I am in the planning phase of starting a business..

 

This is where I am starting:

 

Maple Cream Farm is the accumulation of a lifetime of dreams. As a little girl I dreamed of having a horse and a farm full of animals. Despite many hardships, I worked hard to get to a place where I could begin developing my dream. In 2020 my husband and I purchased 10.1 acres of land and Maple Cream Farm began to materialize! We now have a barn, 5 horses, 6 goats, 2 cows, 3 pigs, and a bunch of chickens!

Shortly after purchasing our property my husband, who has fought Thyroid cancer for 20 years found that his cancer had returned and mutated as well as metastasized into a more aggressive form of cancer. With the return of my husband’s cancer and the associated surgery and treatments he became unable to work. To get started with disability he had to  have no income for 6 months, severely limiting our funding and the progress of our farm. 

I have always been drawn to the art of caring for other people. Over the course of my career, I have worked in the mental health field, an AEMT, and currently I am an EEG/Cardiovascular technician at a hospital. While I love my job it is very demanding and leaves me little time to help with the farm chores, attend appointments with my husband and family, and spend time on the farm. 

Our beginning dream for Maple Cream Farm was a 5-year plan was to build a barn, put up pasture, build a garden and greenhouse, and eventually open a small farm store to sell our farm fresh food to the community. With my husband’s cancer it has reshaped those plans. I began thinking of ways I could be home more to spend more time with my husband, the animals, and still fill my need of caring for others, and provide back to my community.

I began looking into becoming a shared living provider. This would allow me more time at home with my husband on the farm AND give an incredible home for someone with special needs. During this time, I learned about a special young man who loves the farm life and has several special needs including autism, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, and Elhers-danlos syndrome. I began thinking of ways to make our farm a more inclusive place for someone with special needs like his. 

As I researched and thought about sensory stimulation, safety measures, and FUN! I remembered when I worked for a mental health agency and how many people with special needs land in homes that are not inclusive of their needs and how few activities there were for them. With the pandemic even fewer opportunities are available to them. My dream for Maple Cream Farm began to grow even bigger.

Maple Cream Farm needs to finish our barn to enclose it with doors, build stalls for the animals with a storage loft over the stalls, purchase sensory stimulation equipment and install them in the free space in the barn, add solar electricity for the barn, build a green house, and make a space where individuals can spend time with the animals. This would provide a space that would allow individuals of all  needs a place to come and be themselves while engaging in meaningful activities. 

Some of the activities I would like to offer are a small-scale bungee exercise area and trampoline, animal interactions, gardening, and socializing opportunities. The result of growing Maple Cream Farm would also greatly benefit our community, offering wholesome, farm fresh beef, eggs, chicken, pork products, goat milk, goat babies, piglets, veggies, goat cheese, and some baked goods. I would like to add a sugar house, garage with a bathroom and kitchen for making cheese from our animal products, washing produce, and packaging our products to sell in our small farm stand and local stores.