Front Loading

Although 'front loading' could be something quite gross, especially when thinking about our immediate future, in reality, it's my way of preventing things from getting too gross.  I am so grateful that I've had the time to get semi-settled into Portland before the SeaMonkey comes.

I've been able to get Little Localvore up and running for the most part.  So far I've work on a business plan, gotten licenses and permits, submitted applications and been accepted to area farmers markets, secured a kitchen rental and insurance, ordered jars, created labels, got business cards, a door magnet for the truck and banners for my market booth, found an amazing on-line merchant site to work with, hired a web guy, wrote a handful of product descriptions, am writing text for the web page, working on relationships with area farmers, and have had a run through with making and jarring baby food and setting up the booth and selling it at market.  Since I've been here I've had 3 SBDC meetings, attended the NW Food Processor Association Expo, FoodWorx and the Farmer-Chef Connection event.

The first market went as well as could be expected....I had Jillian there to help set up and cover for breaks and it was a nice sunny day.  The vendors next to me were both very nice, goat cheese on one side and candied nuts on the other....it smelled so good.  I sold 11 jars of food which was enough to cover my booth fee, and met some great people...including Lorelie and her parents.  Lorelie really loved the Awesome Apples and got to be in a video on Facebook eating them at home for the first time.

I've also gathered a collection of books that I'm slowly making my way though, People Before Profit, Locavore's Dilema, The Mighty Gastropolis, The Food Truck Handbook, Super Baby Food, and Sell Your Specialty Food. (I have managed to finish both The Kid and Bringing Home Your Newborn during this time).

Jillian got her job with he State, and that takes a whole load off our minds.  She starts next week after she returns from her trip to Utah.  She gets to be the patient for someone's dental hygiene board exams.  Apparently her teeth and gums are 'just right' for the test, according to the folks at the dental school here in Portland.  And since one of their students needs to take the test, they are paying to fly Jillian out to Utah for three days and putting her up and feeding her and giving her cash to boot...oh and her teeth get cleaned.


We did take a trip to Humboldt last month to make sure we had baby things all lined up (as much as we can right now) and to have a baby shower.  April is really showing now....our little SeaMonkey is growing big. It was nice to see some of our Humboldt loves during our visit, it's what I miss the most about being here in Portland...especially Noah. 

We got to go to a doctor appointment with April and I got another recording of the baby's heartbeat, every time I listen to it, I well up.  Midwife said everything is looking good and progressing as it should.  Even though she's been having contractions, almost daily since January, all of April's test have come out great....the only thing they are going to check on this week is to see if our little guy is head down like he should be, or needs a bit of coaching to get there.  As of this week, April is off work, so now she can rest at home and get ready for this big transition.

We went ahead and hired Tracy Rain to help us with the adoption process.  She's never done one before, but I know she's well connected, knows who to ask when she has questions, and will take good care of us. We have now also dropped off all our paperwork and $1500 to Open Adoptions and are waiting to set our home study appointment.  Jillian is going to have to take half a day off from work for the assessment, so needs to actually start her job before she can ask for the time off.  We tried to make so she wouldn't have to ask during her first few days, but there doesn't seem to be any other options.  Adoption Horizons has also been paid for April and Chris' assessment and they just need to set that appointment so that can be taken care of as well.

So....I feel like I've front loaded as much of the predictable prep work as possible and we are now set up to just roll with Little Localvore, Jillian's work and the adoption once the baby comes.