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so let's talk about how we began then I
kind of as I was drafting this up I
really discovered four phases well five
five phases of the meat Smith operation
gross and we're currently still in the
fifth so it's no it's not over but it's
it's wrapping up you know the first has
to do with when we first began the first
phase we started in 2010 it was August I
remember you had just completed your
second year of working at the local farm
where you learned you self-taught
yourself these skills and then in August
we pregnant with John Luke oh yeah for a
second that's right and so we knew we
were in for it we knew where our family
was growing and we didn't really want
you to be working 70 80 hours a week for
someone else I mean you're gonna work
that much at least let's keep it
in-house so so we decided to go
independent and we thankfully had both
of sets of our parents ran their own
businesses and so we had at least a
little bit of experience in knowing how
what that was like yeah we didn't we
weren't completely blinded to to the
whole process yeah
so we in 2010 we lived in a different
house we were in a neighborhood very
small neighborhood the house actually we
helped build when we first moved up to
Vashon Island and it was we built it out
of a homeownership program that was
sweat equity because what equities yeah
instead of paying an down payment you
put in the physical labor to build the
home right right then when it was
completed when everyone's home was
completed we all moved in at the same
time and you just started paying your
mortgage right yeah kind of a unique so
it wasn't unique yeah it was very small
small small neighborhood so our neighbor
was like less than 20 feet from us and
very small backyard but it was a great
first home
it had a basically a one car garage and
that's where we started butchering that
was the shop and that's when we started
acquiring tools and we our first tools
were a 55-gallon drum and a chain hoist
and I think a grinder was one of the
first and we talked about all that in
our last podcast yeah we enumerated all
the costs involved there yeah and we
bought this walk-in yeah we did in our
old house we didn't run it because it
was too big even though it's teeny-tiny
yeah so this is it's our whole process
of buying equipment has been find it on
Craigslist when we have the extra money
right buy it and just kind of store it
until we can use it we did that with our
humongous three basin two thousand pound
stainless steel sink from the 70s and we
did that with our walk-in which are
humongous things to store and have be
useless they they were yeah they weren't
useful for I mean how long would it have
been four years
yeah yeah the walk is what like yeah and
so there's panels the insulated panels
and we just stacked them next to each
other in our garage to stay out of the
rain but that was that was actually
probably a year or two into the business
yeah we bought that I think we bought
that with like a tax return or with
money we had saved maybe never eggs list
right yeah I remember it was like just
over $2,000 yeah and without the
refrigerant unit actually yeah well it
did have it it came too old yeah
refrigerant that was you know like a
terrorist agent yeah it was a poison
outlawed you can't use that refrigerant
so but going back to the very beginning
when we realized we wanted to
start firm said meet Smith we we looked
at our garage and it was a one car
garage and I mean it still had all of
the furnishings of the domestic needs of
a garage I mean our laundry was in there
and storage of various normal things but
about half the garage we did have some
space so with the loan that we got I
believe I told you last time but it was
a three thousand dollar loan it's a
small loan from some friends who wanted
who had been wanting to help us yeah my
for quite a while before then they
really believed in us and they knew that
we could do something unique if with
just a little bit of capital so they
gave us three thousand eight loaned us
three thousand dollars and we kind of
set up payments with them I think over
the course of a year we paid it back
maybe and we outfitted the little half
of this one car garage with a stainless
steel table oh yeah we did have an
antique butcher block and we had this
for our for our walk in we had a sliding
door refrigeration parents actually
bought for us right it was about $800 I
think that our electrician was selling
huh and so we knew we could trust that
it was of decent quality because our
like the electrician that our family
uses was reputable and he we bought it
from him and it was just like a two door
sliding glass door yeah refrigerating
could you could fit maybe eight bus tubs
in it yeah and that was just our
carrying fridge we were hanging
carcasses remotely at the local exact
grocery store right that was just to
house the the cuts vacant the cut that's
yeah yeah so that was basically the
beginning of that was the first shot it
was the first shop we did it we did a
few classes in there too yeah maybe
maybe a dozen or so
and we also leaned heavily on the
hospitality of certain farmers to host
us for right for actually both slaughter
and butchery sometimes out in the field
so they had its own charm to it it was
really crazy and you know kind of
bootstrapping things but it was still I
was a I mean now that we're this far out
of it I look at it you know fondly yeah
and I mean I think particularly the
value of those classes was there that we
could demonstrate that none of those
lacks of facility we're hindrances to
quality to product to what you could
achieve with a baker whatever it might
be
yeah because some of those were
slaughter in a field one day and then
the next day was butcher in the field
yeah you know and make bacon and stuff
chucking stuff around with coolers and
yeah yeah so then two years later we
weren't pregnant yet but I knew we
wanted more children and I knew that
there was high possibility of you know
getting pregnant soon I think John Luke
had just been born maybe or something
and move and if we're gonna move we
should do it now because you know well I
just knew our business was we wanted our
business to grow and we wanted our
family to grow and we were very quickly
outgrowing in both of those ways yeah
that at home mm-hmm and so I thought
that was the time let's do it and the
market was really good for homebuyers
cuz it was 2012 yeah and things were
still very squishy in the real estate
yeah world it was very very low market
and so it was almost it wasn't a fluke
because it took a unfathomable amount of
work on your part to buy this house but
it was kind of a miraculous that we got
this two and a half acres mm-hmm and
with a house and with a wood shed that
became our smoker with the addition of a
few pieces of plywood and screws yes
became our smoker right
like well no actually the first
manifestation it was in there too and
with the covered car garage that became
our shop yes and bike it wasn't a garage
it was just a it was a roof with six
posts and that's it everybody so it it
did keep water out
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