About Me
My name is Jess Ray and I currently live in a small town in upstate NY surrounded by mountains, farm country and apple orchards. Its great. I have a daughter Evalee, a wonderful husband Matt who is a chef, brewer and dedicated dad, 3 dogs and a cat. I am an avid hiker of the Adirondacks, love canoeing, photography, dogs, horses, good food and craft beer.
I am originally from Philadelphia, PA but at the age of six we moved to the little town of Potsdam, NY. My parents are a couple of hard working hippies that wanted to get their kids and themselves out the of concrete jungle and into the woods. I spent a good portion of my childhood in a construction site of an old farmhouse.
It was at SUNY Potsdam that I met my husband Matt and where we began our relationship attending Dead shows together and shooting darts in the local bars.
Not only did Matt get a BA in psychology from SUNY Potsdam, he developed as a fantastic home brewer. I attended SUNY Potsdam for a WHOLE year before losing my mind . I needed to just go to work and have some real fun. I bounced between waiting tables, working in a photo lab and assisting the owner with weddings and proms. Eventually I planned to attend The Denver Art Institute to become a commercial photographer.
In the summer of ‘98, with little more than $2500 and all of our precious belongings in a UHaul trailer, Matt and I moved to Boulder, Colorado. I never made it to Denver. We found jobs waiting tables to get buy and eventually ended up working for Left Hand Brewing Co in Longmont, CO. Matt plugged away and worked his way up from washing kegs to Head of Brewery Operations. I started in the tasting room and inside sales support and worked my way up to Assistant to the VP of Marketing.
The VP was the great guy Jeff who truly made my job as cool as he could make it. I had a blast talking to people about the beer, how it was made and who made it.
This was my first exposure to the real concept of marketing. I learned of the term “perceived value” and the concept of telling a story, giving a customer something that they can relate to. I learned that it isn’t just about the product but about how the product can make you feel.
I was given the task of working with a web designer and setting up the new company website. This was my first real exposure to the web and all that it had to offer. Up until then I only used the web for email and music. (This was before itunes and we were all using Napster for free)
A couple of years later we moved back to NY and found ourselves in Saranac Lake in the heart of the Adirondack Park. Matt and I spent many months in the early times of our relationship hiking the High Peaks of the Adirondacks and were glad to be “home”. Matt was hired by Lake Placid Pub & Brewery and continued to build his portfolio of award winning brews. I started my own wedding photography business and managed to put together 14 bookings over 3 months. I burnt myself out in a hurry and sold the business to another aspiring photographer. I kicked around from job to job, waiting tables here and there, and pursued more of the artistic side of photography.
Over the next few years, Matt and I began to research various locations for our own restaurant and began writing our business plan. In the end we wrote 7 plans and finally landed in Plattsburgh, NY. We officially opened our doors on October 12, 2005. The last few weeks that we were preparing to open I was feeling very stressed out. Our liquor license was taking forever and cash was getting tight. I wasn’t feeling like myself at all and just chalked it up to stress. Turns out… I WAS PREGNANT!
Needless to say our daughter is the best thing in our life. Everything I do is for her and making our life better. We soon realized that restaurant life and family life are a tough mix. We have come to have a different outlook on our life and what we want from it. Matt has had to miss so much over the last 2 years. He missed the first giggle and first step. I have missed some milestones myself ,only to find out about them from the babysitter. Which leads me to today.
I am an advocate of natural child birth and a birthing woman’s rights, attachment parenting, the No Cry Sleep Solution, breastfeeding, co-sleeping and the environment. Our daughter slept in our bed her first 9 months (would have been longer but she wanted her own space), breastfed until she was 16 months old, wears cloth diapers and spends a lot of time in an Ergo Baby carrier. Two of our dogs and our cat are from Humane Society shelters and all of them are extremely spoiled.
I have been studying internet marketing for that last 3 months and have started my own online marketing venture. It has been extremely rewarding on a number of different levels, but I have to say that the best has been the people I have met and been working with. To meet other folks striving for the same quality of life is very reassuring.
I dream of solar panels on our roof (which will be possible soon due to a new company called Powur), on demand hot water in the basement and a hybrid car in the garage. For now its energy efficient light bulbs and appliances, fuel oil water heater (yuck!), a wood furnace in the basement and an ‘98 Nissan Pathfinder in the garage. We can all dream can’t we?
I created this site to help in the cause of a greener tomorrow. I have high hopes for the future of our Mother Earth and all of her creations.