Finally!

Sweatshirt Weather!

This is the day I wait for since the day in Spring when wearing a sweatshirt is too much. Cooler temperatures, fires in the fireplaces, soup, gumbo, coffee on the porch…under a blanket. (Coffee on the porch is a year-round thing, but the blanket is not.)

College football, raw oysters, family game nights, more trips to the mountains, long weekends exploring different cities, writing more.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas on the horizon.

Movies in the movie room surrounded by snoozing cats and pups.

I wish I could live where it is late October ten months out of the year.

No, Not West Virginia…

but it is definitely almost Heaven.

We are back in Western North Carolina and will be sad to leave. Our goal has not changed…we will one day look for some lane to build our second home.

Our Front Porch View

We discovered a wonderful little restaurant, ‘The Rural Seed’ and it was/is all one could ask for. Lane had, what she called one of the best salads of her life and that is saying quite a lot. I had a cup of the ‘Soup of the Day’ which was potato leek and a half of a Cuban sandwich.

For me, this was a bit risky as while I like potato leek soup, I have found it can often be too ‘thick/rich’ but this was neither. As far as the sandwich goes, one would not expect the mountains of western North Carolina be the place to order a Cuban but again, I was more than pleasantly surprised.

Now, to be fair, when we first drove by the place, my initial thought was, when I saw the building, “Someone really wanted to open a restaurant!” It was definitely not designed for such when it first was built as, if I had to guess, it served as some time of construction and or fabrication facility/warehouse. Don’t let the exterior fool you.

The Rural Seed

We ate in the ‘front of the store’ but there is a much larger back room where is appears they offer live music. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the interior has a funky vibe…it does not. However, the back room comes much closer than the main dining area as far as having a personality. We would definitely love to return when someone is on stage.

We will be back and I will do my best to try something new. I have a habit of ordering the sure thing and my soup and sandwich was exactly that.

Selling Honey On The Side Of The Road

My goal in doing this is to give myself an outlet that is not business related but that is proving difficult so I will try to marry the two on this post.

Given a choice between a mountain cabin or a condo on the beach, I will take the cabin every single time. Not that I don’t like the beach but my fair complexion does not fare well near the ocean. I was born beside the water and grew up visiting some of the greatest beaches in this country but, like some comedian once said, “Me on the beach is like sticking a fork in the microwave.” There is much more shade in the mountains.

Though I love what I do there are times when one is churning the wheels of commerce that the very nature of the biz requires certain aspects of a project to be “beyond one’s control”. When that happens, in a nutshell, it can be a major drag.

This week has been but one of the many examples that, in my mind, I see a vision of me, on the side of some cool mountain highway, sitting in an folding chair………selling honey.

That simple enterprise would allow me to continue to scratch my “entrepreneurial itches” while, with the exception of the actual production of the honey, remain in pretty much total control.

Marketing – I would be able to select the style of the jar and create an appealing label.

Inventory – How many jars will I take with me today?

Sales – “Yes, the small jar is nice but you get a much better value if you purchase the large jar.”

Scheduling – Do I set up the chair at 9:00 or 10:00 AM?

Networking – I could find someone who may be selling homemade bread by the side of the road and we could swap cards.

Advertising – “Honey 4 Sale Ahead”

Yes, there are many aspects of this venture that is appealing and today happens to be one of those days when I would love to be sitting in my “branch office”, churning the wheels of commerce.