Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Stacia Launches a Business

Stacia makes hats. She's done this for a couple of years....all winter...all year long. Her brothers are convinced she needs to start a little business for herself and market online. The little Alaskan girl who wiles away the frigid winters crafting hats. She's made several for me, one for all her nephews, nieces, siblings, sibling spouses, guests to Alaska....The boys report these are WARM in the winter for ice fishing....

She recently SOLD her first two hats..to Terrah in Oregon. Two slouch hats.  She then sold a few too me which I gifted at a baby shower. Here she is mailing two slouch hats to Oregon. They wouldn't fit in the small box...From this we learned to save boxes, it is far cheaper to mail them by weight and not flat rate. We also learned she will need to charge for shipping.  ::snort::

We were discussing how we'd thought a slouch hat would fit in a flat rate envelope but they won't...that we needed to save cracker and cereal boxes etc....Michael asked why we don't vacuum seal the hats. Hmmm....
An adult slouch hat

The first try turned out bumpy and crumpled. 

They added cardboard from a bacon package and it worked. This may fit in a flat rate envelope? AND it's just fun to watch them expand when you open the bag! ::snort:: 

I found some books on Micro-Businesses; from starting one,  to running one, to paying taxes....I'm in the process of creating a high school credited course for her on start up, marketing, branding et al, she'll learn to build an online storefront and she has a lead on a local store that may carry them....I'm not sure what to call it....I'm leaning towards  Micro Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which is often initially a small business. This fits.

Stacia's dream has always involved owning a small business (Whether that's a family farm or a bakery/tea shop) - we're going with it and getting her experience and school credit.

Currently, we're trying to figure out how to come up with a cool tag for her creations. She's come up with one that simply says, "Joy" and has a hiragana symbol with a wobbly weeble (incorporates her name, Japan, our place).  Recently, a sibling suggested "Anastacia's Accessories," she may play with that a bit too.  We're trying to find a place that could make a simple cloth or leather tag to sew onto the brims of her hats.

Read along for the rest of the story.

Smoked Salmon Chowder

I was originally given this recipe by Sandy D.  our first year in Alaska. I have made it so often and changed it much. I'm going to go ahead and rename it and put in the way I actually make it as folks always ask for the recipe and I have to remember what tweaks I've made. If you'd like to try the original, click here



Even our fish haters take seconds of this soup. 

Note: This makes a large pot...1/2 for a "normal" 4- 6 serving pot of soup. Above is my 6 qt pot with this recipe as written below. 

Ingredients 
6 T butter
1 1/2 C chopped onion (Large onion)
8 garlic cloves (less if you don't love garlic)
1 C chopped celery
2 tsp garlic powder
4 C diced potatoes
4 Carrots, diced
4 C chicken broth
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
4 tsp dried dill weed 
1-2 pint of canned smoked salmon (or 2 - 4 16 oz cans or, 2lbs salmon filet) *
2 (12 oz) can evaporated milk (in a pinch use any milk; I've used almond milk)
2 -3 C frozen corn 
1 - 2  (8 oz) block cream cheese, do one and see if you want more
2 - 4 caps of liquid smoke (if you aren't using smoked salmon) again start with 2 and adjust

Directions

Melt Butter. Sauté onion, celery, garlic and garlic powder until onions are soft. 

Stir in potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, pepper, and dill. 

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.  (If using uncooked salmon filet add at this point and it will be cooked in the allotted time. 

Stir in salmon, evaporated milk, corn, and cream cheese. 

Cook until heated through.


Recipe Notes: 
I provide shredded cheddar cheese at the table as the original recipe called for it. Most don't add it. 



Visits, Projects, and Accidents

Bre has a delightful friend from her days on staff at Calvary. Donna and Bre shared an office for years. Donna has come to Alaska to visit BreZaak. Krista and I deemed it easier for us than Bre to make the morning drive to Anchorage.  It was fun to catch up with Donna...hear a bit from our home church and here a bit of the reaction to dad's upcoming move to Alaska. 

She brought us avocados. I asked her to buy some as they were much cheaper than I can them here...and these are in great shape and big! 

It rained today - really rained! Dad and I smelled the rain and smiled and commented on how familiar and comforting rain can be. We're Oregonians. Michael, Krista, Alex, and Benny were outside putting trees on the ground when the downpour began. They weren't so enamored with the smell of the rain.
Just like Papa - sort of
 I heard a huge crash and then crying and moaning....I was worried dad had fallen. Stacia had slipped in a puddle of Yuuki's making (she's out of control these days) and fallen FACE FIRST onto the brick that lines the nook for our wood stove.

Benny sympathizes. He was covering his nose when I began to take the photo. Yuuki expresses her apologies. 

It took quite a bit of time to stem the bleeding to be able to see if we were dealing with broken teeth or WHAT....a very sore nose, a gash...lots of ice and we'll see what we have tomorrow. Poor thing.

She jumped back and helped me make some yummy salmon chowder and biscuits for dinner. As we cooked...I pondered....the biscuit recipe is one I've used for decades....Barb's recipe, a friend from Hardin, MT. The chowder recipe is Sandy's, a new friend. There is something so satisfying in fixing yummy food with connections to friends.  Chowder recipe to follow.