I'd like to start this post out by saying, "As most of you know" but that would just be silly right because that's implying that I'm writing to some kind of audience when the truth is only a choice few people so graciously visit my blog. Thanks guys!!
It's OK though. I've come to the understanding that the blog is mostly for me and my husband as a way to document our progresses, our memories and the things we look forward too. Like this thing I am going to post about today.
So...as most of you 'choice' people may know we are in the rabbit food business. This happened because when my amazing husband was raising rabbits in his backyard he discovered first hand the overall poor quality of all brands of rabbit food! It seemed as though the rabbit world just knew that the feed they bought at the store was going to make their rabbits bloated, that their mama rabbits wouldn't have the best pregnancies and the healthiest litters, that their barns would stink of ammonia and the overall death rates would be higher and the feed conversion ratio would be relatively low.
But my husband wasn't going to put up with it. Nutrition and health runs in his blood like me and because he was raising rabbits for the meat he started his quest to make the most perfectly balanced and nutritious rabbit food around. It took years of research and study (2 1/2 to be exact), then buying equipment and making the feed to test out by giving it to local breeders. What were the results? Miracles. Excitement and success. Rabbits that switched to Sherwood Forest Natural Rabbit Food were healthier, their sicknesses went away, no bloating, no diarrhea, significantly less death, they are winning 'Best of Show' at rabbit competitions and the ammonia smell and therefore the flies go away in the barn! The list just goes on and on! You can imagine how huge this is for the 'rabbit world'.
And of course there were bumps in the road but all for the better because each bump taught him (and me) important things to make the feed even better. And what's even better is that we really feel that he was guided and inspired by the spirit all along. So once the word got out locally everyone wanted the feed and it was hard for him to keep up with demand with his small scale equipment. This is when we decided to contract out with a local feed mill that was already set up and doing large amounts of production and distribution. Well long story short, that was a disaster. Just think of it like asking McDonald's fast food to make a beautiful, authentic expensive sushi roll. HA! Not gonna happen! So we closed the door on that option which was good and bad for obvious reasons. The only option left was for us to create our own mill. And that's what we're doing. It's expensive and it's scary. We are putting pretty much all our resources into it and even though I have no doubt in it's success it's still kind of scary. But mostly it's exciting. It's exciting to soon be able to see the benefits of all the years of hard hard work my husband (and now my father) have put into it.
And we STILL have people begging for it. On the beautiful website that my father and hubby created (www.naturalrabbitfood.com) we have people from all over the world emailing us and asking where they can get it in their own little corner of the world: Europe, Africa, Philippines, Iran and Argentina to name a few! Who had any idea that the rabbit world was even this big!? I didn't!!
So that's our life right now. We are just weeks away from launching the mill and making the first batch for shipment to our customers. So please pray for us that all goes well! I know it will but any and all good thoughts are welcome! We kind of don't know what we're doing as far as the business side of it but we have faith that it'll work out. We also have so many people around us rooting for us and willing to help in anyway they can. I am so grateful for my baby and the way that his mind works and the way that he is always seeking for ways to improve. I am excited for this next chapter in our lives (even if it means working over at the warehouse at all hours of the night) and hope to support my husband as he supports me. I love you honey.
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