mixes.

Here are some "spa" type products I made for the men and ladies.  There are some Herbal Bath Tea Bags, Hand Scrub, Lotion Bars, and Lip Balm.  

Also, I made some homemade Vanilla, Blackberry Liquor, and Green Tomato Salsa (I was so happy about how well this turned out!)

This is what my table looks like when I get ready to put together boxes of Christmas treats for family.  I put everything out and then pick and choose what goes into each family box!

Books to read and snow!

In the Kitchen

I am enjoying some much needed rest.  Yesterday morning, the first thing that Mark said was "pie".  So, naturally, I had to make a pie.  I made a cherry pie (I had made several quarts of cherry pie filling this past summer) and put a "crumb-like" topping on top...it was good!

Reading...

Now that things are slowing down, I have been doing a little bit of reading.  I don't really care for fiction books.  I read a lot more "how-to" kind of books.  

I happened to find this book called Locally Laid by Lucie B. Amundsen a few months ago.  Locally Laid is a humorous telling of this unlikely egg farm start up and through it, a painless lesson in America’s food system.  I really enjoyed this book so I started looking for other books that were about beginning farmers.  

Next, I read, Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend. Catherine Friend was happy being an author and writing instructor. She always wore clean clothes. She never had anything disagreeable stuck to the bottom of her shoes. That all changed the day she agreed to help her partner Melissa fulfill Melissa’s lifelong ambition to farm in Minnesota. Catherine and Melissa embark on a rural odyssey filled with sheep, goats, chicken, llamas, and a host of other natural disasters. As it turns out, farming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  I really enjoyed this one, lots of humor and real world advice about farming and balancing it all.

I found another book about chickens (they also have goats, alpacas, sheep and more) called Dirty Chick by Antonia Murphy.  The family in this book moved from California to New Zealand and started a farm.  They also have a child with a disability and I did not know that when I picked up this book but it added another dimension for me, personally, as I could totally relate to parts of the book when she is talking about school and other concerns.  An uproarious memoir chronicling the misadventures of a born-and-bred San Franciscan who leaves city life to become an artisanal farmer in New Zealand.

Lastly, I know that our local food Co-op has a book club but I have always been too busy to even look at the title of the book that is being read.  I noticed in my Facebook feed that the next book club book is 5 Acres and A Dream The Book by Leigh Tate.  This really caught my attention so I ordered it right away and I am just loving it and only have a couple of chapters left.  I am going to try and go to the book club discussion next month.

Snow!

We have gotten several inches of snow over the past week and more in on the way.  We had some leftover wood from last year and we have used it all up which is a little sad.  It is so nice to have a fire when it's cold and snowy.  I just could not justify spending a few hundred dollars for wood (when we might be moving soon...hopefully...).  

Coal in the driveway helping Henry shovel snow.

Beehive with snow!

Sunflower with snow hat.

I grew only one sunflower this past year to grow at our house.  This sunflower is for seeds.  Although I put all the sunflower flowers to bed, I never got around to harvesting my seed sunflower.  He seems to be holding up pretty well even with this big snow hat!

Future Farm and business plan update...

Future Farm

I will be going out on Thursday, December 8 to meet the owner of the property I mentioned in the last blog.  This property sits right behind the Walmart in Moscow.  I will try to describe it.  Walmart sits mid-way up a large hill.  The hill/road actually extends above Walmart and there is a Quick Care and surgery center located at the top of the ridge.  So, you are driving on this paved road and then there is a road block on the right and a small gravel road to the left with a sign that says "No Outlet".

Drive way entrance to property at edge of town.
You can see the University of Idaho dairy farm straight ahead in this photo.

This is the driveway to the property.  Once you come over to the other side of that ridge, it is just the 2 houses surrounded by beautiful Palouse farmland for miles.  The road literally just dead ends at these 2 houses right outside of town.  The owner is coming in from Montana and will be in the area (if the weather holds out).  It is supposed to snow/rain today (Sunday) and then get bitterly cold this week with lows in the teens.  In fact, I think it is supposed to be 16 degrees on the morning when we meet.  

House for sale behind town

Here is a google map image of the property.  I believe the house I have circled here is the one that is for sale.  There is another house you can see in the lower left part of this picture and several outbuildings.  I do not know where the property boundaries are drawn but hope to find this out on Thursday.  There are LOTS of apple trees on the property but that is about all I know at this time.

Here is the house circled and showing the dairy farm to the east and town to the south of property.

Here is a google map image of the property.  I believe the house I have circled here is the one that is for sale.  There is another house you can see in the lower left part of this picture and several outbuildings.  I do not know where the property boundaries are drawn but hope to find this out on Thursday.  There are LOTS of apple trees on the property but that is about all I know at this time.  Let's just say that this house definitely fits of criteria of being within 5 miles of town.

I was reading the newspaper and happened to glance at the Real Estate section and saw another possibility.  This house is outside of town and I have to make sure it is still within the Moscow School District.  1061 Howell Road Troy ID Views out every window of this 3 bedroom 2 bath home situated on 8.22 Acre between Moscow & Troy. Inside amenities include large living room, dining with gas stove, & coutry kitchen. House features vaulted ceilings, tiled floor entry, & expansive southern deck. Outside is the new garage (26'X24'), old garage (16'X21'), goat pen (21'X8'), green house (8'X16'), chicken house (8'X8') and barn. Property is located at Howell which was a rail road stop. Since the railroad tracks are gone,enjoy the Latah Trail.  In the newspaper, the address was listed as Moscow, but I have a feeling it is a Troy address and this would mean that the boys would have to switch schools.  I am not really excited about that idea but I know that there would be more land at this house.  I am going to go and see it this week too.

Business Plan

I set a goal of having Mark's business plan for the egg business completed before he turns 16.  Well, he turns 16 on January 11 which is just about a month from now.  I have been working on the business plan a lot lately.  I pretty much have the written part completed and now I am adding the financial details.  I am confident that I will be ready to share it soon and would appreciate input at that time.

In the Kitchen

I have been making several homemade gifts for Christmas and I will share all that after the holidays (don't want to give away the gift surprises).  Other than that, things have slowed down here on the farm side of things.  The sunflowers rows are sleeping and the bee activity is minimal as they are hunkered down with their honey for the winter...

Sunflowers, cidar, and new lead on land...

Sunflowers

I have been working all fall to put the sunflowers to bed.  I started chopping and dropping the flowers as they were down with their production.  Then, I put down cardboard/newspaper and pine shavings on top.  

I was using up the pine shavings from our guinea pig cages.  I would get a large garbage bag size each week.  So, I would haul them out and put down the cardboard/newsletter and then place the used shavings on top.  This took weeks to do and I finally just had to buy shavings to finish the last two rows.  I wanted to have it finished before we got our first snow.  Lucky for me that we have had such a mild fall with lots of rain!

In the Kitchen

I just wanted to give an update on the hard cider.  I bottled it a couple of weeks ago.  I added some sugar in to the bottle to help produce some carbonation.  I have to admit that I was really nervous about doing this so I went really conservative.  I was scared the tops would fly off from too much pressure.  

The good news is that I finally got to try some with a friend of mine.  It seems to have turned out really good!  It is so nice when something works!  There is some carbonation but not a lot.  I will definitely be making more next year.

Future Farm lead...

Last week, I went to our Rural Roots meeting and was introduced to a couple of people from the Palouse Land Trust.  The mission of the Palouse Land Trust is to conserve the open space, scenery, wildlife habitat, and water quality of the Palouse region for the benefit of current and future generations.  Check out their website...it is really well done.  They fulfill their mission through conservation easements. Conservation easements enable private landowners to protect and conserve their open space, wildlife habitat, water quality and favorite views. Conservation easements are legal agreements between a landowner and a land trust that permanently limit uses of land. Because they are very flexible, easements can allow continued agricultural or forest production, or limited development.

A conservation easement permits landowners to:

Protect what is special about their land

Control future development and uses of their land

Pass land from one generation to the next with reduced inheritance taxes

Gain significant income and estate tax advantages

So, it seems that a family has 60 acres that literally borders the city of Moscow and they are looking for people to farm part of the property.  I do not have all the details.  I was told that there was a house on 4.86 acres that is available.  I am not sure what "available" really means but I know that I get to have a look at it and the property before it goes up for sale/rent.  

I was surprised to see that there is a property that is only a few hundred yards from our current rental house that is part of the Palouse Land Trust.  I had always been curious about this property because it is like a farm right in town across the street from the city soccer fields.  Mark and I walk past it every weekend when we go for our walks and yesterday the horse the lives in the barn (pictured above) came up to the fence to say hi to us.  You can read more about this Urban farm here.

Another place that the boys and I love to visit in the spring is Idler's rest.  It is located just about 5 miles outside of town.  It used to be an old farm and there are fruit trees growing wild throughout the area.  We especially like to go in the spring when the winter snow is melting off Moscow mountain and there are little waterfalls to jump over.  There is a hiking trail and scavenger hunts for the kids.  Also, we have located a couple of geocaches out there in the past.  I enjoy riding my bike out to Idler's Rest...it can be challenging as it is mostly up hill from our house but once you make it to the top, it is easy riding back to town.  Idler's rest is also managed by the Palouse Land Trust.

So, as I mentioned, I do not have a lot of information.  I talked with Amy Trujillo (she is the Executive Director) and Nicholas Norton gave me his business card.  He is the Conservation Projects Manager.  They were going to talk to the people involved and see when would be a good time to come out...

Varroa mites!

Beekeeping

In September, I went to our local beekeeping club meeting.  We had a speaker talk about Varroa mites and how terrible they are for your bees.  I know that varroa mites are bad news but my hive was growing so strong that I had not really been checking for mites.

So, after hearing the speaker, I was concerned so I went to my hive and pulled out the bottom white board.  See, the bottom of my hive has a screen and then here is a white bottom board under that.  I can pull out that white bottom board and see what has fallen through the screen.  

White bottom board pulled out of bottom of hive

I did see some mites but I was not worried because it's pretty much impossible to have a hive and absolutely no varroa mites.  I cleaned off the bottom board and put it back.  Then, I went out the next week and pulled it out and there were a LOT more mites.  I ordered some miticide...

This is my pinkie finger pointing to a varroa mite.

Here is a quick video about the varroa mite and their life cycle.  Yes, this is an advertisement for the miticide and this is the one that I bought and used...

In a perfect world, I didn't want to have to use any treatments on the bees.  However, we have also invested close to $1000 in these bees and so I really want them to make it through the winter!

Miticide strips on top of bars where the brood nest is located (below these bars).

There are definitely less bees in the hive.  In the fall, the hive will get smaller.  The drones are often kicked out of the hive because they are not really needed.  Because there are less bees, you can see the honeycombs better.

The brood nest is to the right of these honeycombs.  My understanding is that the brood nest will slowly start moving to the left as they are consuming the honey over the winter...time will tell!!!