Moving isn't easy. 
There are many many changes. 
Lot's of things to get used to. 
Especially when Everything has changed. 

I'm thankful though.
I'm thankful for the move
and for what it means in our lives. 
We are continuing down a course that isn't easy
but one that we feel drawn to. 

It's funny that coffee is the field that I ended up in.
It is so far from where I started,
or would have ever guessed my life to go. 

It was 10 years ago this spring that I started to drink coffee.
Previous to that I was in darkness.
I did not like coffee.
In fact, I hated it. 

But through the community of wilderness guides I was around during the previous summer
I thought I'd open myself up to the idea.
I still didn't like it.

It wasn't until I packed up my rusty 500-dollar rusty pick up and moved out to Bellingham WA
that I really began liking it.
I guess it wasn't really in my time in Bellingham
but on my hitch-hiking trips down to Seattle. 
I'd catch up with my best friend who had an apartment down there
and we'd go out to Cafe Europa and get americanos and fresh baked raspberry muffins. 
We'd hang out at the cafe for hours. 
Americanos got me hooked.

I'd always start drinking it black
but then after a quarter of the cup I'd start pouring cream in.
And I'd add more as I'd drink.
At the beginning of the drink it was all coffee, no cream.
By the end it would be nearly all cream and just a drop of coffee.
Ha. 

Fastforward a year and I was back in Minnesota working at a coffee shop as a barista. 
I was trained by this guy named Connor. 
He was seriously the best trainer.
He knew everything and he could explain how to do it.
I really got into steaming milk and trying to make the perfect drink.
At this point it was 2006
and I'm sure the 3rd wave of coffee was well in effect on the coasts
but in Minnesota it still hadn't hit.
So my perfect drink was still very 2nd wave.
Soapy foam.
Harsh, over-extracted espresso.
But even still, I began to love coffee.

What stuck out to me was not so much the taste
because I was still getting used to that,
it was the process.
I have always loved the process of making coffee.

In late spring I bought a french press from work.
One that I still have.
And I used it for the next several years of wilderness guiding,
waking up in the morning and making myself coffee over the fire,
in the dog days of summer
and the deep winter. 
After that,
I was hooked. 

So today something unexpected happened:
I went to the post office to mail out this week's coffees
and the amount that I was charged for shipping was nearly $12. 
I was shocked. 
This is a package that is about 1.2 LBS.
And yes, it's going across the country,
but it is going across the country on vehicles which are already going that way. 
These packages were not a special trip.
Every one who is shipping 1 LB packages are paying $12. 

I knew that the prices were going to be changing -
we moved from New Brighton, Minnesota
to Brattleboro, Vermont -
but this was a surprise. 
Most all of you knew about the move,
but for those who are hearing about it for the first time:
I was offered the Head Roaster job a couple months back,
and Becky and I decided to go for it.
I arrived a week ago Saturday.

Brattleboro is a great place.
For you Minnesotans,
it's like a mix between Ely, Minnesota 
and Northeast Minneapolis.
It's hours away from large metropolises.
It's very out-doorsey.
There are a lot of artists and artists studios here. 
Almost all the businesses have real character. 
They've been around for a long time.

But the setting is rugged. 
And it's essentially the wilderness.
I took a bike ride this past weekend
and it only took me a few miles to get away from anything that looked like I was near a town.
I was looking over miles and miles of green mountains.

But I am faced with a difficult decision regarding Tiny House Coffee.
I never felt good about the shipping costs
but it seemed a necessary evil for this business model,
and the reality was that we handed off just as much coffee as we shipped out
so it worked great.

But now that we are here,
the land of $12 shipping costs,
I'm going to have to see if we can continue to ship out coffee.
I don't want to double the cost of the coffee to all of you good folks who get our coffee. 
But if I were to cover the cost of shipping at the current prices
I couldn't even cover the cost of the beans
much less the other materials,
or time behind the roaster.
Not to mention anything that would look like a profit (not that it's ever been about that).

So, as of now I'm going to take a pause on roasting and shipping any more coffee.
I will keep blogging, and I think that will be a bit more consistent since the major part of the move is behind us. 

Be well,
Erik