Another one thrown in my lap
I’ve got nothing. Camera still sitting in bag with uncharged battery. The three photos I took last week came out too dark because it was so close to dusk and in the back yard. Things are moving fast around here and I’m sitting with a huge life-changing decision for probably one more day and then I have to give an answer. Yes, I’ll stop working here and come to work there, as long as it’s not a drop in pay—but understanding that I’ll likely be working more at least in the beginning. Or no, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing for a little while longer.
See, my neighbor is starting a small restaurant in an old sub shop, a turnkey operation, and he’s looking for someone to help manage it. Two someone’s actually (Cheril and I are in talks and both weighing the load against our lives to see if we can carry it comfortably). It’s daunting because the desired goal for startup is fast (3 weeks!) and we have some requirements for what we are willing to put our energies into: healthy food (at least half vegetarian, fresh, seasonal/local on the menu, organic whenever possible, sustainable waste management and meaningful interaction with the community — beyond mere profit.
Those are all things much easier to do with a restaurant but his idea is to use this space as a testing ground and to build a blueprint that can be franchised. That’s a major challenge implementing even half of our philosophical requirements, but he seems to think we can make it work. We have to make our decision today and if its yes begin immediately working on a simple menu.
I’m at 99% yes even though I have some reservations about certain details. I think this will be an incredible opportunity for me to learn how to and how not to do things in preparation for me starting my own kitchen garden catering business in the future.
My biggest question this morning? Can I deal with likely having even less time to work in my gardens this year? And if that’s my most pressing concern, well, I suppose I’m ready to move on.
"In summer we live out of doors, and have only impulses and feelings, which are all for action, and must wait commonly for the stillness and longer nights of autumn and winter before any thought will subside; we are sensible that behind the rustling leaves, and the stacks of grain, and the bare clusters of the grape, there is the field of a wholly new life, which no man has lived; that even this earth was made for more mysterious and nobler inhabitants than men and women. In the hues of October sunsets, we see the portals to other mansions than those which we occupy."
~Henry David Thoreau
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 am
Hugs—see you at noon-ish for more hugs xoxo
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
[…] and in the back yard. Things are moving fast around here and I??m sitting with a huge life-changinhttp://herablehands.com/2008/04/22/another-one-thrown-in-my-lap/”McGrane, like any other golfer who wins a European Tour event, deserves huge credit” - DD BBC […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:00 am
Oh wow, how exciting. You are probably right about the restaurant venture being a good place to pick up some catering biz insight. Not to mention all the contacts you could potentially build with other restaurant owners–seems like restaurant people all know each other.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Exciting! I don’t know that the possibility of not having the time you want to work in your own garden should be tossed aside so lightly, though. That’s pretty important to you from what I can tell. Unless I’m reading move on wrong. Either way, good luck with the decision.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Wow..that’s alot. However, my philosophy has always been - if you want something done ask a busy woman, and you certainly qualify. It sounds like a good learning ground.
I don’t know where you live but the availability of locally grown food is almost non-existant for almost 6-7 months of the year around here so that portion of the franchise model would be difficult to maintain.
You’ll make the right decision.
- Suzanne, the Farmer’s Wife
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Hi! Well, it is a big decision and you also have another opportunity so have to factor that in too. Nice to be wanted! Do you know why he needs to move on this so quickly? I always find it hard to make those big decisions without letting them simmer for a bit. Know you will do the thing that fits best and love how the bigger picture is really coming into focus in a real way.