Questions or comments, please email matt@utleyvillehemp.com

Written 10Apr08
Yeah, it's been a month since I've written anything. But it's been a hectic month with family issues, work, and other things. There are several business opportunities in the works which I might make mention of if they pan out.

Business has been steady (I deeply thank all of our customers). And to thank those that have put up with us, we finally accept credit cards. And our inventory continues to increase. Maybe at some point in the future we will be the one stop hemp shop.

Written 12Mar08
Most of the jewelry that isn't listed somewhere online, is now here. Hopefully there will be more added every week or so.

I've also been very busy working on our bus. Most of the insulation is done. The green house effect is doing well...today it was 66 degrees outside and 92 inside (!). Gonna have to figure out how to keep it cooler during the summer. Right now it just takes a few open windows and doors and it cools down rapidly. The bus is insulated with a product called Prodex. It's a foil/foam/foil with a layer of 1" polystyrene. We haven't figured out yet what we're going to for paneling. There's more issues than that to figure out, but we'll get there when we get there.

Written 03Mar08
Well, I've started taking pictures of some of the hemp jewelry that we have laying around and soon they'll be listed here somewhere.

I know there's been a few people out there that have become disgruntled when calling us. I apologize for that. Until we start selling more, expect a few days delay for us to return your call. Our message system sucks and there isn't enough money coming in to support a dedicated phone line. But, I usually return emails promptly, with the longest delay being 18 hours.

Written 01Mar08
I've been contemplating about writing a bit of a blog so that people know what kind of people that they're dealing with. When I peruse websites, I wonder how they started and what kind of people run them. So in answer to my own question, I felt I should tell you all my answer to those questions.

How we started...My wife wanted a hemp necklace. (And I place full blame of all of this on her.) So I bought a book, some hemp, and some beads, and taught myself how to make jewelry. People thought that what I made was great and I sold a few pieces around our small community. (I'm fairly certain that this is how most people start) Never being acquainted with the plant, my wife and I did a fair amount of research of Industrial Hemp and it became a lifelong goal to promote this fabulous product. So I started selling jewelry on eBay. (If any of you are trying this same tactic, good luck.) At one point I had over 300 pieces for sale on eBay. Ebay got paid, and we might have broke-even on our supplies. The biggest benefit was the connections we made. The first of these was with hemp-sisters.com. It's ran by Ed Edmundson and is a great company ran by a great guy. He asked me to design some kits for him (which probably didn't come out like either of us were thinking). But it was an experience. And it was with the mistakes we made that encouraged me to make our kits. And we continued to break even with eBay. The next weird thing to happen was NBC asked me to make some lanyards for a television show that aired during their "Green Week" in November '07.

The realization that people were interested in my jewelry and skills prompted us to start up this website. At this time, we're still working our day jobs as CNA's in an Alzheimers unit. And every penny that we make from hemp goes right back into the business. Which brings me back to the "American Dream". Our goal is to make enough money to support ourselves and to run a great business. (Great doesn't mean monetarily wealthy to me). And most of this website and enthusiasm about Industrial Hemp is trying to prove to myself that the American Dream isn't dead. That something once legal can be legal again, and that a poor man can start a business to be self-sustaining.

We then chose Ecolution to be our primary supplier of hemp. To the best of my knowledge, they're the leading company when it comes to human rights and ecology. I have seen better hemp on the market, but the pictures I've seen of their Chinese employees didn't make me happy. Ecolution strives to make their people and the world better. I don't mind giving my money to a company like that. I have met and dealt with a lot of the people in the industrial hemp industry (I could go on for pages comparing Chinese, Hungarian, and Romanian hemp, as well as the processes of making a stalk into twine or fabric and about how different mills polish, wax, and spin their hemp). But I'll leave that to your web-surfing.

We've always been "green" minded and strive to reuse almost everything. We're refinishing our old Chevy school bus to somewhat of a living space for my wife and I. When I'm not working, working for our business, I'm working on the bus. The goal is to make it energy efficient and off the grid...it'll never move more than a few feet due to gas prices (it gets 3mpg). I'm hoping to talk more about that in the future.

And as to the guy you're dealing with...I believe that life is one great experiment. I've worn several hats in my short time on this earth. I left home to be a medic in the US Army, went to school to learn to be a gunsmith, worked at Wal-mart and other entry level jobs. My wife and I have always liked to live in remote places...where good jobs are scarce. I don't think it's the job or education that makes a person great. It's more about what they give to their family and community and the world at large. I have more interests and hobbies than I have work benches for (aside from the hemp stuff, there's processing and spinning mohair from our little herd of Angora goats, crocheting, engraving, metal working, wood working, rock carving, cheese making, tinkering with electricity for off-the-grid applications, web design and marketing, and dog petting). I do my best in treating every living creature with respect, and dead creatures with more respect. I strive to treat everyone how I'd like to be treated and try to be more than fair in business affairs. I'm proud of my feedback on eBay. Somehow I've made very few mistakes, and I was fortunate to deal with kind people...and I usually compensate more than fairly for anything I've done wrong.

Again, if you have any questions or comments. Please email matt@utleyvillehemp.com