Kin Ship Blog

A Kin Ship Update

Some folks have asked how Kin Ship is doing during all of this. And while we hesitate to even write about it because it feels trivial compared to other things that people are dealing with right now, we do think it’s good for folks to share their experiences because maybe it helps someone else going through the same thing feel a little less alone.

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Earlier this month, one of our favorite days of the year happened. Sunday with Santa! We gave Craig Claus a little break this year since he was tuckered out from packing internet orders. Luckily our retail manager Jenna is the daughter of Santa Claus, so it all worked out!

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So, tenth time’s a charm? It only took us that many years of running a small business to get to the point where we (probably) don’t have to work on Thanksgiving! We kind of don’t know what to do with ourselves—well, besides the usual world of small retail worry.

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Around midnight, DD and Brandon climbed up on the (not very stable) roof and hung up our homemade wood sign. It, for some reason, seemed like the best time to do it! We had about $200 in our bank account the morning that we opened. And no idea if people would show up or not. And if they did show up, would they care?

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Craig started out working for us part time, but we soon realized that having help was actually....helpful, so he quit his other job waiting tables and he's been with us full time ever since. Now, we can't really imagine Kin Ship without Craig. Who else woul send a banana to the North Pole in April?

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School isn't just a building that we’re forced to go to growing up. You can learn valuable lessons from all sorts of teachers. A couple of weeks ago, we lost one of those most excellent of teachers — David Berman, poet and songwriter from the ever influential band Silver Jews.

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A few weeks ago we took our lil teardrop camper Tammy out for the first time this year. Tammy is new to us. She was given to us by some super generous friends who knew we’d give her a good home. There’s just enough room inside for two people and 2 beagles. It’s perfect.

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Thinking about it now, moving our business to a state with so many struggles was maybeeee a risky idea. And that first year was rough. One of the hardest things was having almost every person we encountered look at us like we had lost our minds when we told them we had CHOSEN to move back here.

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It’s starting to feel like summer here in West Virginia. It went from cold to swamp in just a few days. We’ve been spending our days (outside of work) getting up early, walking the pups and smelling the honeysuckle, making our yard look less like Grey Gardens, and hitting up the DQ for some PBPs.

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