Exciting News - I Hope

Disclaimer: I realized reading comments from Kathy and Becka, that I may have raised expectations a little too high. I haven't been tired because of the news -- that was due to the time change (savings time) and flying to the east coast. I don't know why but any sort of time change completely throws me for a loop. Add in the change in temperature - in the last 10 days the temperature has fluctuated between 60 degrees (in NJ) and 18 degrees -- also completely throwing my body out of wack. Also, I have a new boss who has me doing a bunch of stuff that I'm not familiar with, so my brain has also been tired. There is no correlation (at least that I'm aware of) between being tired and my exciting news. Which may only be exciting to me and The Husband.

Did you ever wonder how I came up with the name of my blog? Pantheon Acres doesn't really have a lot to do with knitting, does it? I figured I wouldn't always have knitting to blog about and the main focus of my life is my dogs. So the name applies more to my "dog" life than my "knitting" life.

It is actually the name of our kennel -- as in dog kennel. It took several months of discussion and research to come up with our kennel name. There were several times that we thought we were being clever and creative only to find the name was already being used. (It is considered bad etiquette to use the name of a kennel that already exists -- whether they are still breeding or not.) One day, we stumbled across pantheon.

According to the The Free Dictionary pantheon is defined as:

1. Pantheon A circular temple in Rome, completed in 27 b.c. and dedicated to all the gods.
2. A temple dedicated to all gods.
3. All the gods of a people considered as a group: Jupiter is head of the Roman pantheon.
4. A public building commemorating and dedicated to the heroes and heroines of a nation

5. A group of persons most highly regarded for contributions to a field or endeavor: the pantheon of modern physics.

Side Note: I really didn't realize that there was such a monument as The Pantheon, I spend several weeks convinced people were confusing it with The Parthenon. Sometimes, I am not the brightest bulb.

Looking at #5 -- The Husband and I changed it a little and felt that it really fit what we wanted for our kennel:

A group of dogs most highly regarded for contributions to their breed.

Mission statement and kennel name all in one. (Acres is for the farm we eventually want to own.) We want to be responsible breeders. That means breeding "quality" dogs to "quality" dogs. That means making sure our dogs are healthy with good genes to pass along to their offspring -- which requires health testing. We also want to make sure we've got "good" dogs -- which requires showing in conformation*, taking the dogs to training classes, and getting certifications (like CGC and TDI and Delta Dog). All of which costs money.

(Stick with me -- almost to the news...)

Breeding dogs is not something that most would consider a business. You aren't going to get rich from it and it might take a few years, but you could show a small profit. This was all the CPA needed to hear during our meeting with him a few weeks ago. We originally went to see what we could do to reduce our taxes (we have no children and aren't very charitable, so we needed other deductions). Strangely enough, the possibility of making a small profit is enough to turn our kennel from a hobby into a business.

THE NEWS:

We're setting up our kennel as a corporation: Pantheon Acres, Inc.

Which means doing business-like stuff -- such as business cards, web site, phone, and other stuff I can't remember other stuff. I know that I should probably concentrate on the boring stuff -- business accounts and receipt tracking et al, but I can't get over the idea of having business cards and a web site. Squee! I just realized that means we need a logo! There is also work involved as I figure out what exactly it will take to get a web site setup, a special phone number and the other boring important business stuff. (Hey -- with my own web site and domain, I could get some blogging software that actually lets me respond to comments!)

See -- isn't it cool? I own a business (okay -- The Husband owns it too).

* I run into a lot of people who see conformation dog shows as "beauty contests", but in reality conformation shows were meant to be a chance for people to evaluate breeding stock.