What does, writing to a grant, for a grant mean? Leaving my heart bare so you can see how I bleed.
Sassy’s Boop Snootin’ Hollow was born from survival, resilience, compassion, and the belief that healing does not always happen inside perfect spaces. Sometimes it happens in muddy boots, under string lights, with goats demanding snacks while flowers grow through the chaos.
I am an esthetician, educator, veterinary technician, entrepreneur, survivor of marital abuse in many forms, cancer survivor, and mother to children who also survived parental abuse. Every chapter of my life has shaped the business I am building today.
People often think trauma only creates damaged people. Sometimes it creates the most compassionate people you will ever meet. Because once you know what it feels like to be powerless, you never want another living thing to feel that way again. Not a woman. Not a mother. Not a child. Not an animal. Not anyone.
That belief is the heart behind my business.
My vision blends beauty, agriculture, wellness, sustainability, education, and healing into one space that feels magical, welcoming, and apologetically real. At the center of everything is the idea that soft things can still be powerful.
Sassy’s Boop Snootin’ Hollow is more than a microfarm. It is the life I rebuilt after surviving abuse, illness, fear, and uncertainty. It is proof that compassion is not weakness, nurturing is not weakness, and healing does not have to look polished to be beautiful. Sometimes healing looks like muddy boots, flower crowns, gardens, glitter, exhausted determination, and choosing every single day to keep growing anyway.
My long-term vision is not to create a large public attraction, but rather a private and intentional healing space where women, mothers, and children can reconnect with themselves, nature, creativity, safety, and joy in meaningful ways. I hope to offer small private experiences where guests can meet the farm animals and eventually the characters inspired by them in future children’s books centered around healing, resilience, kindness, and emotional safety.
I envision quiet, personalized experiences filled with simple but meaningful moments — picnic lunches in the grass, gardening, creative projects, storytelling, mindfulness, yoga classes, animal interactions, and space to simply breathe. So many women and children carrying invisible emotional weight rarely get the opportunity to feel safe enough to slow down, create, play, or heal. I want this farm to become a place where they are allowed to do exactly that without judgment or pressure.
The farm is being built around the belief that healing does not always happen in clinical spaces. Sometimes healing happens while feeding goats, sitting in the sun, laughing during messy art projects, gardening, or realizing for the first time in a long time that your nervous system finally feels calm.
Another important part of my vision is creating a supportive network of trusted local women-owned businesses and professionals that can help women and children rebuild, stabilize, heal, and grow safely. I hope to collaborate with women-owned businesses in areas such as wellness, counseling, education, legal support, childcare, fitness, creativity, beauty services, entrepreneurship, and financial guidance so that people who need support feel less alone and more empowered to rebuild their lives.
Representation matters deeply to me. I want women and children visiting the farm to see strong, compassionate, successful women supporting one another instead of competing against one another. Sometimes simply seeing what is possible can completely change what someone believes they deserve.
One of the biggest challenges I face is building a business while rebuilding a life at the same time. I am creating this business while balancing motherhood, healing, financial realities, and the emotional weight that can come from surviving trauma and serious illness. Starting a microfarm from the ground up also comes with major practical challenges including fencing, winter-safe animal housing, land development, raised garden beds, renewable energy systems, equipment, and startup costs.
If awarded grant funding, I would use the money to build critical infrastructure that will help the farm become more sustainable, safe, and financially stable long-term. My top priorities include fencing, secure winter housing for animals, land improvement, compost systems, pollinator support, raised garden beds, renewable energy solutions, and tools needed to expand both food and value-added product production.
This grant would not simply help fund a farm. It would help build a space rooted in healing, resilience, compassion, education, sustainability, creativity, and hope. My goal is to create cycles of support instead of cycles of pain — and to remind people that difficult things may shape us, but they do not define our worth, our future, or our ability to grow into something beautiful.
Get booped. Stay sassy.
