My best friend Trish and I have a dream, and the dream is Agra-Tourism. We want to have a little working farm just outside of a college town here in Georgia. She wants to grow vegetables and fruits, make jams and can pickles. I want to host luncheons, conferences and farm events, and run a Bed and Breakfast. We’ve spent ages talking about it, gathering articles, learning to farm, and so forth. This weekend we put our heads together and really started working on what our dream would really look like.
Here’s our thinking: We start with about 12 acres of land, give or take, that is a mix of woods and pasture. A pond might be a good thing, too. In the first year, we plant an orchard, and come out on weekends and tend it. Then the next year, we start planting low maintenance crops (like pumpkins and watermelons) and building the multi-purpose building. This is where we will have a storefront, a commercial kitchen for preparing the canned goods, and an activity space for classes, workshops and events.
What do you think? I spent a good bit of time recently looking up prices on commercial kitchen requirements, costs, fire suppression systems, steel modular buildings, and many other things. I’m thinking this building will cost at bare bones, $135,000. Yikes. But that is not holding me back, and neither is the fact that I don’t have the land to put it on, either. No, I figure that if I blog about it, some one will decide that it really is worth $100K to them to pick the colors of my imaginary future building. And tell you what, I’ll even spring for a nice brass plaque for the front door. You know the type. “This building and color scheme were made possible by Daddy Warbucks.” How nice.
See, in my cartoonish world, there is no problem that can’t be overcome by a liberal application of lottery winnings. No dream is too costly, and no challenge too great. So, who wants the coloring rights?
