Inspired Living on Sleeping Dog and Mermaid Farm
As a small business on Vancouver Island, I have been enjoying the wonderful comradery of the small business community around me. Sometimes we are introduced at a farm or small shop but more often, I am meeting these local growers and makers through social media. I first met Susan Wyatt, the creator of Sleeping Dog and Mermaid Farm on Instagram, sharing our love of handcrafted goods and delicious food. She reached out to me via email with questions about hosting her own long table dinner shortly after reading an article I wrote about the joys of long table dining. We emailed back and forth a bit and then decided to meet at Susan’s hobby farm to discuss ideas and working together.
To say I was blown away is an understatement. Susan is very humble and quiet (she is legally deaf but lip reads so well, you may not notice) but seeing all the amazing projects on the go in her garden, greenhouse, and inside her home was so exciting and inspiring. I could immediately see her vision everywhere I looked.
In 2014 Susan and her husband Bill were living in Vancouver where Susan had her own horticulture and residential landscape design business and Bill commuted working on tug boats. They were seeking a slower pace of life out of the city and closer to nature and family (Susan’s mother lives in Comox). After researching and house hunting, they decided to make the move to Comox in 2015. Susan sold her business and they found their dream property nestled among pines, firs and the Salish Sea on Cape Lazo, a seaside community in the Comox Valley.
“We wanted to live by the sea, have a great growing space and enjoy everything the Valley has to offer. It was a huge lifestyle change and we are so glad we made it!” says Susan.
Along with their sweet and energetic Labrador Flora, they set to work making Susan’s vision of a hobby farm and small business into reality. A large greenhouse was built with help from their new neighbors, soil was amended and gardens planned. Special touches like handmade signs and her signature mermaid grace various corners of the yard. They planted gardens with edible herbs, veggies, flowers and greenery. The greenhouse was slowly filled with veggie and flower starters, her stunning succulent arrangements, dried flowers and wreaths for all seasons, vintage and refinished furniture as well as her handmade candles and organic beeswax lotion bars.
The lotion bars began as a passion project to find a natural moisturizer that would protect her husband’s hands while out on the water without being thick and greasy. Susan chose beeswax as the main ingredient because it creates a natural protective barrier that still allows skin to breathe, is hypoallergenic and has natural healing properties then blended it with olive oil and shea butter.
Bill’s coworkers started asking for them once they tried them out on the boat so Susan started making more. As word got out she developed a following of nurses needing a good skin protectant and then a shop in Cowichan started carrying them too! Susan decided to produce more and add natural essential oils as well as herbs and flowers from her garden and citrus to make some scented bars. She now has natural mild scents like Beach Spice, Lavender Lemon, Garden Party and the original Naked with more on the way including one to soothe sore muscles.
Some of Susan’s customers say they use the bars in other ways such as beard oil, curl tamer, massage bar and some love using it to moisturize right in the shower. With beeswax as the main ingredient, these bars are a versatile clean product.
In keeping with her vision, she has made her products all organic, natural and sourced as much as possible locally. Packaged simply and sustainably in a small paper bag, they fit perfectly into cute vintage reusable containers that she’s collected or into ½ pint mason jars.
Susan’s esthetic is gorgeous and well defined. She has enjoyed collecting vintage and antique kitchen and garden wares for years and is now selling some of her well curated European and Canadian finds. In her beautiful, cozy greenhouse house and shop you’ll find vintage house wares, refinished wooden chairs and benches, repurposed escargot shells made into the cutest miniature hanging planters holding succulents, vintage vessels with live greenery arrangements, wool blankets and of course her handmade candles and lotion bars.
With sales (and her busy garden) growing and the last of their children graduated, Susan was looking to grow her business. She reached out to collaborate on photography and building her brand and decided to make the leap to selling online in addition to her farm stand.
Although the slower pace of farm life is exactly what Susan had hoped for years ago while living in the city, her mind never stops; she has so many other plans for the future on their little piece of paradise. She’d like to host community events like long table dinners and expand her line of lotion bars, adding other body and home products. The serenity of slow, coastal living seems to have energized her.
Sleeping Dog and Mermaid Farm is the perfect example of the laid back, island lifestyle Susan and Bill were seeking. The hard work made enjoyable by a life lived closer to the rhythms of nature and the salt air.
