Five-Eau Farms - The Farm Team
A Little History:
In 2010 we became a blended family, determined to build a solid foundation through the ups and downs of raising children, our chosen careers, growing the farm and all the other fun stuff. It is important to acknowledge how fortunate we have both been that our former partners, co-parents and their spouses are continually positive and supportive. There are many stressors that come with the path we are on but the strength of these relationships has ensured our collective ability to provide our children constant and unquestionable love and stability and we are continually grateful for this team.
The 'Eau':
As a family we fell in love with Erieau. A tiny little village on the shores of Lake Erie and Rondeau Bay with a great public beach, awesome restaurants and a perfectly laid back atmosphere, is a 20 minute drive from our farm. Cottage country and farming are a bit tough to combine and for us Erieau offered all the peace of the water without hours on the road and the ability to still attend to all the needs of the farm and the children's schedules. Oh, and our jobs.
Five-Eau Farms:
We like to name things. Not everything sticks, sometimes a name sticks that we wish hadn't. (Yep - we operate a farm with friends that we jokingly referred to as Sugar Daddy Farms. It stuck. It is super fun to have to publicly refer to your business as Sugar Daddy farms to make sure you are talking about the right account.) We adopted a beautiful dog that showed up at our farm and just never left. We named her George. We didn't find out George was a her until later - it was hard to tell with out getting too personal and that's just not how we treat our guests.
We started calling our home farm 'Five O'Clock Farms' early in our adventures after the children discovered their love of beach/island/cruise life and Jimmy Buffet's mantra of 'It's five o'clock somewhere'. This very quickly morphed into Five Eau'Clock because it is imperative that any O be replace by Eau for everything possible in Erieau! If you ever have the pleasure of visiting Erieau it won't take you long to find a few examples.
For us this also represented that we both work full time jobs off-farm. Most of our farming doesn't start until after 5pm. This makes for some very long evenings and weekends, mostly put in by Brian, to ensure that were ready to go when Mother Nature allows us.
We are beyond grateful for this double shift. Is it stressful? Yes. Is it worth it? We think so. We hope that our children see the importance of working towards goals, putting in the hours even when we don't always want to and the perseverance and resiliency required to thrive in agriculture and life in general. We travel because we want them to know that there are big beautiful adventures out there and putting in the work to get there makes that time so much sweeter.
The Farm Team:
Keiran: This girl is 'Five-Eau'. Read about our 'why' in the next post.
Carrick: 'Five-Eau' and his sister's biggest supporter. Carrick is available for chauffeur services in the gator at all times.
Big Ed: Brian embodies the drive and appreciation of life we want to rep with 'Five-Eau'. Brian loves to work and work some more, but when he does decompress he loves to be on, in or by the water. We have two renovations on the go, the farm, Five-Eau, he's our resident travel agent, fix it guy for the extended family and in his actual paying job in business development and project management for an ag coop. Seriously, this guy is looking for things that need to get done when he has time to spare. His work ethic, devotion to our family and desire to provide our children with wonderful experiences is inspiring (and sometimes exhausting!).
Lucy: This is me :) I prefer to stay behind the scenes. I'm taking on the writing and the general organization of Five-Eau. We'd love your feedback as we go along. We have loved supporting other start up companies and had a cool experience recently on a trip when an ocean away from home someone recognized a t-shirt Keiran was wearing from a fairly local company and knew instantly where we were from.
We want to create and offer something that we can be proud of. Something that represents that drive and effort that goes into accomplishing your goals and the satisfaction that comes with that moment when you get to sit back and appreciate the journey. We love the water. I think that water connects us all and I hope that Five-Eau will make you feel connected when you invest in and share our brand. Much Love, Lucy