Good morning! It is a slow rainy Saturday in the country. Luckily, we were able to get out, and about before the rain started here, which I am very thankful for. We have all had our breakfast and our guests are now taking a relaxing nap! And hopefully the rain will taper off soon, and we can get out and play! 😊
As much as I love sunny days, it is days like this that can help me catch my breath, sit and have a cup of coffee, get caught up on some housekeeping, paperwork, and cooking breakfast for Danny. He is the one that usually fixes me breakfast, and a lot of times supper too because I am always busy in the kennel. I don’t know what I would do without him, and I hope he knows how grateful I am and how much I love him! This month begins our 8th year of operation! I know I can’t believe it either! We are always so thankful for the support you all have shown our small business and trusting us with your dogs! It truly is a privilege to love them and care for them while they are here. I have lost count of how many guests have stayed with us, but I know I have taken thousands upon thousands of pictures and posted them on our social media pretty much every day for the last 7 years, and I know how everyone loves pictures me included and I will keep taking those pictures, but I have decided I am going to just be cutting back on posting pics every day. (Anyone that has a small business knows exactly what I am talking about.) Now, just because I don’t post everyday doesn’t mean we aren’t having fun! I am always glad to text/message your pictures. I am just trying to take a little social media break and put the phone down a little more, and I hope you all will understand. I heard it is good for the soul!! Thanks for reading, and hope y’all have a great weekend! We hope to see you in the country soon! Love, Charlotte P.S. We only have a few spots left for Fall Break. Let me know if you need one!
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Happy Labor Day, friends!
When you google the meaning of Labor Day this is what it says, “A national holiday created to honor the nation’s workers and their contributions to the wellbeing of the country.” Ok perfect, but some people might say that Labor Day to them means the end of summer, the start of football season, (Go Vols), Dove season, the start of everything pumpkin and Fall, or a three-day weekend! Woohoo! I had someone recently ask me how I liked being retired? I said what? I am far from retired; I work harder now than I ever have. Sure, I work from home, I don’t have to clock in or go to meetings, I don’t have to get in the car and some weeks I don’t even leave the house (Danny loves going to the grocery store for us), plus I am far from retirement age! Lol Now if you asked Danny how he likes retirement he would say, “I am not sure how I got everything done around here after working 8 hours a day.” Always thankful for all he does each day for our small business. I am sure if you asked any of us that own a dog boarding kennel it’s not for the faint at heart. We are up early every single day to care for our guests, and yes even on Labor Day. So, you see to me Labor Day is another day of work, we don’t get the 3-day weekends, but really if you think about it if you love what you do is it really work anyway? We thank you all for a wonderful summer, and we are looking forward to our busy Fall! We have several already booked for 2024 so message us with your dates so we can get you in the books! Enjoy your Labor Day and we hope to see you in the country soon! Love, Charlotte PS. Reminder we will be closed Sept. 18 -28, there is this dog that boarded with us a few times, you might remember him, he kind of stole my heart and I am going to go pay him a visit. 😊 Yep, it’s Chewy! November 1, the first day of the month, the month of Thanksgiving, and one of my favorite holidays. As I sat down this morning for my daily devotional, I thought ok this is a new month and for the next 30 days I am going to write down all that I am thankful for. Not that I am not thankful the rest of the months, but just something about November that gets you thinking more about what you are thankful for, plus y’all know I love to write, and journaling has become an everyday habit for me.
As I get older and the years keep on passing by faster and faster, and the things that I was thankful for say 10 years ago are so different than what I am thankful for today, and more than likely 10 years from now I will be thankful for different things. Let’s face it, life changes, and you change with it, and I have realized that’s ok. One of the things that I will always be thankful for is sitting in Franklin FUMC with my mom in November 2016 and hearing the sermon and realizing it was time to do something different with my life and so this journey I am on began, with dogs! Don’t get me wrong there are days I want to say, God, what am I doing?? Why did you let me do this? But I am so tired, God! Then BAM, he lets me know that he will never give me any more than I can handle, and I realize I am so THANKFUL that he is by my side every day!! I am also very thankful for all the friendships I have made since opening our kennel. You will never know how much I appreciate you and you trusting us for your boarding needs with your fur baby! And of course, you all know I am forever thankful for your dogs! There is no love like dog love, and I am so thankful for that love every day!! Thanks for reading my post, and I hope you all have a wonderful month and Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you in the country soon!! Love, Charlotte July 17, 2022
Be kind, work hard, stay humble, smile often, stay loyal, be honest, travel when possible, never stop learning, love always. – unknown Time needs to slow down just a little bit don’t you think?? 2022 is half over and Summer is on the downhill, and I am not ready! Some schools will be starting back soon, that’s so crazy! What was wrong with starting after Labor Day and ending at Memorial Day? That’s how my generation went to school, and it worked out just fine! As I look back on the first half of 2022, I realized how blessed we are. By the end of next week Danny and I will have had over 425 guests stay with us since January and don’t forget Chewy! WOW! How incredible! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would stay this busy, but thanks to you all we have. We are forever grateful that you chose us for your boarding needs. We are not a large kennel by any means, and I am very glad about that. Sure, we could add on and add more kennels, and keep more dogs, but I know that I would not enjoy that. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and I love every dog that comes through the door to stay with us, but I didn’t start this business to see how many dogs I could keep. I wanted to do this so I can care for the dogs properly and have fun with the dogs and love on the dogs like they need when they are away from you and their normal routine. Being a small business owner is a lot of work 24/7. Danny and I are always working whether cleaning the kennel, repairing something in the kennel, or scheduling guests, it’s all day every day, and I think we make a great team, and I couldn’t do all that we do without him helping me every day. And we are looking forward to a little r and r ourselves in the next couple of weeks, and I am excited! I love everything that the quote at the top of the page says, and when you get to that travel when possible part, and you take that trip, be sure and bring your dog to stay with us! We would love to have them! Thanks for reading my post, give your dog a hug from me, and we hope to see you in the country soon! Love, Charlotte P.S. Fall is filling up fast and we even have some reservations for 2023 so its never to early to get on the books! It is May, time sure flies when you are having fun!! Pretty soon we will be in the dog days of summer!! Speaking of summer, we are getting ready to begin our 6th year of operation, and it seems like yesterday when we first started with only 9 kennels never dreaming, we would stay as busy as we did, then adding 9 more kennels and staying even busier! We have made so many friends and loved on so many dogs it has just been the best and we look forward to meeting all our new guests that will be staying with us this summer and adding their picture to our famous wall of dogs!
We just got back from a little vacation at the beach, and we had a wonderful time! Good food, perfect weather, and lots of laughs!!! It was just what we needed!! As much as I love my job, I have finally realized that every now and then we need to take a break! The first few years I never really took off and with this job being a 7 day a week 24/7 job, we don’t get weekends off, or holidays, I would get tired, dog tired lol so as much as I hated to, I had to eventually just block off dates so we could have a break every now and then. I also unplugged and took a little social media break while we were gone as well and let me tell you it was nice and when I logged back on it was like a soap opera and you could catch up with out really missing anything!! 😊 (But don’t worry I love posting all our guest’s pictures!) We still have a few days off, and we will be cleaning and getting the kennel ready for all our summer guests. We appreciate you all more than you know, and if I could give you any advice just remember it is ok to take that break you will be glad you did! Hope to see you all in the country soon! Love, Charlotte P.S. You can always check out our website for information www.countrybarkboarding.com Drop off and pick up times. Monday-Saturday 8-9 A.M. and/or 4-5 P.M. Sunday – 4-5 P.M. December 11, 2021
I saw a post last night that said, “Nothing says December in Tennessee like turning on your AC in December and staying up for a Tornado watch.” Yep, every bit of that is true, I turned the AC on and Danielle Breezy is probably tired from talking to me through my phone all night. Shew, it was a long night! Pretty sure Danny got more sleep than me. I just don’t understand why these storms must come at night. I mean they are bad enough during the day. Kudos to the weather forecasters for keeping us informed and letting us know what’s going on. And prayers for all the ones that have been affected by these storms. When we have weather like this we always try to be prepared. I am thankful for the cameras in the kennel so I can check on the dogs through the night and make sure they are ok; we make sure the TV is playing loud and the lights are on and so far, we have had no complaints. I know a lot of dogs get stressed from storms and I just want to make sure they are as comfortable as can be if we are able. We have a guest that is staying with us right now, who is a gentle giant, and I have been thinking about him a lot as you see he is a retired Army Dog. I don’t know his whole story just what his owner told me on the registration paper that he was in Afghanistan, and he lost his handler, but he has been fortunate enough to have been adopted by an Army Vet and given a wonderful life after his service. I am sure he had many sleepless nights too, while he was on duty, doing his job, not knowing what to expect, what he was going into next, but he made it and just being around him for a few days I know he was great at whatever he was asked to do. Yes, this gives me chills just thinking about it, and I am thankful for his service. So, some of us may have lost some sleep last night because we don’t know what Mother Nature is going to throw at us, all we can do is pray, be prepared, have a safe place if possible, and know that God will be with us in whatever comes our way. As my mom always said, “What’s a problem today, won’t be tomorrow it will be something else.” I just hope I can get a quick nap before then! 😊 Hope you all have a great day!! Charlotte It’s been 5 years, 60 months, 260 weeks, 1826 Days, 43, 829 hours, 2,629,746 minutes, and 157,784,760 seconds since this adventure began. Can you believe it? Me either!!
Yesterday I got to attend my hometown Church (Franklin First Methodist) and honor my mother for All Saint’s Day. Members of the Church who have passed away over the last year are remembered and a banner is decorated in their honor and displayed in the front of the Church for all to see. I was so honored to be able to make my mom’s banner I know she would have loved it!! As I sat there yesterday, I couldn’t help but remember it was November 13, 2016 (5 years almost to the day) that I sat in the same Church with my mom, and it was that exact same day that I came home and asked Danny if we could build a dog boarding kennel. (And he thought I was crazy and that I must be having a mid-life crisis LOL) Fast forward 5 years and here we are with almost 3500 guests who have stayed with us anywhere from 1 night to 20 nights and then we have Chewy who stays with us every month from 1 -3 weeks at a time!! Happy Dance!!! Never, would I ever, have dreamed I would be here today owning and running a small business, (and during a pandemic too) but here we are and are so thankful for all our family, friends, and our wonderful customers!!! Not much has changed in the last 5 years of how we do things, we still charge the same and we still love what we do, and all your dogs are the best and we couldn’t do it without all of you!!! One thing we have realized is life is short and we are not promised tomorrow, but we put our trust in God that he will protect us and will always be there when we need him. We took a leap of Faith when we started this business and I know he will continue to be with us every step of the way! 2022 is just around the corner and Danny and I have a big Anniversary (#25) 😉 coming next year and we have decided to take a few more breaks during the year (dates listed at the bottom) and celebrate more than just one day at least that is how I pitched the idea to him! Lol I read something recently in one of my mom’s journals and she was wishing us a Happy 10-year anniversary and she prayed that we would always have a good marriage and hoped we realized how blessed we were, and we both agree we are very blessed!! We hope you all know how Thankful, Grateful and oh so HAPPY that you choose us for your boarding needs! We have loved every minute of the past five years meeting you all and forming friendships and the best part loving on your fur babies! They truly are a part of our family when they come to stay with us! Hope you have a wonderful day, and we hope to see you in the country soon!! Love, Charlotte If you are a planner like me, it is never too early to make those reservations! We have some for 2023 already! Our tentative dates we are going to be closed for 2022 January 3-10 February 26-March 3 April 22-May 3 July 25-31 September 15-30 November 14-18 (maybe) On January 1, 2017, I wrote my first blog post for our website letting you all know about our adventure of opening Country Bark Boarding. Since then, I have written 25 blog posts, (you can read those on our website), but it has been a while since I have written anything because to be honest it’s just been hard to come up with anything I want to write about. Usually, my ideas just pop in my head at the oddest times (like 2 am and I get up and start writing) then when I get done, I would call my proofreader, my mom and read it to her and of course she would tell me how good it was and would always want me to send her a copy.
Life is so hard. I guess you could say the past 8 months have been the hardest of my life. Between losing my mom, finding out Danny had cancer and going through Proton Radiation treatments, (which went well!) then having to adjust to him being retired and home every day which I am grateful that he is here with me. But change is hard, I get that. Believe me I understand. Change is hard for dogs too. When they are so use to their regular daily routine, and then you get the bags out to pack and they know something is up. If dogs could talk, I am sure they would be saying things Like where are you going? Are you leaving me? Who is going to feed me? When will you be back? Or as my dad use to say to my mom when she was going somewhere without him, he would say “I already miss you and you haven’t even left yet,” and just so you know when your dogs come to stay with us, they are loved on tremendously and I promise them every day that you will be back soon. Yes, my life has changed, and I know it will never be like it was. But I am here for a reason, and God still has plans for me, and I have faith that plan probably has plenty of dogs in it. With all the uncertainty in the World right now, I feel like I can never tell you all enough how much we appreciate you supporting our small business. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We truly have the best customers! Stay safe and we hope to see you in the country soon!! Love, Charlotte P.S. Thank you all for being my proofreader. It was November 2016, and I was at Franklin First United Methodist Church sitting with my mom and the sermon was “How big is your kingdom's dream?” the answer to that question was Country Bark Boarding, and so the planning began.
Fast forward 5 years and that dream is now a reality as you know. But I could not have gotten to where I am today without one of my biggest supporters, my mom. My mom passed away this week unexpectedly from back surgery and I am not going to lie it is the worst pain I have ever had, and I know it will be for a long time, and I am writing this because I want you our friends and customers to know how much my mom believed in me to start this business. You see my mom was not really a dog person, oh we had dogs growing up and she loved them, but she did not really love them like I love them, and she never dreamed that her only daughter would rather live on a farm in the middle of nowhere and play with dogs all day, but she knew it made be happy, so she was my biggest cheerleader, and she was so proud of what Danny and I had accomplished. I will miss my mom every day, we had a bond like no other and she knew all about your dogs because I would talk to her every day and she would ask how many dogs do you have today? And the question she would always ask is have you had one named Fido yet? She just could not believe out of all the dogs that have stayed with us we have not had a Fido. Lol So if the day ever comes that a Fido comes and stays, I will be sure and shout it to heaven and tell mom Fido’s here!! I know there will be rough days ahead, but I want you all to know that your dogs give me more comfort than anything and I cannot wait to hug them and love on them when they come and stay. Wishing everyone a Healthy 2021 and make sure you tell your loved ones you love them and hug your dogs for me!! Hope to see you in the country soon! Love, Charlotte This year has been hard on all of us in one way or another, people have been sick, lost loved ones, lost jobs, businesses closed, schedules messed up, people working from home, schools being virtual, the election, wearing masks everywhere, not being able to hug (I am a hugger), not being able to visit our loved ones, trips cancelled and this list could go on and on, but despite all the bad and negative that this year has brought I remind myself daily how thankful I am for the life I have. It was 4 years ago this month that the planning began for Country Bark Boarding, y’all 4 years, that is crazy!! And I am so thankful that I took that leap of faith!!! The definition of thankful (according to google) is someone feeling or showing gratitude. When you are pleased and grateful for what you have. I have so much to be thankful for I have a husband who loves me unconditionally, supports me, is proud of me, and would do anything for me. I have my mom and brothers, sister -in- laws and their families whom I love dearly and are always there if I ever need anything. We have 4 great kids and their families, and we are so proud of all their accomplishments and love them dearly. This year I am more than ever thankful for you our customers. I am so grateful to each of you for supporting our business and letting your dog come stay with us. I am thankful for all the new friendships I have made and getting to know each of you and of course loving on your dog. I know this is the plan that God had in store for me and I am very thankful that he took me down this path to the best job ever. So, you see even in the year of the Pandemic, we may have good days and bad days, but we always have something to be thankful for. Of course, there are always dogs. They make any day better and brighter. I want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving next week and I hope to see you in the country soon! Love, Charlotte P.S. I went to visit one of our regular customers today, I think he was glad to see me. 😊 |
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