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Our Family in 2016
Rylan (11); Jayden (14), myself, Bayley (17)
Our Story
As I was remembering where our story
began and where we are today, I saw how God purposely wove the people I needed
to help me along the way into my life at the exact moment I needed them.
This quote sums up our whole business:
“Trust that God will put the right
people in your life at the right time and for the right reasons.”
I grew up on a farm with my family
in the Arena/Wing area. I was blessed to not only have my parents raise
me but also my grandparents who lived only five miles away from us. They
all were very instrumental in the person I am today. While growing up on
a farm you really don’t understand all the important life lessons you
learn. Now as an adult, I look back and am so thankful for my upbringing
– hard, challenging, but with awesome memories of my family as we worked
together to accomplish the tasks at hand. Even though I moved to away
from home for college and work for a while, I always wanted to return to the
farm life and raise my kids just as I was raised and thankfully God had it all
planned out – in His timing, of course.
It was in 2007 I found myself a
single mom to three very energetic boys. I had been a stay at home mom
since my oldest Bayley was a year old. We were attending Faith
Evangelical Church at Crystal Springs, ND were we met an elderly couple.
He wanted to continue to farm but needed some extra help and I needed a
job. The best part of this job was the boys came to work with me when
they were not in school which meant I could raise them how I was raised. Ah, Thank
you God!!
So in 2008 we moved from Tappen to
Buchanan and I began working on their farm. I was a quick learner and
soon was operating all of the machinery – to the utter dismay of my
grandmother. She even wrote my boss and told him not to teach me how to
run the baler as that was not women’s work. Even though she did not agree
with my choice of work since it was a man’s field of employment and not
women’s, she was my biggest supporter. I enjoyed my job but really liked
working with the animals. He had cattle and two goats, Maggie and Lilly,
who soon became my pets. Maggie was the start of my goat herd. She
was the sweetest little goat. She would find me and just stand there as I
gave her a good scratching and massage. Lilly, her daughter was another
story. Of all the goats I have had, she was the only one with
horns. She knew she had them and she used them, not on us, but on the
other goats to show them she was boss.
As soon as we moved in 2008 I
inquired about the boys joining 4-H in order to meet new kids and for me to
meet some of the parents. The first year was a learning time for all of
us, but we soon figured out the boys could do a project on what their interest
was at that time. Since I have always been a DIYer at heart, I was
excited about helping the boys find projects they were interested in, which
were mostly geared towards farming. In 2011 Bayley was interested in
cattle so I suggested Jayden find a project which would be about the goats on
the farm. After searching the internet we discovered you could make soap
using goat milk. Jayden agreed he would like to try it and we found a
recipe online, purchased all the necessary utensils and ingredients. We
milked both Maggie and Lilly and froze the goat milk like it said. We
took an afternoon and made the soap. The recipe said you could hand stir
the soap batter until it became pudding consistency. Let me tell you that
was the first and last time I ever stirred soap batter – it took forever to
turn to trace, or turning to the pudding consistency. We poured it into a
mold and put a towel on it and let it sit for a couple of days. We took
it out and let it cure for a month. I took pictures while we were making
the soap and had them developed and we typed up what Jayden was doing on each
one and put them in a nice photo book. The Stutsman County 4-H days
finally arrived and Jayden did an awesome job explaining his bar of soap and
the process it took to make it. He was so happy when he was awarded the
pink Reserve Grand Champion ribbon, which was for the entire animal science
category. There was only one person higher than Jayden, and it just so happened
to be is older brother Bayley. Right then and there, a fire was set in
Jayden to one day win Grand Champion and have a purple ribbon just like Bayley.
This also set an idea in my head as
I always liked making and giving gifts for family and friends instead of buying
them. Since I was little I could remember my mom sewing, woodworking, or
some sort of home improvement project. I thankfully inherited her DIY
gene and followed in her footsteps of creating something from nothing. I
liked sewing but woodworking has always been my passion.
For Christmas 2011, I decided to
give handcrafted soap and used Jayden’s award winning recipe. Everyone
enjoyed the soap and asked for more which set the wheels in motion again.
I never imagined I would have a business as I just liked doing it for
fun. Another person God set in my path also came from the church we
attended. My friend from church had an aunt who worked at Gifts from the
Heart in Jamestown. It is a small gift shop run by women who are
always looking for handcrafters to have their products in the store. (On
another note, the gentleman who installed our internet is the husband of the
owner – so there again God placed yet another person in my life for this
reason.) My friend took my soap to the store and they agreed they would
like to have me as part of the store. In February 2012, I applied for a
business name and sales tax number and HomeSpun Chick was born.
Truthfully I had no idea what I was
doing that first year. I had limited amount of knowledge on how to make
soap as well as running a business, but I was having fun trying to figure it
all out. I was hooked on soap making and started researching and reading
everything I could find on the subject. Thank goodness for internet as it
made it so much easier to “google” this and “google” that. I discovered
Bramble Berry website which sells soap making ingredients and soap making equipment
which is where I first started buying my fragrances, colors and my very
first stick blender. Remember me telling you about how long it took to
hand stir the soap batter – no more of that as a stick blender is your true
friend when making soap.
People were finding out about my
soap and really liking it which gave me the confidence to add more soap
varieties – I added scents for Spring & Summer, Fall, Christmas, and Just
for Men, to go along with my Everyday Scents. I even started offering
some Shampoo Bars and Shaving soaps. Customers started asking for lotion
made with goat milk, which I started researching on how to create it, but it
wasn’t until God placed another person in my life before the lotion came to be.
In the fall of 2012 as I was purchasing
lye at True Value in Jamestown, I noticed a brochure for a Farms Beginnings
class being offered in Medina. I absolutely knew I wanted to continue to
make soap and I dared to dream I could make it my full time job along with
caring for my sons and my expanding herd of goats. I thought the class
would help me figure it out so I signed up. It was there I met Keith
Knudsen who has become a good friend and mentor. We worked together on my
business through a Farm Business Management course. It was during that
time he informed me of the grant/loans offered by FARRMS and in 2014 helped me
complete the application. I was awarded the necessary funds to expand my
business from just soaps to now include lotion. In February 2015, I
hopped on a plane and flew to Bellingham, Washington to learn all I could about
lotion making as well as some advanced soap making classes.
I arrived back home with so many new
ideas for products to offer my customers. Lotion was top of the list so I
ordered the necessary ingredients along with bottles and tops. As soon as
my first batch of lotion was ready for labeling I knew I needed to make some
changes as I was not going to have the patience to label each bottle one at a
time. So back online I went until I found a hand crank bottle labeler
which I promptly ordered and then set out to find a company to print labels for
it. Again God placed another person in my life as I inquired about labels
from a company in Jamestown who then just put me in direct contact with the
person they go to for labels. After initial conversations about what kind
of labels I wanted, we designed and printed them and soon I was labeling lotion
bottles like a pro.
2015 also involved a move for my
business. I had been making soap in my kitchen since the beginning;
however, now with adding the lotion and all the additional ingredients I needed
as well as packaging, our home was suddenly way too small for our family of
four and our growing business.
A year or so earlier I had inquired
about having a small barn to milk my goats in as were milking outside. To
my surprise, my boss hired a good friend as well as the four of us to help
construct a building on the farm which 1/3 would be my studio to make soap and
lotion and 2/3 would be where I would milk the goats as well as where they
would be when they kidded (had their babies). We all learned so
much while building it – mostly general construction knowledge which my two
older boys took to Haiti in 2016 to help build a church and homes as well as it
is not a good idea to put me on the farm hand loader and raise it up as high as
possible as my screams will burst an ear drum!!
The year 2016 would be summed up
from a quote from A Tale of two Cities by Charles Dickens as “It was the best
of times, It was the worst of times”
“It was the best of times” - We were
finally moving in to our new space that spring, sales of soaps and lotions were
increasing. We also had our products in two consignment stores – one in
Bismarck, which also had a store in Medora during the summer months as well as
one in Mandan. That summer I was contacted by North Dakota Living
Magazine asking to write a story on our business for the Pride of Dakota
business spotlight. I had no idea how life changing this article would be
for not only me personally, but my family and our business as well. Soon
after that interview, the Jamestown Sun also wanted to interview us for the
front page of the Sun Country.
“It was the worst of time” - It was
during the proofreading of the article for North Dakota Living and looking at
the pictures they took of my soaps did my world completely fall apart.
During my research on soap making I read about DOS or Dreaded Orange Spots
which are orange spots that appear on soap due to rancid oils. I never
thought that would happen to me as I was purchasing my oils in smaller
quantities and used them before they expired. My heart sank as I saw
spots all over my soaps on the one photo. I quickly went to look at all
of the soap I had made for Christmas and was shocked to see spots on ¾ of all
the bars on my drying racks. Since I knew this article was going to be in
the November issue of the magazine I had increased my soap production to double
of the year before. I struggled to comprehend why this would
happen. Here God had placed two awesome opportunities to spread the word
about our business through printed articles and now all of my soaps were
unsellable. Devastation and depression hit hard as I struggled to
internalize what was happening. I reached out to a long time soap maker
who couldn’t really help me. My lotions were fine, my soaps were not and
I couldn’t understand why. The year ended in misery and 2017 wasn’t much
better as I continued to struggle with spots on my soaps. The confusing
part was some batches were completely fine; others had to be thrown due to
spots. I was done – more than once – I threw in the towel and wanted to
walk away and quit. I cried rivers of tears, yelled and screamed and
prayed to God asking why this all was happening. Hadn’t he given me the
passion and ability to make soap as well as brought people into my life to help
me along the way and opportunities to share my story not only to the community
of Jamestown and surrounding area but to the to the entire state of ND and beyond?
Now he was taking it all away as he ripped the rug right out from underneath
me.
I finally came to a place where I
had to make a choice – either let life beat me down and walk away yet always
wonder what might have been if I stayed and fought for what I wanted or I dry
my tears, muster all my courage, gather all my determination, grab my
bootstraps and stand up and fight for what I believed in and love doing.
Since I am very determined, very stubborn and am definitely not a quitter, I
set out on a mission to figure these spots out. It was not easy nor was
it quick. It has been and continues to be a slow and painful process full
of learning. I learned a lot more about soap making as well as I became a
“mad scientist” as my sister in law likes to tell people I am, as I tried
various different approaches to making soap. It’s been two years and I
have come to the conclusion the spots are nothing more than burnt sugars in my
soap. They may not look pretty but are thankfully completely harmless and
definitely not dreaded orange spots. They still bring out the frustration
in me as I am a perfectionist to the core. This has been a very growing
and learning time God has placed me in as I am not perfect, nothing I create
will be perfect, so I must accept it and move on to what really matters in my
life – my faith, my family and friends and sharing myself with others through
soap and lotion, one bar and one bottle at a time.
Remember back to when I said “I had no idea how life changing this article would be for not only me personally, but my family and our business as well. – referring to the North Dakota Living Magazine article? My life changed so much for the better because God brought one more person into my life that I had been praying and waiting for for ten long years. I met my now husband Todd because of that story. He saw the article in the magazine and we finally met on January 23, 2017 in the most amazing way. He was in Jamestown meeting his daughter and was on a mission to meet me. He looked all over Jamestown to no avail. He was at Gun & Reel Sports, which was just a few doors down from Gifts from the Heart where I was working that day. I was supposed to be at my son’s basketball game that evening; however, I had to stay and close the store due to my boss’s mom needing to have heart surgery. At 5:30 I was taking some of my stuff to my vehicle across the street. I saw another person walking out of Gun and Reel as I was walking back toward Gifts from the Heart. Our eyes met and the look in his eye was as if he knew me. I hurried back in the store and he soon followed. He asked if we sold the goat milk soaps and I said yes and showed him where they were. He asked about the soaps and how it started so I told him and we started chatting about farming and life as we both farm and ranch and have three kids a piece – he with 3 girls and me with 3 boys. The new and improved Brady Bunch gone farming!! He bought some soap and lotion and we ended up talking an hour past closing. A few days later he emailed me and we communicated that way for a week or so. I asked him to dinner at the Cheiftain in Carrington on February 5. We met at noon for dinner and spent the entire day talking. Our first date lasted until 8 pm that night. We started calling and texting each other every day. We were engaged on May 23, 2017 and were married in Carrington on June 23, 2018.
In preparing for marriage and moving
my entire life, I felt like Abraham in the Bible as I had to move my family and
our belongings, my business with everything that entails, as well as all of my
goats, cows, and all the equipment you need when you have animals to Esmond,
ND. Thankfully God gave me an understanding and accepting husband as Todd
helped pack and move everything to our home and farm. We spent most of
the summer in 2018 recreating a soap studio in a storage room in the garage –
my commute to work is only like 12 steps, give or take, from the house through
the garage to my studio. He is more proud of the space than I am as he
shows it off to everyone who walks through our doors. He is my biggest
fan and no one leaves empty handed as he loves giving my products to
everyone. Gotta love him for that!!
As the calendar turned to 2019, we
will begin year 7 on February 1st and I can’t wait to see what
God has in store for us. With marrying Todd, I gained an awesome sister
in law, Leigh, who is helping me, challenging me, and giving me her ear to
bounce ideas off. The ideas we have for the future look very bright and
it’s going to be an awesome adventure.