Punks & Pricing

Up until Sunday, Gavin still felt like garbage. Of course, I knew he had major surgery, and recovery would take time. I just hadn’t fully understood (until we were going through it) how miserable nausea would make him.

So, Monday night, when we were in the yard, and he started rolling around on his back grumbling, I was elated. It cracks me up watching him because he always seems to roll over his balls in the same place. It appears he’s giving himself a shoulder massage.

After several moments squirming and looking over at me while making Tasmanian devil sounds, Gavin laid on his blanket by the fence. Every time I sat down to read my book, he rolled his balls under the fence. And, every time I got up and crawled under the gap in the fence myself to retrieve them, Gavin grinned wider. After I tossed each ball, he happily bounded towards and pounced on them, tail and butt wagging with delight.

I chuckled and told him he was a punk. We both knew he was playing fetch with me. And I embraced it wholeheartedly. I’ll happily take punky, silly, playful behavior over the mom-I-feel-icky look he’d given me the day before. 

So, even though our kitchen day Tuesday was wonky due to an exploding pouch, I was good, at peace, and grateful to Cammie and Miranda, who stayed later than I did to clean up a busy, productive day. 

But, after months (perhaps longer) of trying to offset our rising food costs with more production days, I need to raise prices. Some of our ingredients have increased by 30% or more. And, as much as being in our own, reasonably priced space has helped, when we have power outages or equipment issues, it negatively impacts our per pouch cost (big time).

As of September 2nd, our pouch cost will rise 10%. Please know that I did everything I could not to have to do this. Our suppliers have significantly raised prices, and many are also adding more water to their ingredients. So, we need to buy more products to make fewer pouches and drain or squeeze some of the ingredients, so the consistency isn’t runny.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you (if) you understand, and I’m beyond grateful for every purchase. As a small business owner who cares about the people who trust me, you matter to me very much.