JDS81

I'm married to my wonderful wife Kathy and have a beautiful one year old daughter Amana (pronounced Ah-mah-na). We live in a rural area of southwestern Minnesota not far from the farmsite where my wife grew up. We started our Smiling Tree Toy shop in 2011 about one year after returning to the US from Niger, West Africa where we spent all of 08' and 09' serving as Peace Corps volunteers. In addition to our toy business, we raise all organic grass-fed beef cows that we direct sell to the consumer and we are in the process of starting up a website for selling camelina oil (a relative of flaxseed). So... we currently have many irons in the fire so to speak but we wouldnt have it any other way. I should mention also for all the lumberjocks here that we are very fortunate to be able to get all of our black walnut lumber locally from reclaimed trees all within a 20-30 mile radius. Many of the trees come from farmsites that are soon to be razed so it feels good to utilize them instead of watching them burn! Our good friend John has a woodmizer sawmill and custom cuts our boards which we then usually have kiln dried in a nearby town. Im excited to be directly involved in the whole process of harvesting our lumber! Its pretty rare these days to know exactly where something comes from and how its made etc... So... we think thats pretty neat and we get to learn ALOT in the process.

-- Justin, Smiling Tree Toys, http://www.smilingtreetoys.etsy.com