“If it were easy…everyone would do this.”
no good deed
“the best laid plans”?!?Here are a few highlights:
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| New building coming along slowly but surely in January, more bamboo fly rod making classes and (of course… many more bamboo fly rods). |
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| We bought the local Unicoi Outfitters and aptly changed the name to Blue Ridge Fly Fishing! |
How did you end up owning the local fly shop in Blue Ridge?
Well…at the end of 2011, our good friend, Jimmy Harris of Unicoi Outfitters, asked us if we wanted to buy the local fly shop in town. It was the worst best timing possible. This was certainly NOT in the plan. However, our new building literally shared a wall with the fly shop and Bill is authentically passionate about our local fly fishing scene. So, the old exterior brick wall is now Oyster’s super cool interior wall and the new/old wall of Blue Ridge Fly Fishing (referred to as BRFF).
After closing with Jimmy, my father, Bruce, whom many of you know and love…bought half of BRFF and now is officially a fishing bum along with the best of us.
As January came to a close, The London Financial Times
was kind enough to do a
feature on Oyster Bamboo…
Here’s the conversation that occurred with some regularity in 2012:
(phone ringing)
Me: Hello
Landlord (and the not-so-nice-kind of landlord): Hi Shannen, are you moving into your new building as planned this month? I have contractors lined up to start the renovation on your current space.
Me: Well, I know we told you that the building was going to be complete in January, but it does not appear to be happening. Can we please stay a bit longer? We are trying to get things to go as planned. I’m sure it will only be another month or so…
______________________
Rinse and repeat for months and months…that is my last mention of it.
February was the month that reality set in…we own a new fly shop and our building is not going as planned.
Adapt.
We did.
Oyster pulled together it’s talent and ran Blue Ridge Fly Fishing.
The fly shop began to flourish with an on site owner and a new caring and passionate staff.
Meanwhile, we frequented the new building site next door to the fly shop while spending
late nights in the shop making several Oyster Epic Series Rods due by month end.
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| My future office. |
We had two bamboo fly rod classes officially graduate in February 2012. As usual, our bamboo fly rod making students represented all over the country (from Vermont to Texas to New Jersey to Montana and back to Blue Ridge again) and fun was had by all…
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Oyster unleashes 12 more bamboo fly rod makers upon the world this month! "Thanks for coming up with a way to let all that goodness spill onto others. I'd pass the offering plate but, hey, it's your church." |
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| Oyster in Private Journey Magazine |
We were also in Private Journey Magazine. This magazine may be one of the finest magazines in the world. We were honored to be included in their Winter 2012 Edition.
On February 29, our beloved Yogi passed.
Even today, my heart still aches. He was my best friend.
If all dogs go to heaven, Yogi is the gatekeeper.
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Yogi the Bear 1998-2012 |
a·dapt [ ə dápt ] adapt
verb: change to meet requirements: to change something to suit different conditions or a different purpose, or be changed in this way – adjust to something: to become, or make somebody or something become, used to a new environment or different conditions
Ahhh…March 2012 will go down in Oyster history as the month Bill had his absolute most aggravating student…ever!!! So, while the chaos of life, kids, business at large and the building hummed away in the background, I built an 8′ 9 weight rod (see November Apalachicola Redfish trip for proof of my bamboo fly rod making prowess).
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| Sand, Drink, Plane |
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| Best part of class…fishing…oh, and my Aunt Terry from Seattle!!! |
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Clark’s custom rod and another March class…James (pictured in the middle of class came for his second class and made saltwater rod with my taper!) |
March also brought family hikes, more Bamboo Fly Rods to be made and another class full of civilians (aka: non-Oyster family members).
We had two more full classes in April. In our late April class, one of our favorite students (and subsequently good friend), Dr. Alex, came back for his 7th? class! Every year, he makes his pilgrimage to us for his annual rod building class. Dr. Alex calls the bamboo fly rod making class, “an outward bound experience where you end up with the bonus of a rod at the end”.
Meanwhile, the building chugged along and we managed to resume our regular sporting clay schedule because the weather warmed up and the “pull” (excuse the pun) of the beautiful outdoors and my beloved shotgun.
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| Fish, Class, Building |
As usual, the workshop was busy busy busy with fly rod building, visitors, local energy, fish talk and planning the future.
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| Happy Anniversary! Bang! Bang! |
Personally, we celebrated our18th wedding anniversary. When asked what I wanted to do for our big day…my answer was easy…sporting clays. The children continue to be raised on Main Street and thrive in the face of change and long hours…my little family…always together.
And then…there’s the fish. Eventually, it all comes back around to the fish, right?
Oyster bamboo fly rods' super clients and super bamboo fly rods!
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| Nowhere Mexico…ask Bill about this…not me…I will pretend that I do not hear you. |
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Class, Building, Rods "I can't tell you how I get a really prideful feeling when I can show someone my rod, and say "I made it," and have them stop, look at that lovely thing, and say "no way!"" |
One more significant thing happened in May. And this was not part of the plan…we set a drop dead date in June to be out of the old shop regardless of our building’s progress. While June 18 was our unofficial move-in date…our move out date was official.
Off we go.
Adapt. Again.
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| Bamboo loaded up! |
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In June, we bid a final goodbye to the old shop. It was harder than expected. That dumpy little place grew on me over the years, and it held more sentimentality than expected. With that said…we called the movers and planned the move between our two June bamboo fly rod making class dates.
Now, the building being ready is an entirely different story (as promised, I will not address this directly). We had our final bamboo fly rod making class in the old shop in the beginning of June and had a few days before the next class started. So, we planned the move for one day from start to finish to have things in order for the next class.
Yep…that was the plan…
…until the movers did not show up.
Adapt.
We moved ourselves…the entire shop (16 years' worth of accumulation). We piled everything into Riley’s drift boat (over and over) and walked what would not fit down the street.
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We even managed to toast our experience with some champagne given to us from our friend, Sarah, of Out of the Blue in town. I should do my own “ode to Main Street” at some point. This community we have is so supportive of us personally and professionally…especially with the children (think “it takes a village”).
The workshop itself was the one area that was functional (part of our modified plan). So, we moved in literally on top of the builders and went about business as usual.
We were featured in Virginia Sportsman and Bill taught bamboo fly rod making to the usual suspects – 12 of them this month!
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| Quinn and Roni say BYE to old shop |
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| Cutter takes up mining, Oyster’s fish survives the move and some more fishing from SUP |
We did spend a few splendid days at the ocean…nice. Bill even fished a little.
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| Sand, SUP, Fish and Doughnuts! An Oyster beach trip! |
A new tenant arrived this month as well. A fellow artist rents our lower level. She’s Blue Ridge’s beloved Lynn Kemp of Gawdy Bobbles. She transformed her space into 2000 square feet of fabulous (and I don’t take that word lightly…it’s overused as it is but there is no other way to describe this)FABULOUS!!! Check it out! I am actually wearing some Gawdy Bobbles in the picture below…
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| Long July days gave us plenty of time to fish and shoot. |
We take a break from classes in July but not bamboo fly rods, fishing and shooting!
Because the retail area of the new building was not complete, we papered the windows and took some inadvertent down time from the public. Actually, I recommend this break for all retailers every 5 years. At first, not being so exposed was refreshing. We were on our absolute worst behavior for over 2 months!
However, after a few weeks behind papered windows and locked doors…I started to have separation anxiety with…well, everyone. We had grown to love our daily interaction with people and without any exposure, our daily rhythm was thrown off.
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| Paper up, Doors locked but Bamboo stacked and Shop in full swing |
In August, Bill made the trip to the Georgia State Capital to present Speaker of the House, David Ralston, with one of our hand crafted bamboo fly rods. We were commissioned almost a year prior to make this rod for the Speaker for a variety of reasons. First, Speaker Ralston is from Blue Ridge, second he is a fly fisherman and third…well…Bill is the always the obvious choice for crafting this type of “legacy item”.
Meanwhile, I continued to design the Cast and Blast Inn for our top floor, firm up our brands for the new retail area and make arrangements for October’s Grand Opening.
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| Larry and his first fish caught on the rod he made in the class and Derek (our awesome to Fly Shop manager at Blue Ridge Fly Fishing at NCF) |
While the Oyster clan was going at full tilt, we tried to keep some stability in our schedule for Cutter and Roni. It’s simply amazing how well these children adapt. We all look forward to tomorrow.
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| Classes, Bamboo Fly Rods, Oyster Shop Time |
“Is it really September?!?” I don’t now about you but at this point…it was clear that 2012 was succumbing to time in an almost exaggerated manner. The blur of the past year was behind us but the real work lay ahead. Here we go…
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| Take down paper on windows and ready retail area, Hang on Main Street, Shoot with our friends Kelli and Don |
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| Classes, Classes, Classes… |
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| My favorite sporting clay station, Us, Fish |
Construction and design was completed on the Cast and Blast Inn in September. Let me say…it exceeded our expectations is every way possible. One of our September classes christened the Inn with guests from all of the U.S. Good stuff…the class had so much fun together after hours that they never even turned on the common area television.
They said all talk, cigars, books, fish, shotguns and bamboo fly rod making…
October was big for us on many levels…drum roll please…
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| The House that Bamboo Fly Rods Built |
We closed on our new building in October 2012.
Grand opening anyone? Well, yes…
The grand opening was always planned for October…even when the plan was to close in January.
I thought that would give us months and months to pull it all together and shine for our big debut.
Nope.
My 9 months of planning was reduced to one (or 22 days to be exact).
Adapt.
How did it go?
9 months or 22 days…our grand opening was remarkable. It was insane! We had four events over a three day period and I knew at the very least it would be fun. But, here’s one emotion that I did not expect…
I was humbled. Completely humbled by the outpouring of support from our family, friends, neighbors on Main Street, the community at large and (of course) our clients (who really…most of the time end up our friends).
NEVER EVER (yes, I am screaming) did I expect the response from our supporters during these special days for Oyster. Clients drove and flew in from all over the country to help us honor our little building (and fish and shoot)!
Honestly, I was so overwhelmed busy with the event at large that I completely forgot to take many pictures.
We had hundreds and friends and clients help us break in the new digs that weekend and the one regret I do have concerning the whole “no time to plan” festivity thing is the lack of proper documentation.
Above are a few photos of our fishing, shooting and hanging out time but the star of the show was the food that our dear friends at Harvest on Main catered and the people (loads of people) that showed up to help us celebrate.
Thank you.
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| Last Call |
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| Boo! |
A few days after Halloween, some of my favorite honorary Oysters rolled into town from Arizona for another bamboo fly rod making class. A “varied” group to say the least but their love of bamboo fly rods and the craft in general leaves me warm and fuzzy when they arrive and sad (with a touch of separation anxiety) when they return home. Really…I think I like them all so much because Dan (my favorite of the bunch) reminds me of my Dad. Also, I should give a shout out to Barry (student number 6 in this class) for putting up with our Arizona crowd! 🙂
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Time for a small break…so, we loaded up the Jeep and went on our annual pilgrimage to Apalachicola for some red fishing!
November added yet another dimension to Oyster…retail…retail…retail…oh my! Love it!!! I think we did this whole retail thing so I can buy thousands of dollars' worth of BOOTS!!!
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| Our retail in full swing! |
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| Various ways to use the chair in our showroom. |
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| Yes…we even celebrated Thanksgiving in the workshop. Awesome or mildly pathetic? You decide! |
And of course…no month would be complete here at Oyster Bamboo without a lot of custom rods going out the door finding way to their rightful owners.
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| Hunter (aptly named) test casting new bamboo rod on the tracks behind the shop. |
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| Bang! |
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| Cutter Butter, Flying Fish & our biggest kid…Riley |
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| Window in showroom to shop that shows Bill’s engraving in real time (watch TV in right hand corner) |
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Bye 2012. EDITOR’S NOTE: Oyster's original blog was on the google platform, Blogger, in 2009, before moving to WordPress. You may find a copy of this post on “The Bamboo Fly Rod Maker’s Widow” blog HERE. I have tried to preserve the integrity—or lack thereof—of each “Widow” post, especially to reflect the resources—or lack thereof—available at the time, as time and technology continue to freak me out. -slo
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