As the scent of freshly brewed coffee wafts through Havana House in Boardman, Ohio, we sit down with Nate, the remarkable teacher who traded chalkboards for vineyards. He weaves the tale of his transformation from an introverted high schooler to a spirited winemaker and owner of the enchanting Woodland Estate—a destination where "I dos" are exchanged against a backdrop of historic splendor. Nate's journey, marked by a leap from educating young minds to mastering the art of fermentation, showcases the power of tapping into one's latent potential and the serendipity that can turn a simple hobby into a thriving enterprise.
Sipping on the ancient sweetness of mead, we traverse time with Nate to explore Woodland Sellers' rise from casual teacher banter to a mead-making haven. The golden nectar, steeped in cultural richness and revived through passion, faced its share of trials amidst a global pandemic. Yet, with resilience and a dash of science, Nate's story is a testament to how enduring dedication can ferment into success. The narrative doesn't end with the last drop of mead; it extends to the very soil of Woodland Estate, where a once-abandoned property has been lovingly transformed into a sought-after venue, brimming with potential and eager to host dream weddings and memorable events.
Our episode wraps with a venture into the future dreams of Woodland Estate, a place where history dances with the modern love story. As Nate shares the vision of a carriage house turned cozy retreat for newlyweds and the estate's readiness for future affairs, we also indulge in lighter musings—from wine preferences to Greg's quirky avocado socks. It's an episode that seamlessly blends inspiration with a sprinkle of laughter, ensuring that whether you're a romantic at heart or a connoisseur of life's finer things, there's a seat at the table for you in this captivating conversation.
As the scent of freshly brewed coffee wafts through Havana House in Boardman, Ohio, we sit down with Nate, the remarkable teacher who traded chalkboards for vineyards. He weaves the tale of his transformation from an introverted high schooler to a spirited winemaker and owner of the enchanting Woodland Estate—a destination where "I dos" are exchanged against a backdrop of historic splendor. Nate's journey, marked by a leap from educating young minds to mastering the art of fermentation, showcases the power of tapping into one's latent potential and the serendipity that can turn a simple hobby into a thriving enterprise.
Sipping on the ancient sweetness of mead, we traverse time with Nate to explore Woodland Sellers' rise from casual teacher banter to a mead-making haven. The golden nectar, steeped in cultural richness and revived through passion, faced its share of trials amidst a global pandemic. Yet, with resilience and a dash of science, Nate's story is a testament to how enduring dedication can ferment into success. The narrative doesn't end with the last drop of mead; it extends to the very soil of Woodland Estate, where a once-abandoned property has been lovingly transformed into a sought-after venue, brimming with potential and eager to host dream weddings and memorable events.
Our episode wraps with a venture into the future dreams of Woodland Estate, a place where history dances with the modern love story. As Nate shares the vision of a carriage house turned cozy retreat for newlyweds and the estate's readiness for future affairs, we also indulge in lighter musings—from wine preferences to Greg's quirky avocado socks. It's an episode that seamlessly blends inspiration with a sprinkle of laughter, ensuring that whether you're a romantic at heart or a connoisseur of life's finer things, there's a seat at the table for you in this captivating conversation.
Welcome to the VIP Cafe show. I hope everybody's doing amazing. I'm here with my co-host, debbie Larson. Hello, hello I am Greg Smith, and we are here today at the Havana house in Boardman, ohio enjoying a nice cigar and some coffee that they made fresh for us.
Speaker 2:It's really good.
Speaker 1:Really Good. If people want a treat, come to Havana and have a. Make you one. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and it's local coffee brewed or roasted here on site. Yeah, it's an coffee company.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:It is unbelievable.
Speaker 1:So, debbie, we were talking before this and, like this, one thing it's always happening this time of year is people starting to plan weddings, weddings. Because what's today coming up, Valentine's Day and what's the biggest day for engagements Valentine's. So these people getting Valentine's Day engagements right and where do they? Go. I mean, there's just no place to go anymore, is there?
Speaker 2:You know what Actually?
Speaker 1:funny. You should say that Really.
Speaker 2:Because today we have Nate from Woodland Estates and it is the perfect wedding destination. Let me tell you I'm not. This is not just like something that somebody created trying to like start a business. This is character. Yeah, I feel like I was at the Von Tropp family home, really.
Speaker 2:There's a beautiful part like spacious lawn. Oh, my goodness, I can't wait till you meet Nate and this whole situation happened. He was a teacher yeah, now we're gonna hear this guy. He was a science teacher, now he's a winemaker and now he owns these. Like historic mansions which have so much historic local significance.
Speaker 1:I'm jumping ahead. I'm sorry. Let's just lay this out a little bit. Youngstown was a third largest steel producer in the world. The money here. The amount of wealth that was here, carnegis, all that the money here was incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And these mansions were incredible. And now Nate has Brock those back. So, nate, tell us, we usually start with conception, but we'll skip to high school, so tell us about high school. You learn a lot about somebody. Tell us about your high school adventures and how that kind of propelled you into who you are, and then now what you're into.
Speaker 2:Right, we know you're the most popular kid in class.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:No as far as high school goes, I mean I did, I don't know. I was friends with a lot of people, but you know I wasn't Mr Popular, I was really quiet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was the quiet guy.
Speaker 3:It took me, I don't know. It was well after probably even senior year, that I kind of broke through my shell and really got out there a little bit more. I became a server at Olive Garden and you know, that kind of that forces you to break.
Speaker 2:It does. I'm telling you, everybody should have a reason.
Speaker 3:So that that that probably is what kind of propelled. But yeah, I went to high school in Niles, graduated in 03. And then went right over to YSU, ysu and Kent State associate some bachelors and then became a science teacher.
Speaker 2:Wow, what made you? When did you decide you wanted to be a science teacher? That's so specific. So were you always like that? That kid like experimenting with things?
Speaker 3:It's kind of yes and no, I mean I was experimenting, yes, curious yes, and I even like through school, and that it kind of couples with my back then like public anxiety In school. I always thought you know it'd be really cool to be a teacher. You know I had science teachers that I loved they were great.
Speaker 3:It was like that'd be cool, I'd like to do that, but then I never saw myself actually doing it because of, again, just crippling fear of public speaking and being in front of people. And, funny enough, even when I started teaching, and you know, I kind of put that part aside, but I was still shy, shy guy.
Speaker 3:When I was doing my student teaching the first time in front of a class, and these are, you know, I was 24, but I was in front of little high school kids. You know who cares. You know, and I'm sitting there, I'm talking, not who cares, but as far as social care, I'm talking to them.
Speaker 3:Can't find my words just like blacking out on what to say and you know the teacher, kind of in the back of the room, was like time comes up to me, is like dude, yeah, why don't you just take a break? I couldn't put a sentence together, so you know it. Really it took a while to get past that, but you know it just kept on trying to drive through that and I think the moment was that because I'm public speaking coach.
Speaker 1:So what was the moment where you went okay, this is I'm going to reframe this, so I am empowered what happened?
Speaker 3:Really it was just a combination of repeated you know repeat getting back in front and then also just being more comfortable as a teacher. Okay, you know I'm here, this is me obviously becoming more familiar not just with science but the subject at hand, you know, and just everything kind of came together to be finally get more comfortable, and then it was just second nature, Awesome.
Speaker 2:Wow, Go right in. Is that something? It's easier than that's so good. Okay, I'm not going to go on a tangent, but that's so good. So sometimes just plowing through and putting one step in front of the other is really all it takes to discover that and it is absolutely awful to have to do.
Speaker 3:I mean, it was visually, you know, pale.
Speaker 1:It's like dude.
Speaker 3:He looked at me like dude. You got to take just the same thing.
Speaker 1:Take some time. Yes, and I think there is a element of the love of teaching that propelled you to want to get through it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I knew it would be something that I would enjoy and that was really the only obstacle. And you know, internally it was just get over it, man. You know it's not something you actually have to worry about. It's not a legitimate fear. Nothing bad is going to happen. Just do it, and that you know. In the end, that was the best decision.
Speaker 1:I could have made. So tell us what you're up to now. What do you do in these days? Not much, no.
Speaker 2:That's the understatement of the year.
Speaker 1:I thought it was just converting into a. No, there's.
Speaker 3:I'm actually this is the year of trying to shrink my job description down. You know I've been pulled in a lot of different directions my fault, you know I've pulled myself in a lot of different directions. So now you know we're really getting the. You know we talked about the. You mentioned the mansion property. We're really getting that kind of honed in figuring out what we need to get that to start up and running a regular schedule of you know some offerings.
Speaker 1:But let's Tell us about yeah, backup, tell us about where it is, what it's, what you Tell us the whole story of how you got into it, what it looked like, what it looks like now, where it's located.
Speaker 2:And how your love of science turned your whole Like, created this path that you're on.
Speaker 1:Okay, your love of science, you know. Just ten questions all at once. Go ahead, go, we'll start with that Science.
Speaker 3:So yeah, the science end of things that was. I mean, it was a group of guys, the teachers at the school. We got together, we'd make beer, we'd make wine, we'd go from one guy's house one month to the next guy's house next month. We'd drink last month while we make the next month you know, just kind of house the house.
Speaker 3:Okay. So you know a camaraderie thing, hanging out having fun, and then eventually ran out of new things to try. We tried to make mead and the first batch of mead I mean it was a hit. Everybody loved it. You know, it was just an eye opener. Nobody had really had mead before.
Speaker 1:Explain mead to the people that don't know what it is.
Speaker 3:So mead, yeah, which originally we had to explain mead to everybody, but nicely, now you know it's become more popular so more people know about it. But mead is in itself just, it's an alcohol with a honey base. So where you know, everybody's used to wine with a grape base. Mead is basically wine with a honey base, so the honey is the fermentable product that makes the alcohol. So that's kind of where Woodland Sellers actually started was mead. So actually I mean the flagship product was the original Iovoden, which is simply honey and spring water fermented, about 14 and a half percent alcohol. But it is pure mead. I mean it's, it's. It's what it's the definition of mead, and it's actually kind of hard to find because not too many people make just an original style mead without spices, without other fruits, because it's hard to find honey.
Speaker 1:That is that good. So when you're watching GOT Game of Thrones, they're gonna get mead, so everybody knows yeah.
Speaker 3:And well, not unfortunately, but in pop culture a lot of times with movies, and you know, viking depictions you see this frothy mug and you think more beer. But you know, mead is truly a wine. You know wine is more of a process rather than an ingredient. So wine is, or mead is, the wine process. And it's simply honey instead of grapes or fruit.
Speaker 2:Is that generally the area that it came that was popular from is like Northern Europe, so that you could say probably Northern Europe and the culture and the writings really popularized it.
Speaker 3:But I believe, I think to date, and maybe historians will correct me, but I believe to date, the oldest artifacts, with, you know, signs of mead being made in them was somewhere in Asia when it was like 10,000 years ago, I mean mead for sure, predates beer and wine, you know, and really, boy, I didn't answer any of the questions that you listen to. Talk about a tangent. We're there.
Speaker 1:So we got alcohol and gunpowder from China and they sold our technology.
Speaker 3:What else do you need?
Speaker 2:Okay, Our entertainment technology, if we got alcohol and gunpowder we won. They could take anything else, we win.
Speaker 3:No, I mean it's it's it's old, it's the original alcohol, but there's so many varieties. Any ingredient that's in beer you can bring into mead. Any ingredient that's in any other wine or alcohol you can bring into mead. It's so versatile. I mean, think of all the things you could do with honey you know spices, fruits, pepper. I mean you can make spice, spicy mead.
Speaker 2:Interesting. So there's, there's a lot, and honey is such a good medicine, so you started this mead and now that we know what mead is, now that we know where it came from, we have been educated.
Speaker 3:So tangent done, yeah. So once it was kind of the eye opener of, okay, this is, this could be a moneymaker, this is something different. And at that time, you know, about 10 years ago, you know that that really filled the. There's a niche, that just a void out there between beer and wine. And you know we went over to vintage estates and just kind of sat there, Cause at that point they were really the only ones that had mead, you know, tried the, you know what else is out there, and was kind of first swing at making mead. I think we're better than any of these.
Speaker 3:Kind of look at it objectively bartender to give it a taste you know, so then it was kind of like all right, this, this could be a thing. So I have, odin was born. You know, there was a lot of Name going around, trying to figure out where to land. But you know, figure the Viking culture, If they popularize it, let's, let's go that route. Find out that I'm mostly Northern European heritage, so that kind of works, but yeah, so they I vote in original and the I vote in spiced.
Speaker 3:Those were the first two products out there and we got them into. Eventually. It was about 25 stores at its peak and then you know, 2020 pandemic. A lot of the stores that were carrying it, at least temporarily, closed. Manufacture kind of slowed down. So I pulled it down to about eight stores, but we're gonna boost it back up here in March.
Speaker 2:March, april, may. I think, as a marketing campaign, we should dress you like a Viking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that'll do it.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying, if you want my expertise, you know, you know, okay, so anyway, so now, then, now you're into wine, you have how many red wines?
Speaker 3:I have to list them in my head real A dozen red and white wines you know traditional.
Speaker 1:The storefront in Hubbard.
Speaker 2:Correct the storefront or whatever, the seller.
Speaker 1:What's the?
Speaker 3:most popular Moscato by far. Yeah, you know, really picks up in the summertime, that's a summertime wine, especially around here. But the sweet wines. Sweet wines are real popular northeast Ohio, basically like the, the dries win the awards and the sweet pays the bills.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know they it's just kind of that's how it works around, especially in this area. You know you go out the Napa and out out there your dry reds. You don't have a lot of sweets. Yes, up here you got to have some fruit wine, some sweet wines. That's. Everybody's palates a little different around here.
Speaker 1:So how do you get from making wine to owning me and owning mansions.
Speaker 3:So it all and you had mentioned that. You know what's that one little thing. So in Hubbard really, the one little thing was my wife and I when we were kind of looking around, kind of scooping out what could be like a nice little storefront, you know somewhere just to have a you know a tiny little wine bar and Just a little spot where somebody can come and taste the wine, and she drove past when we are now, which you know, it was Five years empty doctor's office. You know 6,000 square feet.
Speaker 1:Big building. You don't realize from the outside that's a lot of building and she drove by that.
Speaker 3:Well, what about that? That's not really what we're looking for, but let's check it out. Yeah and at first it was no, you know, I said no, usually, you know. Usually she'd be the one you that's. That's a stretch, you know calm calm down.
Speaker 3:But it was, it was the other way and it was her picking out a building and you know me telling her I don't think we're there yet. But we walked through and there's you know there were rentals and then there's the house out front that's a building for rent and we kind of looked at it. Okay, we can, we can maybe make this work. You know, let's assume something goes wrong with the winery. There's still all these other rental spaces that oh, they can make things work.
Speaker 3:And we were already in Hubbard at that point, living in Hubbard. So that just kind of made sense we, we, we bought it, we renovated it and in we bought it in 2017 and then in 2018 we opened the winery June 2018, and it just kind of took off from there, slowly build, and you know we've always Every business that I've ever started, every business is my wife's ever started and you know we've been moving together on it's kind of just let the business build itself, let the business tell us where it needs to go next.
Speaker 3:Wow so you know, there's no loans, no, nothing, just the white intro person amongst you, you know you are me. Yeah, so she's. She's more organization planning. If it has to do with calendar or memory, it's her.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah.
Speaker 3:Otherwise it would tank if it has to do with my memory or calendar or organization If it has to do with the kind of the finances, renovation or alcohol is me, so you know we're in equal, but opposite corners, and it works out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one thing I always want to make mention when the you know young people, you have to understand, you have to have a money person. And there's very few people that understand money and how to use money. I'm not one of those people. That's why I hired very I do, I have very good people that do that, and you've been blessed with that knowledge and that understanding. If you spend more money than you make, you're broke.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure, yeah Well, and a lot of people don't get that but you get that and that's why you're successful, and that's why you formulate your businesses around that, that's.
Speaker 3:You know. I formed a company to buy the property and then you have the winery rent from the company. So there's deductions and you know right. You put things in the right places. That happen and it works and luckily, you know, when I was 18, my dad sat down and, you know, showed me how to do the taxes and how to. You know where everything needs to go, and so, even though my situation is fairly complex now, I've grown little by little over the years just learning each little steps, if I just came into it.
Speaker 3:Now I'd be a mess.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So every little step that added on. I just learned little by little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, so that helped. So in Hubbard now you even have like you have entertained, like you have a nice little place with the lights and the picnic benches and stuff. You have bands come out there in the summer and stuff, and so that kind of crew up.
Speaker 3:We have some big changes coming to the outside this summer too, so tell us you know how do people?
Speaker 1:where is this place?
Speaker 2:Now this is just the Hubbard place. Yeah, Hubbard location.
Speaker 1:Talk about the Hubbard location. Hubbard location is 212 Main Street. 212 Main Street.
Speaker 3:Right in the middle of Hubbard and we have, you know, out back, like you were saying is it's a nice green space we have a little little stage out back with some lighting. So we have, you know, have a band play while you're eating and drinking out back and, like I said, some additions coming out back there in the spring. We won't talk about it yet. We got to make, we got to check off some boxes first to make sure we can do everything. But some, you know, get people outside again and have fun out there, but yeah, the dining area inside Audra, two hot mamas.
Speaker 3:Two hot mamas is her pepper jams, hot peppers and oil and that's, that's her company there. And last year we're actually coming up on our one year anniversary with her she, she, basically she, she moved in and she is the restaurant. Yeah, so she two hot mamas is the restaurant. We own the building and we have, you know, the wine production there and we sell the wine.
Speaker 2:but she is the you know the presence she is she's the restaurant and I love it because it's worth going for the food and then trying the wine, and it's worth going for the wine and then trying the food. Both of them are incredible in their own right.
Speaker 3:So to have the collaboration is just phenomenal and that's all part of you know what you mentioned with you know hiring people, or getting people to to do things that you can't do right that you're not an expert in Right, we're not an expert in food. You know, we filled in the gaps when we had to and we were in the kitchen and we made, made dinners and you know, we, my wife and I, we were, we were the kitchen for eight months.
Speaker 3:Oh, my, but then Audra, you know she's obviously a foodie, she's good at it, that's her thing, that's her passion, and so it was a no brainer when she said she wanted to. She wanted to take the place and and make a restaurant and make it her thing. Wow, no, no, your limits and no one's better than you?
Speaker 2:Have you tried her food, Greg?
Speaker 1:I will. I'm already kidding Now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to be on my list.
Speaker 1:Three quarter pound burger.
Speaker 3:It's on my bucket 2021 Northeast Ohio burger of the year Two hot mamas, you're on somebody's bucket list, that's gotta watch you.
Speaker 1:I tell that too. But yeah, that explain a little bit, right, oh, you're right, oh, oh my.
Speaker 2:You're right. Wow, I did not even hear myself when I said that that's funny.
Speaker 3:Two hot mamas as long as a bucket.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Sitting at the wine. You know the wine bar. I was actually bartending and the zoning inspector for Liberty came in, jim Rodway, and I was just kind of talking about having a winery in town where there's obviously some restrictions. You know, you have limited space, there's certain events you can't do, certain things you want to do you can't. And he said well, you know, come on out to Liberty, we got some space out there and you know it's the township, you can do whatever you need to do. And then he described the property and I laughed and laughed Two mansions, the pond, 27 acres, and okay, do you know somebody to back me? What are you talking about? Well, it's been vacant for a while. They've been trying to sell and they can't, you know, and there's all sorts of issues there. So just come check it out, see what you think and we. You know the first walkthrough it was in August. I still have the video. You know that we got out of the car. You know I've lived in Niles all my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we lived in Hubbard. I went to YSU. I've gone past there However many times, never knew any of it was back there and we get out and you know the kids get out of the car and they take off across the. You know property and we kind of like. You know your initial reaction was hold on, right, right, but then you know where are you going to go.
Speaker 3:You're going to be tired before you get to some property and you know we just we walked around and fell in love right away and you know we kind of looked at each other right then and you know both of the crazy brains were going. You know, usually it's one and the other has to convince the other, but both of us it was just yeah, this is, if we can do this, we're going to do this. So it took eight months.
Speaker 3:It took eight months of investigating, planning, I mean the number of banks that kind of were like there's, there's a tree growing out of the chimney in this picture. We're not going to finance this, you know. No bank was like yeah, let's do it. So it took a while, and then we we stumbled across Valley Partners.
Speaker 2:Valley Partners. They are just amazing.
Speaker 3:They're. You know there's banks. Banks are places that'll lend you. Lend you money only if you can prove you don't need it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And Valley Partners is you have a plan, a dream, a passion. Show us that you know what you're planning on doing, can work, and put it to the board and we'll see if they'll vote to finance it.
Speaker 2:Do you know? I have to say this about Valley Partners I was sitting there talking to the director and then Mario, who is over the line Theresa and Mario. Theresa and Mario, and it was like a huge lottery jackpot, and so they were talking about it and they said oh. And they said, oh, we've already decided what we're going to do if we, if we win. And I said, oh, what would you do? And they said, man, we would fund it so we could offer more, more grants and loans and stuff, and I was like what, yeah, like that's their heart.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah. That is their heart. That's incredible. Oh yeah, yeah, that's, and you could tell their passionate about it because you know we only have we have a loan from them.
Speaker 2:You know it wasn't, it wasn't a grant.
Speaker 3:You know it was. It was a very, it was a very detailed process and you know they got to do their due diligence and they got to make sure that they have. They have confidence going into it. But I mean, they believe it and they're ready to back it and you know when the plan comes together. They you know they were thrilled. It was like a little family you know, Wow.
Speaker 1:So where are we at now? What's?
Speaker 3:what's where we're at now we're, we're bringing everything together. So we, throughout the years it's always been. You know what kind of events can we have based on its current state, you know, and initially it was abandoned for 15 years Everything paint peeling, wallpaper falling down, things crumbling. It was rough. We have pictures. So you know what can you do when it looks like that Audit mansion and wine trail.
Speaker 3:So for the first two years. In October we blew it up with just we. We partnered with Cornell Bogdan and he always did the Sharon Gull mansion, so he had the stuff. So we brought, you know, our concept, our vision, his concept, his vision, partnered together on that and we did a haunted mansion wine trail. So it was all throughout the mansion was haunted and then you know some scares on the trail but fires and you know Tiki torches and just a really cool outdoor environment and that was a huge hit. We had, you know, 3,000 people those first two years, wow. And then the third year, we entered some renovations for the ballroom. We, we started to build our 6,400 square foot ballroom on the back of the mansion.
Speaker 2:It's incredible, Greg. It's huge.
Speaker 3:So with that construction obviously we weren't able to do Halloween, but with that being done, now we're able to do. You know we're comfortable saying 400 person weddings. We did a 400 person wedding. It's been plotted out. With the you know the rental companies you could do 500 people here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we're, we're gonna have the parking for them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah we're. We're quite comfortable with 400.
Speaker 1:That's huge, though I mean it's big. Think about how many places you go for a wedding and you can't find a parking place.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's big, yeah, yeah so we're right now, that is.
Speaker 3:you mentioned parking, that is our next, our next step we have, we have comfortable parking for 250. And then I mean it's still on the same property.
Speaker 3:It's not higher so we can park 400 on the property. But at that point you know we have parking attendance and you know people to help with that. But we're going to expand the main parking lots as far as we can without interfering with nature. Right, we have the view is primary. So we're going to expand those parking lots as much as we can. We're at 250 now. We should be able to be about 350 right there next to the mansion, again without disturbing the nature of it. And then I mean we walk the property. You're, you know, a 20 second walk away from the other parking lot by the pavilion.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Right Now you were saying that people can actually get married there and then have the reception in the same spot, oh yeah. And there's several different, but tell us about the different wedding spots.
Speaker 3:So with with it being 27 acres, and it's a property that since the beginning it's been a property made for relaxing, the treats, just enjoying the outside and being a part of nature. So there's so many spots out there that are just perfect for a ceremony. So there's there's actually one spot where they used to do sermons. There's a. There's a big stone structure, a stone pathway, and it's flanked with nice grassy area, tucked into the woods, tucked up against the woods, so perfect. Out front you have the original stone steps in the front of the mansion. So you have the, the four columns of the you know the Greek revival style architecture. In the background, you have the steps and then you can have the wedding out front.
Speaker 3:there there's a kind of like a grapevine tunnel, the, the trellis over there where you would walk through, and then on the other side of that you have some trees, so that would just be a perfect backdrop. And then you have the bride come through the grapevine tunnel, and then the there's paved walking trails throughout the woods. So there's, there's just there's a lot of things that are just perfect when you know you have a wedding. You have cocktail hour, All right, Go enjoy the trails, take a glass of wine around, enjoy nature while you know we're getting ready in the ballroom, and then let everybody come into the ballroom for the wedding.
Speaker 2:Absolutely the staircase, the staircase, like there's. I told him as a photographer oh it would be amazing, like, because you could even do your photos. Like so many people, they have to leave the destination, go take photos somewhere else and then come back, but in this situation they can do, they can take pictures on the lawn, on the grounds, and then can I. I don't know if I could say this, but there is a building that it's another future phase, where they're going to be able to have, like, where people can stay. So, like you know, it's like a cabin, but it's bigger than a cabin. How many rooms is it? Like three bedrooms or something?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, it's actually about 5,000 square feet on its own, so that in the middle, though it's kind of almost looks like a warehouse but it's the old carriage house but you got a townhouse on one end and like a one bedroom apartment on the other. But that's yeah, that will have. Will have overnight rooms there, but it'll mostly be for kind of like a bridal prep area.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But even in the main part of the mansion, the main bedrooms for the mansion, yeah, right, so it's going to be five bedrooms there.
Speaker 1:How do people get? I mean, is there a website? How do people?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, so so the property itself at Woodland Estate, woodland Estate on Facebook, instagram and, as far as a website goes and to be clear, we're not fully open yet we're booking events that you know. You see the property fall in love.
Speaker 1:Let's do your let's do your event 25, you know 20, 25, 26. Yeah, we're booking, we're booking events.
Speaker 3:But yeah, if you, if you look on woodlandsellerscom, it'll, you'll see in the, in the bar. You know our locations and click on Liberty and you'll see specifics for the Liberty location and yeah, we can you know, woodlandsellers at gmailcom and we can get ball, get the ball rolling on different events, different you know we do a lot of charity events right now. You know different charity. We have the Animal Welfare League prom coming up.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, of course you're going to have dogs dressed up in prom gear. Wow, but the you know people come, you buy your ticket, you. It basically like a little flashback to 80s, 90s prom. It's fun for the adults, but it provides a lot of funding for Animal Welfare League. So we we try to do a lot with different charities.
Speaker 3:Now Just come in, let's put together some way to figure out how to make you guys a lot of money. You know we'll. We'll help you guys out and get you a platform and get you some space to see what you can do.
Speaker 2:You did a casino night. Helms Foundation.
Speaker 3:I think did a casino night there.
Speaker 1:Lately recently somewhat.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah it's, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:There's a lot we can do out there and I know we're kind of wrapping this thing up, but I just want to mention the two family. Logan you know Logan Way he, the Logan family, was the original settlers of this land. That was theirs and I just found this out today. Lady Logan, who lived on that property, was a go ahead. You tell him the horticulture.
Speaker 3:Horticulture and ornithology. She was the first degree female in the United States. In those, that's the one for Young's time.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, yeah, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, let alone the.
Speaker 3:you know the Memorial Day connection. Yes, okay.
Speaker 2:So General Logan?
Speaker 3:no, not Jen, he was in the general general, general General Logan.
Speaker 2:At that point, yes, General Logan was hugely responsible for what we now know as Memorial Day being a national holiday.
Speaker 3:Really, yep, you push legislation from it being decoration day and pushed it to be a nationally recognized holiday. And if you kind of do a simple Google search of John Logan and Memorial Day, it'll lead you to those articles where it describes.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, I know. And then he was shot in the abdomen in the American Filipino war. Yep man, I'm a good student. Took her notes.
Speaker 1:This is science science class, Not history.
Speaker 2:But some history teachers a lot of science and history.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so in those of you that are teachers and don't think you can, you know there's not another thing you can do. He just proved that that's not true. Okay, there's a lot out there. Yes there is, yes, there is. So let's you know this portion, part of it. Oh yeah, yeah, I'll let you start that, the rapid fire start.
Speaker 2:Okay, rapid fire. Red or white wine.
Speaker 1:Red.
Speaker 2:Mead or beer Another.
Speaker 3:Oh, how rapid is this? Probably depends more on you know the mood today, okay, but mead, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Miracle whipper mayonnaise, oh miracle. Do the deepest questions Blame that on my parents? Most people will tell me.
Speaker 3:I'm wrong, but it was miracle, we're drawn up.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite ice cream?
Speaker 3:Probably still chocolate chip cookie no.
Speaker 1:I've held onto that until I was a kid Very specific.
Speaker 3:No, nowhere specific Web's ice cream Web's in Hubbard.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's the go to.
Speaker 1:Web's ice cream. That's our neighbor. Good, shout out to Web's. There you go. Okay, bronze or Steelers.
Speaker 3:Browns. But again, that's childhood. I really don't care about football.
Speaker 1:You don't, I'm sorry. What's your favorite? What do you like? Do you like sports? No, okay, in my adult life.
Speaker 3:I don't think I've watched the full game of anything. Really, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Really Okay. Let me put it to you like this If you were to host at the mansion the Steelers or the Browns, who would you choose?
Speaker 3:It'd probably be the Browns. The Browns, because it goes back to the town, how I was raised, my dad watching the Browns. There we go, just being sad. Well, they were this close.
Speaker 1:They were this close, maybe next year.
Speaker 3:It's like watching a sad movie every.
Speaker 1:Sunday. Speaking of movies, oh, wait, wait, wait, we've got one more?
Speaker 2:Okay, go ahead, one more. What's your?
Speaker 1:favorite French fry.
Speaker 3:Yes, favorite French fry yeah.
Speaker 1:Favorite, favorite French fry in this area Shoot, there's a lot of good ones. And pizza too. Yes, pizza too.
Speaker 2:Right, I was going to say action or comedy movie.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, let's go.
Speaker 2:We got. We layered them again. I saw it Sorry. Okay, let's do the French fry first.
Speaker 3:Okay, Nothing's really sticking out for me on French fries.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 3:How about pizza? Who should I like? What French fry should?
Speaker 1:I like Whatever you like. They're silly French fries. A lot of people say fair or they say different ways. I like the original.
Speaker 3:You know the kind of fair fries, fair style, salty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it where it works out. What about?
Speaker 2:What Pizza?
Speaker 3:Favorite pizza, pizza style or pizza company Actual pizza.
Speaker 1:Like, if you're going to order pizza, where do you go?
Speaker 3:Or you want to get pizza when, oh, I mean as far as how often it would be cocas, ok.
Speaker 2:Oh, they have good pepperoni rolls too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I'm really struggling with you know the best pizza. Ok, let's do movies. Then what's your favorite type of?
Speaker 3:movie Favorite type of. I like the action comedy I know that's combining two categories.
Speaker 1:I know that's like you know Viking movies with Mead.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Thor Thor.
Speaker 3:Well, funny story Thor Ragnarok came out. We were going to name the original. You know I have Odin Spiced Mead was originally going to be named Ragnarok.
Speaker 2:Oh my, ok, Because you know Viking theme.
Speaker 3:Ragnarok the label design. Everything was designed around Ragnarok. You know, the Viking and the world Armageddon. And then we found out, well, first off, the movie was coming out. At that point we're like hey this is perfect. This is going to be great. We found out a brewery already had Ragnarok in that world.
Speaker 2:Once you have it named, you can't touch it.
Speaker 3:It's not like Ragnarok shoes and we're making alcohol and you can do it. It's the same kind of thing so we couldn't touch it. And then it was well, I already made this label. What are we going to do with that? Like it was a lot of time, so it became Jormungandur, which is a mouthful, but that's the Viking or the Norse serpent that brought about Ragnarok. Wow. So it still fit the theme and it was already on the label because it was the Ragnarok theme, so it just became Jormungandur.
Speaker 3:But now you know, 90% of people, it's like they want to order it. If you pronounce it right, it's on the house. What do you come on? What do you get?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's what there is. But now that you're on the same, I need to read up on my Norse history because, I had no idea, jormungandur.
Speaker 3:About.
Speaker 2:Ragnarok or Jormungandur.
Speaker 3:She's not getting a drink.
Speaker 1:So one more, one more plot, the two locations, yep, talk about them. How do you get in contact? Where are they at?
Speaker 3:So Facebook, facebook, instagram they're always a great pathway to go to to just see it, learn about it and find it. But Woodland Sellers in Hubbard is 212 Main Street in Hubbard and then Woodland Estate is the mansion property over in Liberty and that's 3128 Logan Way.
Speaker 2:All right, well thank you very much and I just have to say, before we head out great socks, Greg. He's wearing these avocado socks. Avocado socks you say a lot about your personality rather than socks.
Speaker 3:What does that say?
Speaker 2:It says he's a fun loving guy. She's professional, but he's a fun loving guy because you could see this little fun pop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, well, I like it. Have a good one everyone.