The Farm Life Iceberg Illusion!

New businesses can be very demanding, much like raising a small child, they need lots of care. We’re motivated to serve more and get better.

by Chad Steiner

The iceberg illusion. Everyone see’s what’s above the water on an iceberg, but below the water is a huge mass of ice keeping the upper part afloat. Jeana and I chose to move our family to the Lake Chelan Valley and start a small business because we had a dream of serving others. We’ve got a passion for connection. Raising kids, growing food, growing flowers, making wine to create connection, starting a pumpkin patch, raising animals… no lies, it’s a lot. Now that I’ve been on The Farm a little more than a year, I can’t even imagine how I was working full time. But this year has been amazing. It’s given me the opportunity to spend much of the summer with our oldest son and learn. More importantly, it’s given Jeana and I an opportunity to learn more “how” to lead this business. I’ve found it rather challenging to lead when you haven’t done it long enough yourself. What I thought I’d share with this week’s blog was a bit of behind the scenes using the iceberg metaphor. What do we struggle with? What are we doing about it? And why do we keep doing all this… (aka is it worth it)?

Yes, we struggle. We’re so thankful when people talk about how beautiful our place is or describe how what we’re doing is their ultimate dream. But, putting it all together has been non-stop for the 5+ years we’ve lived here. Jeana and I are 1^st generation farmers. We bought the first parcel of land the farm is on in 2014 – with visions and dreams of how it would turn out. Then we planted grapes in 2017. Moved here in 2018, started building the houses, had our first pumpkin patch in 2019, fired up wine production in 2021 and so on. Now we’re making wine, growing pumpkins, flowers, apples, wine grapes, 3 boys, 80 chickens, 4 cats, 8 sheep (soon to be more), 2 goats and a bunch of ducks, and rentals. We struggle with keeping our head above water on a lot of days. Staying organized or just doing the laundry can be a challenge. We’ve missed appointments, been late for things, don’t make time for ourselves. Jeana’s fired me a few times and I her (although she’s nicer). There are times the boys wish we had more time for them… and so much more. Although, who isn’t busy or doesn’t have a lot going on. We all do. You all do. Which makes me think – is life turning out how we imagined it vs. where we’re actually at right now? That’s where the stress comes from. Thinking, oh, I should have this much in retirement, or I should have a pool, or Instagramable vacations every year or why aren’t apple prices better. Running a small business is demanding. There’s freedom, but our small business asks a lot from us to keep it going. So – what the heck are we doing to run it vs. it run us?

Our situation is not unique. Businesses are known to eat people for lunch. We feel like our farm and winery business is still partly an infant and partly a toddler. For those of you with kids, you understand how much our baby’s need us at this stage. So how are we going to struggle less and thrive more? For one, I started going to The Barn in February to train for harvest. Jeana did as well, but has been nursing a shoulder injury. This has been a game changer for harvest. Physical health feeds everything else. The other thing we’re committed to is getting more organized. Both on the planning front and prioritizing. It’s so easy when so much is going on to always do the “urgent” things vs. deciding to focus on the “important”. We’re heading into winter which is a time for us to take advantage of the time indoors. Planning, reflecting and getting a strategy for 2025. One thing worth mentioning is the great people we have helping us. There’s no way we could do what we do without the people who work for us, without the encouragement and love for what we’re creating from friends and family and with the support of the wonderful community we live in. Which brings us to our why….

“If your why don’t make you cry, then it ain’t no why!” or I’ve also heard “The new American dream isn’t to own a house, it’s to own your own business.”. And then a quote I created: “In every great entrepreneur is a healthy dose of ignorance, otherwise no one would sign up for all that work.”. If you’re still reading this, your part of our why. We wake up every day thinking about how we can make what we offer better. How do we make our place inviting and relaxing? At the same time we have personal goals. We want to pay for our boys college. We want to pay down debt. We want to provide jobs for people in our community. We want to be a reason people come to the Lake Chelan Valley. We want to keep growing things and enjoy the adventure mother nature brings every year. We want to travel and learn. We want to spend time with each of you when you’re here. We want to be bigger and bigger supporters of our community. We want to be leaders in regenerative agriculture. We want to learn how to grow more nutrient dense food. Yes, a lot of whys and thank you for being part of them.

I have no idea if this blog resonates with you. It feels hard to talk a bit about what we struggle with. What do “our” struggles matter in the big picture? There are millions of people in this world that still go to bed hungry. There are wars happening. Our country feels more divided. Our why motivates us to get better. If we can get better we can do more, give more and help more. If we can improve, we can grow our business and serve more. Nevertheless – there are a lot of balls to keep in the air. Some might even say we have lack of focus. I guess it depends – Agritourism captures it all, and maybe doing so many different things works for us. I do know for sure, there are less and less farmers and farms. We’re glad to share ours with you!

Thank you for following along. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.