When I came up with the idea of having a roadside stand to sell camp/firewood and homemade-by-me things, I had it in my head that I would just be taking this project on by myself. After all, I come up with these “crazy” business ideas all the time. Although, as history has shown, it’s NEVER by myself. Paul is always there right beside me.

A couple of past conversations with Paul… (scroll down)

March 2005

Me: Hey, the yarn shop in town is for sale.

Paul: Really.

Me: Should we do it?

Paul: Ok.

[Sold the yarn shop in 2011.]

March 2022

Me: Hey, I think I’m going to start a dog treat business. Here is the cool name and logo I came up with.

Paul: Ok. Nice logo.

[Closed the dog treat business in 2024.]

June 2026

Me: I think we should have a roadside stand to sell wood and my stuff.

Paul: Ok. I’ll make a wood bundler.

I just love him – he goes along with every hair-brained idea I have and supports me the whole way.

I really thought I could build this roadside stand myself, though. I found a plan on Etsy.

Great. Did that by myself! But then I needed Paul and his truck and his wood expertise to go to 84 Lumber and get the wood.

Now that I had the wood, I was all set to do all the cutting (the plans had a cut list) and put it together by myself.

Got the wood cut:

I put together a little YouTube video with my new video editing skills. Press the play button below. Turn the volume up for pencil and safety gear shenanigans, and me talking to myself:

Once the wood was cut, that’s where the do-it-myself-ness fell off the rails. Because WOOD IS HEAVY! And 3-inch screws are HARD TO SCREW! And a 6-foot wide roadside stand is BIG!

We got it done and now we are working on clearing a spot next to the driveway to put the stand. It is currently ON the driveway however the delivery trucks (and Paul’s truck/car trailer combo) can’t get by it. I’ll show you the final stand spot when it’s done.

And now we are in the roadside stand business! (as you already know from Part 1 last week.) We’ve had some customers and that is encouraging. I’m learning that people don’t really want human food items – I don’t need a health department license for what I was selling and my kitchen is clean, but I get the hesitation. So, I’ll be figuring out other things to make and sell. As always with us, it’s been an adventure and we are learning a lot as we go!

A side note as it relates to the health aspect of this blog space, and my history:

I thought long and hard about whether to film myself and post a video for the world to see. I’m having a very small panicky feeling as I’m typing this and getting ready to push the “Publish” button. I’m not happy with my weight. It’s there for both physical and emotional reasons, and I’m working on getting healthy again (fibromyalgia sucks). But, this is me and I’m working hard at accepting myself where I am today, in this moment.

I’ll end with a quote from the wonderful Louise Hay, from whom I’ve learned alot about being positive: