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The Chronicle of Resurrection


An analysis of the most productive period in The Hearth of Britannia's
history, the struggles and obstacles since then, and the plan to return to full capacity and beyond.



September 9th, 2019

The Hearth of Britannia is Back!

The last few years have been a difficult time for The Hearth of Britannia and myself. Productivity hit an all time low and a permanent shuttering of The Hearth was even considered. However, after a much needed hiatus for introspection, planning, and restructuring, I am proud to announce the reemergence of The Hearth of Britannia!

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History & Introspection

A look at what worked and why.

The Hearth of Britannia officially opened its virtual doors in Spring 2013. In its founding year, The Hearth made tremendous progress on the cookbook, designed and ran several events, hosted regular Dragonsmeets, and forged dozens of important connections. In the following years, The Hearth ran two massively successful events, HoBLotH II in 2014 and HoBLotH III in 2016. The Hearth then attempted to run HoBLotH IV in 2017 but ultimately cancelled the event due to too many concurrent logistical failures. After the cancellation of HoBLotH IV, The Hearth of Britannia went on indefinite hiatus to regroup.

During the hiatus, I thought long and hard about the times when the Hearth was its most productive and identified the elements necessary to foster that environment of creation and productivity.

I also identified what aspects are currently acting as blockers. In the coming months, I will take steps to rebuild, as much as possible, that environment that lead to The Hearth's greatest period of achievement. I'm eager to share with you both the struggles I've faced and my plans to overcome them.

Things I Used to Have that Made Creation Easy

The most productive time of development for the cookbook was 2013 when I was creating recipes for Shroud of the Avatar's first Lords of the Manor Dinner and the first HoBLotH. The condo I rented in Indianapolis at that time was the nicest place I have ever lived. I had several things going for me at that time...

  • A 2,000+ square foot home with a massive two and a half car garage with an extra nook, giving me dedicated space for all types of crafting (e.g. cooking, sewing, leather working, woodworking, etc.)
  • Plenty of space for a dedicated and well-stocked pantry
  • A chest freezer, which allowed me to purchase meats and expensive ingredients on sale and keep them stocked for easy access for experimentation
  • A dedicated smaller beverages fridge, which freed up space in my kitchen fridge for nothing but cooking ingredients
  • Lots of counter space for prep, kneading, and setting up machines and tools
  • A wine cooler, which also kept bottles out of my main fridge
  • A smoker, which allowed me to make Maldric's Boar Ribs and prep other ingredients for use in recipe experimentation
  • A tremendously short commute to work, less than ten minutes by car, which allowed me plenty of time for cooking
  • Easy access to a quality grocery store (a five minute walk), Trader Joe's (a five minute bike ride), and Costco (a five minute drive)

All of this was lost when I moved six times in the next two years. Each move took me to a successively smaller place, but unfortunately not with a smaller rent (thanks, Austin and Chicago). During these moves, not only did I lose all of those wonderful crafting spaces, but I also had to purge all of the large appliances listed above. The following list are the elements I identified as preventing me from making any useful progress on the cookbook (or any projects, really) at my current apartment...

Obstacles in my Current Living Situation

My apartment in Chicago is very small. So small, in fact, that I refer to it as "The Shoebox." It does, however, have the advantage of coming with the most reasonable rent that could be expected in the city. Living here comes with several blockers...

  • Did I mention it was small? My current apartment is the smallest place I have ever lived by far. It's less than 1/4 the size of the previously mentioned amazing condo.
  • I've had larger bathrooms than my current kitchen. There is exactly four square feet of counter space in my kitchen, this not an exaggeration. Counter space is two 1x2 ft. sections on either side of the sink, half of which is used to hold things like the knife block. There is zero space to set out ingredients for anything remotely complicated and kneading is exceedingly difficult.
  • There is zero pantry space (though I have admittedly done some nifty modifications of Ikea shelves to help with this).
  • The kitchen itself is so small, only the smallest auxiliary table (i.e. extra counter space) will fit. Additionally, there are only two tiny drawers. There is no space for pots, pans, or even the smallest flatware organizer.
  • There is no over-the-range microwave and the counters are too narrow for even the smallest one.
  • I no longer have the previously mentioned appliances to keep ingredients handy.
  • My commute is a over an hour each way, which eats my time.
  • Grocery shopping in Chicago is vastly different from before:
    • I no longer live super close to grocery stores and Costco.
    • My car is presently out of commission and even when it wasn't...
    • ...my car is parked in Minoc, a garage that is 45 minutes away by bus and lives there at night, making shopping with it very time intensive.
    • Thankfully, grocery delivery exists, which works for the most part but makes getting ingredients on sale or in bulk difficult
  • The fridge/freezer is smaller than ones I've had at previous apartments, making it even harder to keep ingredients handy.
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Moving Forward

The plan to get out of the rut and return to awesomeness.

Obviously, it would be impossible to fix all of the above issues without moving, which is simply impossible due to needing to maintain my 9-5 job. That being said, I identified the issues that could be fixed and, thankfully, it should be enough to make cooking not only possible, but enjoyable again.

The Kitchen Annex
Completion of this room will allow progress to continue on the cookbook!

There is a very tiny "bonus room," basically a glorified closet, just across from my kitchen that was previously occupied by my late cat, Felorin. This room is presently used for storage and houses Loubet, Dracothraxus, and Arbeth but without adequate space to use them safely and efficiently. My plan is to move all of the storage items in this room to Minoc, my garage across town, and use the room as a kitchen annex. The printing equipment will be moved as detailed in the next section.

I've measured and everything will just fit. This room will...

  • House a tall kneading table with two large drawers
  • Act as a pantry using 3x3 cube units
  • House a small chest freezer and auxiliary fridge
  • Use industrial wire shelves (that I already own) to hold important small appliances like my microwave, toaster oven, and coffee supplies
  • Have convenient shelves and hooks on the walls to hold kitchen utensils in an always-out, easy-to-access fashion

To get this room set up properly, I will acquire the following items using Patreon Funds. Once these items are acquired and in place, progress can resume on the cookbook!

  • Rimforsa Kitchen Work Bench: A sturdy, kneading height table with beautiful, wide drawers to hold flatware and utensils with pots and pans below.
  • Auxiliary Refrigerator: This will free up space in my undersized main fridge so it can be used exclusively for ingredients. Additionally, this smaller fridge can be used for custom temperatures for the occasional picky ingredient.
  • KitchenAid Professional 600 Series Mixer: It's every amateur chef's dream to have a KitchenAid stand mixer but now it's finally justifiable. When counter space is a premium, anything that can assist with kneading in a self-contained way is extremely helpful. Additionally, it will greatly speed up the repetitive testing required to fully vet recipes. Also, it's time to start making pasta!
  • Chest Freezer: This will allow me to buy food in bulk and have a much larger amount of ingredients available at any given time.
  • Smoker & Cover: While my apartment is tiny, thankfully I have a back porch I can use. This is the exact smoker I used to have and I miss it greatly. There are several recipes for smoked and cured meats I'm eager to test and explore.
  • Extras: The remainder of the budget from this Patreon goal will be used to rent a van for a day to move all of the items from my apartment into my garage, furnish the annex with items like shelves and hooks, purchase wood chips for the smoker, and cover any incidentals like price fluctuations and taxes.

Once this room is fully furnished, work can resume on the cookbook. If you wish to assist, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.


The Storage Room
Completion of this rearrangement will allow full use of Loubet, Dracothraxus, & Arbeth!

In addition to the bonus room that will become the kitchen annex, I have access to another room in my building but outside of my apartment proper. This room is presently used to store the items that don't fit in my small apartment but I want to have access to without having to take a bus across town to Minoc.

If I sacrifice this convenience of having adjacent storage and move all of those items to Minoc, I can leverage this room to house Loubet, Dracothraxus, and Arbeth for safe, efficient production as well as hold inventory and serve as a shipping station for orders.

For this to happen, I need to:

  • Move all items in storage across town to Minoc. This will likely require a one-day rental of a moving van or small truck.

Once moved, The Hearth will be able to create dye-sublimated products at full capacity.
If you want to help this happen faster, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.


Mandrake
Without a vehicle, it is simply not possible to make full use of Pyros.

A few weeks ago while driving to Toronto, my car, Mandrake, threw a rod (i.e. the engine had a catastrophic failure) and barely made it to a repair shop in the middle of nowhere in Michigan. With then generous help of a friend, Mandrake is thankfully back safely in Minoc, but he will need his engine repaired at best and an entire replacement at worst. While the final estimate cannot be given until his engine is removed and assessed, I've been told to budget $5,000 for worst case scenario. It is imperative that I get my car fixed so that I can be autonomous again.

This is especially relevant because Pyros is housed in Minoc, which is 45 minutes away by bus, rendering it virtually impossible to leverage effectively without a reliable vehicle. Mandrake is needed for:

  • Transporting finished products from Minoc to my apartment where they can be packaged for shipping
  • Shopping for harder-to-find, bulk, and on-sale ingredients for the cookbook

Once Mandrake is up and running again, Pyros can be leveraged to his full potential. If you wish to help Rustic get back on the road, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.


At bare minimum, all of the above goals must be met in order to even consider running another event. More likely, however, several steps of the dream must also be completed to guarantee that the next HoBLotH attempt it successful. If you wish to help make the returning of Hearth of Britannia events a reality, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.

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The Dream

The above goals are for getting back up to speed. But what comes after that?
What all of the above fails to mention is the single biggest mitigating factor to the success of The Hearth of Britannia, TIME.

Without time, none of the above is possible. The amount of time I have to create directly influences whether or not The Hearth can move forward on even a single project, much less all of them. In 2013, my work commute was less than ten minutes each way. Now, it's over an hour each way. When you're working from 9-5 for a living and working 5-9 on your dreams, those three extra hours/day make a huge difference. Is it any wonder that HoBLotH II and III took place while I was on sabbatical? Thus, I will outline my dreams and the obstacles for The Hearth of Britannia.

The Hearth of Britannia Full Time
Following my dream from 9-5 instead of 5-9.

People often ask my why I don't go full time with The Hearth of Britannia. It's a fair question, but the answer is somewhat complicated, but the short answer is student debt. Barring that immovable hurdle, I'm well on my way to going full time. The Hearth of Britannia, LLC has been a legitimate, incorporated business since March 2017, I have a solid business plan that I have been developing for years, and in a debt free environment, I'm confident that I can more than make ends meet via the combination of selling products, administrating HoBLARP, and running events. Unfortunately, I do not exist in a debt free environment.

Like many folks from my generation, I am still up to my eyeballs in student debt past my mid 30's. Up to my eyeballs to the tune of just shy of six figures of debt remaining. Yes, you read that correctly. Were it not for this giant burden, I would have went full time with The Hearth a long time ago. Instead, it has always been imperative that I work the highest paying job I can find in order to make headway on my enormous student loans.

I'm lucky enough to say that I presently have the highest income of my life and fantastic benefits. So much so that, barring a disaster, I should be completely debt free within five years. However, that's five years that real development on The Hearth of Britannia's projects, especially anything HoBLARP or event related, cannot realistically happen.

My present income is more than triple what I expect to make from The Hearth of Britannia but it's not the life I want. I want to run The Hearth! There are also other people who want me to run The Hearth. I'm trying to do everything possible to get to where I can run The Hearth full time. Here's what needs to happen for that to become a reality...

  • Approximately $100K of debt paid off so I'm no longer required to work the highest paying job possible
  • All of the above goals completed so production can happen at full speed
  • At least six month's (preferably one year's) worth of living and operating expenses should be in the bank

Such is the reality of why The Hearth of Britannia moves so slowly compared to the golden era between 2013 and 2016. A legit job pays the bills, but it certainly makes running The Hearth difficult. Each day I get a little bit closer to freedom.

Every dollar brings Rustic closer to running The Hearth of Britannia full time, which means the establishment of HoBLARP and the return of events! If you wish to help Rustic reach his dream, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.


Future Dreams
In decreasing order of likelihood in this reality.

Related to the business plan mentioned above, I have a long list of dreams for The Hearth ranging from the wholly attainable to wildly unrealistic and just-fun-to-think-about. I will outline these at a future date.

If you wish to bring that future date closer, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.


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