Now that we're land owners.....
I’ve started to investigate some business ideas of how it can work for us. That was always the plan when we brought the place. And if you’ve read previously you know glamping and producing our own has been top of the list.
Glorious Glamping.....
So I thought I’d start with the glamping side of things first, tackling the more difficult one out of the two. I’ve been learning all about eco toilets – I’d have laughed at you a year ago if you’d told me I’d be spending hours researching eco loos and how to deal with peoples s*** - drainage, getting a fresh water supply into the field. I’ve joined Facebook groups, listened to podcasts on starting your own site, started following glamping businesses on Instagram and Google has become my new best friend. Even though all I wanted to do was to focus on the more glam side of things…. Would it be bell tents, yurts, what would a seating area look like, could I offer a homemade hampers on arrival. But I thought I needed to start with the practical side of things first.
And what did we do before all of this technology and information was available to us? Before Google, before Facebook, before Instagram, before Podcasts, before YouTube?
I’m of an age where I didn’t grow up with these technologies .… it was the yellow pages, the Thompson local directory and navigating with a paper map! And tellytext….. or was that just for holidays??!!
Anyway I digress, back to glamping. I started a work breakdown structure (bit of project management speak for you there!), got a vision board going, spoke with an architect and planning consultant and then……….. ouch, who put that f*** off brick wall in my way.
It turns out living in an area of outstanding nature beauty is… well very beautiful but not so good for getting planning permission to do anything. The feedback is and I quote here "we don’t hold out much hope of getting you planning permission" – damn. And the cost of going through pre-planning and then planning it turns out is pretty expensive – double damn. And a farm not too far from us has very recently, had planning rejected for a small glamping site – oh FFS.
Those are some pretty big obstacles to get over. Don’t get me wrong, I knew it would take some financial investment, perhaps not quite as much as what’s been quoted but what I’m not prepared to do it spend thousands on a battle I’ve lost before I’ve even begun. That makes no sense. As my little bro said ‘it’s no good p***ing into wind’. So I was pretty fed up, frustrated and if I’m being honest I felt like a bit of a failure for a few days – I don’t know why, maybe because I had my heart set of it and I just kept thinking now what? I had to shut my laptop down and take a break from it all – I needed to reset and refocus.
And after a few days and some long conversations with my family, I felt much better and some ideas started to flow again. Perhaps for now I should focus more on the growing side and the food journey we’ve been on for over a year now (a 6 week trial without me meat and a year later we predominately have a plant based diet), could I mix the growing of fruit and veg with flowers? Could I make stuff to sell? Could I sell my produce and creations at a farmers market? I don’t know is the answer right now. I’d still love to have a small glamping site, but it looks like I’m going to have to take a few detours before I can, hopefully get there. And really do any of us know where we’ll end up when we start on a new adventure? You have a dream, a fantasy but perhaps the universe has other ideas, and we all know what reality can be like….. very different from what’s in our heads. Our paths are so full of bumps, detours and crossroads. When I started my career in events, I had no idea it would led me to this point today. Of course I didn’t, how could I? Proving that we don’t really know where we’re going, how we’ll get there or even where we’ll end up. And I’m pretty sure it’s going to be very different from what I first imagined.
So my plans are shifting, but none of the ground work has been wasted, although that wasn’t my initial thought!!! I’ve learnt loads, I’m continuing to learn, enrolling myself in some evening classes about setting up your own site. And all of this learning, expanding my knowledge and doing all of the ground work, can only be a good thing.
But giving up I am not, perhaps pressing the reset button is what was needed. It certainly got me thinking more about how we can use the resources we have right now without having to spend thousands. As I read in “How To Start A Business On Your Kitchen Table" by Shann Nix Jones…. I’m flipping that negative pancake and believing I can! Growing your own, getting creative with the resources you have to hand, and maybe even coming up with recipe ideas from what you’ve grown doesn’t sound too bad to me…. I think it could be rather idyllic. A new vision is starting to immerge!
Whatever happens, as long as I keep going, putting one foot in front of the other on this gloriously unpredictable path, I’m sure I’ll get to where I’m supposed to be.
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