Tag: business

3Splitz Farm, adventure

Farming

2chicksandapen

It’s kind of funny how life works out. Some days you’re plugging away at your day job in a very routine and regimented way and boom. Life changes. In an instant. In an explosive type of way.

You go from predictable to spontaneous. You take a look at life and say why not? Enter the word farming. Farming is a way of life. Are you farming crops? Are you raising livestock? What is your farming niche or lane? Where is your farm? Is it a hobby farm or a revenue-generating business?

I am not your typical farmer, live-in-the-country type of girl. I like Starbucks drinks. I have muscle cars. I love to go to the nail and hair salon. I like to work out at a gym. I like to go to the grocery store down the road each week.

Then there was opportunity. Somehow in a twist of fate, farming crossed my path. To some it’s a big opportunity. To others it’s a crazy shift. No matter to me, it’s my next adventure. Farming my way.

Farming, farm girl, farm life. New project in the makings. I will provide a glimpse of shifting from glamour girl to farmgirl. Part-time or full-time doesn’t matter because it will take a dynamic team to manage the project that is unfolding. The farm has a name. An identity. A brand. A plan. And of course goals to get after.

The fun has begun. My picking adventures were a part of a barn project I wrote about recently. The funding has begun in a big way making the project real. From land selection to procurement and beyond. This weekend’s big investment was a livestock trailer. Last week was tractor and components. Learning my way as I go. Big dollar spends on the front end. No real ROI to see yet but that’s part of the process.

Teaming is key in this equation. I will leverage many talented people as I evolve. I already started the process. As I learn I will pass on knowledge as well. What to do. What not to do. How to get started. How to push through the tough stuff.

Look for an introduction to my farm life in future posts. I am sure you will be some furry friends along the way. 2Chx will be covering our farm adventures as they unfold. Looking forward to showing the world what entry level farming looks from the inside. The good, the bad, the ugly.

Stay tuned for my definition of farming, farm adventures, life learning, mentoring, entrepreneurship, and so much more.

Let the excitement begin.

challenges

Flexible, Agile, Pivot

2chicksandapen

These three words have come up multiple times in the past week.

First, from my friends in the teaching profession. Those are the three words they are being told to embrace as school begins in person (don’t say face to face it sounds too close) as we return to the buildings. Don’t plan too far in advance, as things could and probably will change day by day. In fact, since we started writing this post, we’ve already switched from in person to online school in many places to start the upcoming year.

Be flexible and ready to adapt to evolving conditions and unexpected challenges. Be agile, able to move quickly, efficiently and confidently from situation to situation. Pivoting to change direction is almost inevitable. With so many unknowns and twists and turns on the horizon those words are valuable to latch on to. For teachers who are trained to plan, abide by calendars, and be as routine and predictable as possible, it’s a bit against their training and possibly their nature. Time to rethink, reframe, and expand in a different direction, and help students and their parents do the same.

Me on the other hand, I giggle a bit on those three words. They represent my life In many ways, during a pandemic or just a routine Tuesday afternoon. All the twists and turns. All the adapting. The organized chaos I call life. I thrive under pressure and beg for adversity most days. It’s fuel to my fire.

Then the conversation hit on a Friday night at the ball field. We all had masks on. Following the rules. The sun was scorching despite the evening hours. I took my face mask down briefly for fresh air. It was still hanging on an ear. Technically I was wearing a mask. The directions didn’t specifically define what mask type, how it needed to be officially placed and so on.

Out comes a gentleman I knew well. He saw my mask and followed his glance with an affirmation (or was it an accusation?) of me not being a rule follower. That spurred a discussion that lingered. I am a rule follower. I just choose to follow the rules within the terms I choose. He implied that I am an A, B, C2-C3-C4 person. As if all the rules have an asterisk. Options within the boundaries.

Yes, that is correct. I always have a backup plan and C4 may be a good pivot point description for me. Explosive. Dynamite in a way. Always with a second, third and fourth plan. I call it depth. It’s layers deep. I make the rules work for me. It allows me to not only survive but thrive.

Some may see it as grey. Operating in the grey tones of life. Pushing the limits. Especially if the limits don’t make sense in certain situations. Staying in the black and white only confines me. Shades give life texture, interest, originality, make me memorable. For some, it makes them rewrite the rules with more care and specificity. It forces people to be agile in their mind and in their lives. But I am always at least one step ahead, if not more. Rewrite the rules and try to corral me. Just another challenge for me to find the gray and keep growing.

I see it for what it is. Depth, diversity, dynamic layers ingrained within. How the mask conversation turned into an unmasking of sorts

dare to be different

Junk or Treasures

2chicksandapen

In the last 30 days I have had a slight obsession with Facebook marketplace.

I haven’t really been big on posting items online for sale however I heard it was a good outlet to find what you need at a discounted rate. I gave it a whirl or two.

When it came time for me looking for specific pieces for my upcoming project I decided to see if it had any items I truly needed to keep my budget low. From casual browser to waking to see what had dropped in the night before. Off I went. By phone or by computer. Click click click. Wait. Deal or no deal. Sometimes getting a good item requires you to be the first hit. I got lucky sometimes but not other times.

Here are a few of my finds:

The barn door. A little bit of an odd size but it’s perfect for the spot I need to add some flair to. This is a PVC-type version and again it totally suited my immediate need. What this person bought in error was just what I needed. A win for both parties.

The odd red barrels. The soon-to-be base of a massive outdoor table. Inspiration was a cool table at an outdoor seating area of a restaurant I visited. More photos to come of the completed project. This was just somebody’s trash from a recent project that they made a few bucks on. A little elbow grease on my end and they look as good as new.

The church pew. Yes you read that right. I bought a church pew! A few pillows for flair and I will have a great pew for many to congregate at in my special entertainment space. I couldn’t be more excited about this piece. Who would have thought you could buy a church pew? Heaven knows I didn’t until I stumbled across it. Restoring these old pews is definitely a trend. Should I paint it or keep it natural? Let me know what you think.

The brand-new pillow -op mattress. This was a steal and I may have bought more than one. Overstock sales are in abundance online. If you happen to fall upon a good one, you can save big.

Stools for a steal. These brand-new-out-of-the-box stools retail for around $50. I was able to pick up 10 at $20 each. Great addition to go with the table I mentioned above and I saved a bundle.

Look for the finished project of my outdoor space in the coming weeks. Be sure to see if Facebook marketplace has any items you are looking for before you pay full retail. You can get new, gently used and hard-to-find antique items online. One of the benefits of online selling and buying is access to the inventory at your finger tips.

If you are willing to do the work, the bargains are out there. Picking, sourcing and putting together some handmade crafts has been a fun learning experience.

Signing off, a thrifty girl.

working women

Patience

2chicksandapen

Can one master patience?

Generally speaking I am an immediate gratification girl but I am always working to master my patience skills.

This requires conditioning the patience muscles. Right now I’m in a conditioning phase. Many loose pieces in multiple big projects means I have to wait patiently for some to collaborate or make decisions.

This patience phase can be a grueling process for me as I like the finish line in projects. I like cross over the line and say I did it. Boom! Sometimes however it’s not about the finish line rather it’s about the process.

The cultivation. The experience. The relationships. The people. The success. The failure. The memories. The time. The overall patience built into the crossing of the finish line. Watching the vision turn into reality.

Let’s talk about writing a book. Our 1095 Days project. It’s in the works. Well into the planning and execution phase but no finish line. The process has been nothing less than amazing. Much of our concept couldn’t be imagined on the onset to the naked eye. Only the eye that was interested in investing in the farming time. The planting of the seeds. The patience required while you wait for the seed to blossom. The time. That’s the beauty of the process.

In my yard during corona I planted some trees. Now months later those trees are starting to flower. Such a beautiful sight. One blossom born out of such a devastating time. New growth is around in the land but also in people. If we all Look deep into our souls we all learned something during corona. We grew.

In business there is always what’s next. The next sales month. The next big deal. The next job experience. This means if you think there is a finish line then you halted your growth. You have to look beyond the finish line to see what’s next. Or for some like me it’s what is here in the now. I see the finish line but I’m working on what’s in the middle. Because I’m working on what’s in the middle my finish line may be extended. Maybe a longer project yielding more value or maybe even a deeper relationship with a client because of the time spent in the middle.

My patience growth is in the middle. Where is your growth? As I grow I mentor others. This blog is just a glimpse of what I do for many although each experience is different which enables me to compound my growth through experiences.

I encourage each of you reading this to challenge yourself in some aspect of life. Maybe it’s getting organized financially. Maybe it’s taking a risk on a dream. Maybe it’s even swimming across a stretch of water because you fear you can’t.

Take the next move before it’s too late. You can exercise your patience muscles after you take the first step!

Vulnerability, courage and patience all tie together in my mind for many reasons. In order to grow exponentially you usually need to be aware of these three words. More to come on that is a future post.

dare to be different

Brass Ring

2chicksandapen

“Breaker 1-9, Breaker 1-9, this is the Brass Ring.”

Road trips as a kid, from Georgia to Michigan to Western New York and back again, I heard it over and over.

Back before Waze.  Before GPS.  My Dad had his CB radio in the car, listening in to truckers talk about traffic, road conditions, and all kinds of other topics.  Back before podcasts and Audible and Sirius, there was CB radio to pass the time and exchange information. (There was also= 8-track cassettes and the States and Capitals game, but those are for another post.)

Brass Ring was my Dad’s CB handle.  Why the Brass Ring?  When I was growing up, one of my Dad’s many interests / hobbies was carousels.  He owned a small merry-go-round when I was very young.  Even after he sold it, we kept a full-sized carousel horse in our living room. We had a kids’ barber chair shaped like a carousel horse on our front porch.  We had a number of carousel-horse art piece throughout our home.

What’s the Brass Ring?  In the early 1900’s, many carousels were built with a “game” for the riders on the outside ring of horses.  Someone would slide rings down a dispenser, and you had to reach far out from your horse (while it was moving) and try to grab the brass ring.  Many of the rings were iron.  It took courage, skill, timing, determination, and luck to grab the brass ring, the real prize.

In my many years of riding carousels with (and in memory of) my Dad, I’ve only ridden 1 with the ring game.  I was probably in my teens, riding the carousel in Coney Island.  Many people don’t even know the brass ring exists.  I leaned off my horse and tapped the dispenser several times around before the old man working figured out I wanted to play.

I recently started a new business.  When trying to think of a solid name with some history and meaning, I remembered my Dad and the Brass Ring.  He used it as his persona.  He said it with a big-fish swagger, even though we were usually traveling along in a conversion van or minivan. He owned his place in that conversation, no matter what he was driving.

As I push forward into something new, I hope I carry on his swaggering spirit, as well as the courage, skill, timing, determination, and luck it takes to claim the real prize.  It will take some reaching. I may feel like I’m losing my balance as I really stretch. Sometimes I’ll pull the iron ring.  But if I just focus and stay in the game, my turn at the big prize will come around.