The Mt View Orchards Wedding Venue Story!

Since I was a little girl, I thought it would be dreamy to get married on our family farm.  I learned that I am not alone in this longing and many people have asked my parents through out the years if we could host their wedding.  We are a working farm with many side businesses happening at the same time and there are special permissions needed to be able to do this so we always politely declined.  Two years ago, when I bought my families legacy farm I decided to start the process of applying for a conditional use permit to be able to host weddings on our farm because the farm wasn't making it financially and we needed to diversify in order to save the family farm.

So I started working with the Hood River county planning department and talking with another farmer/wedding venue owner nearby for some gentle coaching.  After about 4 months into the process, I had some second thoughts after going to a evening meeting where a sweet couple who had originally been approved to host weddings were shut down.  I wasn't sure I wanted to put all the work into the permit process(which was 80+ pages) to only be denied. I already felt crazy busy working 3 long days off the farm as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and learning how to run a brand new business(es).  So I put it on a shelf and thought I would pick it up this new business idea on year 5 when I have found my groove better as a new farmer. 

Around that time a dear friend who is a well known and experienced wedding caterer in Portland visited me on the farm and strongly encouraged me to not be dismayed and put my hat in the ring and the worst thing that could happen is is my permit is not approved. After praying about it I decided it was worth the risk and I started crafting my proposal(with much advice, design help and wisdom from my caterer friend.)  I never really was certain if I would be approved or not through the whole process but after 10 long months and many small adaptions and re-submissions, miraculously we made it through the application process and we're approved to host 30 weddings on the farm and 6 farm to table dinners.  I had went to see my nearby neighbors one by one and I took their input very seriously and adapted my plans to be mindful of their needs as to be a respectful neighbor.  Being approved to host weddings on your farm in the Hood River Valley is quite rare these days because Exclusive Farm use land has many important restrictions and protections. I have to admit I was exhilarated and felt a bit like Rocky, after one of his big fights were he nearly died but then pulled a win in the last round. Unbelievably grateful.

So with my new permit in hand, I started working with a lovely structural engineer and we began designing the structures for the wedding venue.  I started working with a business consultant in town who had also launched a wedding venue at a hotel she owned in Dufur for advice because I was so very green and didn't know what I didn't know often and the idea of having new wedding venue was daunting and intimidating to me on top of everything else I was managing.  I went to the small business center at the community college nearby and worked with a very kind gentleman to begin my business proposal for the bank.  I have been very cautious to take out any debt on the farm and so I wanted to do everything very prayerfully and cautiously.  After a few rounds of drafts, I was approved an had a small amount of funding to begin construction based on my farm equipment as collateral.  I had heard lovely reports about a classmate who was in construction that I went to school with and so I met up with him because he is known for being hard working, timely and a great communicator. I couldn't be more pleased with his progress and timelines.  Because by this point we had already booked 5 weddings based solely on peoples imaginations alone with only a grass meadow in sight.  My dear friends helped with the beautiful websites, photography and wedding staging and I couldn't be more grateful to their amazing help. 

I honestly didn't always know the right next steps because building a wedding venue is a beastly project and I was trying to mostly cash flow the construction. My dear sweet parents have been incredibly helpful and I couldn't have don't it without their great partnership, encouragement and daily help,  I had to ask many questions along the way but I knew one thing, I was not going to let the couples down that I had promised our venue too this 2016 summer.  They didn't know me when they booked our venue but I keep my word. Also I found an excellent venue coordinator, Ashley Brown who has exceeded my expectations in every arena to help manage all tours and correspondence with our couples. So thankful to partner with such a stellar friend and business woman. Her email is mtvieworchardsweddings@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

Friends, I am so excited to announce that we have completed our 3 spacious buildings, all the plumbing and electrical, the sod laying and they are nearly done with our new roadway that leads to wedding venue that is very private and secluded. We are painting the 26 hand crafted tables and 52 benches this week as well.  I am so very grateful to have our wedding venue completed and to host all the lovely couples this summer on our small family farm as well as 3 farm to table dinners.  I am a bit tired and feel unsure how I am going to pay for the last big bills in july but so far I have been able to pay all my bills and I thank my generous Papa for that. I never felt super confident and secure in managing this huge project, but I am thankful to all my friends and family who have backed me up on days I was feeling unsure of my ability to launch another business.  This journey was full of insecurities, surprises and big unexpected bills but also much joy, love and wild support.  I am so thrilled to host all our lovely couples this summer on our farm and I believe it was well worth all the hard work and risk. If you want more information about getting married on our farm please head to his link. So grateful to be done with construction and for all the great advice and help along the way, friends. Bring on the weddings! I really believe this is going to be a lovely addition to our small family farm. A farm that gathers. Where our farm is your farm. xoxo your grateful farmer, Trina  

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Confessions of a Grateful Farmer May 2016

1. I am a grateful farmer because I know a good Papa, who loves me exactly the way I am and partners with me for the dreams on my small family farm.

2. Do not despise the day of small beginnings....I am grateful to announce we are 99% finished with our HUGE irrigation project on the entire North Side of our farm.  Thats 34 acres in less than a month. Unbelievably hard.   Trenching, digging and connecting pipe for weeks.  Man, I couldn't be prouder of my mighty men who never cease to amaze me. I thankfully received some funding for this big project and once I was selected, I took a big gulp and thought, "well now we have to do it verses just talk about doing it."  Grateful to be nearly done so we can give our trees a drink soon. 

3. We are putting in the countertops in for the catering and bar structures for the Wedding Venue and are in the last weeks of completing the biggest project I have ever attempted in my whole life.  We are going to be laying sod soon and then we are 100% complete! I feel good about keeping my promise to all the amazing couples getting married here this summer! Are you looking for an intimate setting to get married? Consider coming by our orchard meadow and seeing if our farm is a perfect match for your big day. www.mtvieworchardsweddings.com

4. I had a few set backs trying to find an Excavator to complete the roadway to the wedding venue but after a lot of prayer and all my dear friends praying, I have found someone to complete the job before our first wedding and they are in my budget! Total Miracle because this is rough timing because this is their busy season! This was a hard wait with a few snares and setbacks in it. I was sweating and swearing more than I like to admit.  When I found out this puzzle piece was falling into place this morning, I was over the moon thrilled about it. Grateful to be so backed up. 

5. We are a couple weeks into thinning all the Bartlett pears, apples, peaches and nectarines on our farm.  We have a great crew and should finish by the middle of June. If we don't thin off some of the many fruitlets they will be too small and it will stress out our trees. If you have a fruit tree and you want a lesson on thinning I would happy give you a lesson if you like, friend? Just shoot me an email. We do not have a big enough crew and that is a hard aspect of farming these days but thankfully a few extra helpers showed up today and that was such a gift.  

6. The OLCC inspector came by to look at our bar structure at the wedding venue and at our fruit stand tasting room and they were very impressed and pleased.  There will be Hard Cider at our wedding venue and when our farm stands opens in July, friends! Cheers!

7. Some awesome households are signing up for our All Fruit CSA this week! If you are wanting to know more about it consider shooting me an email or heading to  www.mtvieworchards.com/csa/ Also my friend Jesse Larvick made a video about myself and Saur Farming and Wildwood farms about farming in the winter and spring to grow food for your all in mind if you want to check it out here. Its a beauty!

8. I am thankful to be partnering with the Fresh Start Culinary Arts Program this year. If you are in Hood River head to the Riverside Church on Fridays and Saturday morning from 830-11:30am for delicious breakfasts. Also I am hosting their students to create a lovely farm to table dinner fundraiser here at Mt. View Orchards this July 2016, so stay tuned. Right about in peach season. Mmm Peaches!

9. I feel overwhelmed most days and I don't really know what I am doing often.  But in my experience of being naive and vulnerable I am finding that their are amazing partners and friends that want to help me and that you do not have to know everything to accomplish your goals. Getting a vision and heading towards it bravely is all thats needed.  Indeed true pioneers are heading towards a promise, they don't always know exactly where it is at or how to get there. They are just trying to tune in and not give up.

10. I am SO grateful to all my friends and family who are shooting me encouraging messages through out the day.  Many of them know that I am in the last big push with 4 major projects, I have on the farm. I feel like the only way to describe the feeling I am experiencing is when I was running a marathon(in college) and was at mile maker 24,  I was thinking, "why the hell did I sign up for this again cause I might die if I keep running and every where on my body is chaffing badly?" I am so crazy tired tonight but know that the finish line is near. Thank you sweet friends, for praying and sending me farm love this month. Your words have carried me through. xoxo your grateful farmer, Trina

Oh deer, big bills and breaking parts on the farm

Good news, I am 100% better and I survived my bad cough last week. So thankful to be back at it cause its a beautiful day at Mt. View Orchards.  I sprung out of bed this morning because we have a lot of things to accomplish today on the farm. On fridays, I am usually a little worn down because I have been working off the farm the last 3 days(10 hour days) at our county jail with mentally ill patients and that is intense work that has a toll on my energy levels.  But today I am in rare form and excited about all the big projects we have going on simultaneously on the farm this month.  

The big projects happening in May and June are...(ps my most expensive months to be a farmer) 

1. We were lucky enough to receive some funding to be able to complete the solid set irrigation on the entire north side of the farm and Javi our foreman and my amazing mother Ruthie started huge project on Wednesday.  This is a massive project and frankly has been stressing us all out a little bit.  But its going to be a great asset to the farm one day and I am so thankful we have the funding to do it.  We will be 100% solid set orchard after this is completed and this will save us money, labor and conserve water, a precious resource.  

2. We started two irrigation hand lines on Wednesday as well because its so very dry out there with high temperatures and little rain and our trees are so thirty.  This is a month earlier than we usually start but the solid set project isn't completed and our trees need water. So grateful for ample irrigation and mountain run off from Mt. Hood. If the fruit trees do not get enough to drink the start naturally dropping their fruit and being too dry exasperates this process even more. So we are watering them and trying to keep them well watered and happy. 

3. We are in the last few weeks of completing our Wedding Venue.  This month we are finishing the plumbing, sheet rock, septic system, light fixtures, dance floor, dj booth and soon we will bring in the appliances and lay the new grass for the meadow. This project has been crazy expensive but somehow by the grace of God I have been making my payments and I am SO thankful to be nearing the end.  I have really enjoyed working with our contractor because he is so hard working, comes consistently every day for work is easy to communicate with and is always forth coming.  He is redeeming my last experience for sure.  I plan on working with him again on other projects in the future. We have many scheduled events this summer and I am so honored to be hosting weddings at Mt. View Orchards this summer.

 4. We are starting the Wedding Venue gravel roadway this week and our awesome excavator is coming up this morning at 9am to go over everything again.  We couldn't start that until now because you have to wait until the moisture is out of the ground so the gravel will not get absorbed into the roadway.  Getting approved to host weddings here was pretty much a miracle.  There are so many hoops you have to jump through and thousands of requirements.  I am so thrilled we made it through the process and now we are working diligently to get up to county requirements so we can be fully certified. Our first wedding is in July and I am over the moon about it.

5. We are beginning to thin off all extra fruit on the apples, asian pears and bartlett pears to create more flavorful and large fruit. Thinning is one of the most expensive jobs we do on the farm because and it is all done by hand.  We have completed about 1/4 of the job and will be working on this with our mighty crew this month and next. There is something called the June drop where the tree naturally drops some of its fruit but we running early this year and we are seeing some dropping now.  Thinning is a vital part of farming and if you didn't thin you would have small, tasteless fruit on your trees for harvest time. If you are following along this is the time to go out and leave the king bloom fruitlet and thin off the other four smaller fruitlets.

6. This morning we are planting our sunflowers and dahlias to beautify our farm. These flowers were a big hit last year and we are planting more this year as well.  We will plant our pumpkin patch and corn later on in June as well so they will be ready in late September and October. 

7. We are cutting grass again and trying to keep the grasses down by our trees. My mom always jokes the the number one thing we grow well is grass. Riding the mower is rather relaxing though and I often find the job rather soothing and highly satisfying.

8. We thankfully are not seeing fire blight or a bacteria on our trees this year and we are hoping and praying we don't get a lot of tree infections this year. We have been told other farms are struggling with this badly.

 9. We are having some powdery mildew or fungus growing on our apples trees so we hyper vigilant and keeping an eye for this because it can really damage our trees.  This is common when it is warm out so this is just part of the gig of being a farmer. 

 10. We have new fencing that we put up to keep out the deer out of our farm. The deer are really hard on our baby trees and like to eat off the new shoots, leaves and baby fruits.  In the morning and in the evenings we chase them off the farm because our neighbor to the north does not have a fence so the like to come in through his field and come snack on our trees. One day I hope to remedy this when I have more income.

11. We are trapping gophers left and right as well because they love to eat the roots of our little trees. Yesterday we caught 8! It was a banner day!  

12. Part of being a farmer is maintaing your equipment and fixing things when they break down.  We have parts break or need repair often because we have some farm equipment that is as old as my grandpa.  Some times I even break this equipment ;) and have to have a laugh about it because breaking things isn't really in the budget right now. sigh

13. Thank you to all the great people who joined our All Fruit CSA so far.  We have about 50 people out of my goal of 60! if you are still thinking about it feel free to check out this link for more information.  It is a great way to partner with our farm during the most expensive time of year and then receive delicious harvests come July.  If you signed up please go ahead and send in your checks to The Grateful Farmer Inc. 6670 trout creek ridge rd, Parkdale, Or 97041

thank you again for following along and supporting a new lady farmer like me. xoxo your grateful farmer

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