We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Von & Carol Kinsey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Von & Carol below.
Von & Carol, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
McKee Farm has been in the family for almost 200 years. It has brought us so much joy being able to open up the farm to guests so that they can love and enjoy the farm as we do.
Before moving to the family farm, my husband and I dreamed of moving there and starting up a Christian camp where families and students could come and learn the arts, explore the outdoors, worship, and enjoy God’s creation. Art and craft, such as woodworking, leather working, metalworking, glassblowing, pottery making, and painting, are wonderful crafts that help stimulate creativity and develop problem solving skills. It also teaches art appreciation and is a way to relax and focus. In sharing our vision, we learned that my mother-in-law, Jean, who was born and raised at the farm, had also dreamed of having a Christian camp at the farm.
Von, my husband, has a background in engineering, but he has always loved the arts. Years ago, he took a year off of engineering and attended the College of the Redwoods where he learned fine woodworking from James Krenov. After returning to engineering, we moved to Cincinnati where he worked for Procter and Gamble. Von’s love for woodworking and fine arts never stopped. He started teaching woodworking classes to homeschool students out of his small garage woodshop.
With time, we began to pray about moving to the farm. In 2004, God answered that prayer and we were given the opportunity to build our own home on the farm. McKee Farm is a wonderful place to raise a family and a wonderful place to explore.
Slowly, we have begun to find ways to house guests. We opened the McKee Farmhouse to guests, then designed and built a treehouse, and this year we opened an elevated A-frame. We also opened up the property to campers through Hipcamp. The money we have earned has helped with upkeep and farm expenses.
Our vision to have a camp at McKee Farm has not left us. Through the years, we have held Farm Camps, which was a day camp experience for children to learn about animals, farm life, gardening, etc. In 2021, we hosted a youth camp called Mission Critical which brought about 90 area teens. With volunteers, we had about 150 people involved. The goal was to make it affordable so that any teen could come. We used the barn for the worship sessions and had games and events all over the farm. We’ve also held barn dances free to the community every year for the past dozen years. This has brought so much life to the farm! My husband has also started teaching free woodworking classes to small groups of students. We have also had family reunions, graduation parties, weddings and receptions at the farm. The barn is a beautiful place for events and we would love to continue to make it a blessing to others. As an author, I would also love to see the farm host some kind of author workshops. It’s a process, but we are excited to see the ways God allows us to use the farm to bless others.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I (Carol) am an author and my husband, Von, is a youth pastor at a local church. We moved to McKee Farm, my husband’s family farm, in 2005. My husband designed and built our house on one of his favorite places on the farm, near an old grove of oak trees. We loved raising our two daughters, Autumn and Breanna, on the farm!
Years ago, Von read a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by author Robert Kiyosaki. The book stresses the importance of entrepreneurship, how money works, and the advantages of being a business owner versus an employee. My husband caught a vision from this book and he wanted to pass that vision on to our daughters. In teaching that to our daughters, he wanted them to learn to start up a business.
In 2018, my husband began working on our off-grid treehouse, Tullihas in the Trees with our oldest daughter, Autumn, as a business partner. The construction was a family project. My nephew even helped with the construction. Autumn used her own love for art to design the interior of the treehouse. She wanted the design to be simple, clean, and uncluttered. She whitewashed the walls, painted the floor, and used ladders as railing for the two lofts. The lofts are accessed by two ladders, which had been my father’s when I was younger. One loft has a double bed mattress and the other has a single bed. There is room on the main floor for two cots, and room on the lower levels for hammocks. The treehouse also has swings, and swinging chairs, a large picnic table, and plenty of beautiful views. There is a creek behind the treehouse, and an Amish farm next door. The treehouse has no electricity or running water. We provide our guests with solar lights, battery lights, and a composting outhouse. Tullihas in the Trees was opened for guests in 2020. Autumn and her husband Ethan enjoy being part of this project with us and continue to contribute ideas and help.
The name Tullihas in the Trees has a special place in our hearts. When trying to find a name that would fit the unique structure nestled in the trees along Nickel Valley Creek, we considered the rich Native American history in our area and thought it would be appropriate to honor that history. My husband’s great-great-great grandmother on his father’s side was Native American. In our research we learned about Tullihas. Tullihas was a Native American village about 20 miles above the bank of the Muskingum River, near where the Kokosing River empties into the Mohican. While Tullihas would have been about twenty minutes away from our farm, those Native Americans would have traveled through our area. Many arrowheads have been found on the farm over the years, and our proximity to Black Hand Gorge and Flint Ridge are great reminders of the Native Americans that would have thrived in our part of Ohio.
In 2021 my husband began working on our elevated A-frame with our youngest daughter, Breanna, as our business partner. Together they designed the A-frame, incorporating beautiful woodwork, with a 1970’s vibe. Von used Sepele wood for the outside and for interior trim. The inside walls are covered with maple plywood. The floor has a repurposed parquet floor. There is a double bed on the top loft and two single beds on the lower loft. The deck is wonderfully large, with room for a tent and a fun little slide off the back. Swinging chairs on the lower level overlook the fire ring and beautiful hillside beyond. The Oxley in the Woods was opened to guests this summer.
When naming Oxley in the Woods, Breanna wanted it to have special meaning as well. My husband’s great grandmother was an Oxley. Her name was Nora. Her grandfather was born on the Ohio River when the family was moving from Pennsylvania. His name was Ohio Oxley because he was born on the Ohio River. It seemed appropriate to honor the Oxleys on McKee Farm.
In addition to our rentals, we offer camping on McKee Farm. All of our campsites are spread out around the farm, in order to make them more private. Guests can be nestled in the woods along a hike in trail, on a high road with a view of the sunset, or deep within the farm in one of our other lovely sties. We provide guests with a fire ring, shovel, and a garbage can. Some sites also have picnic tables. Our campsites can be booked through Hipcamp.
Recently, we converted a corn crib into a unique camping structure we fondly call “The Crib.” It has a loft, a large lounging net, and plenty of room for hammocks.
We love finding ways to make the farm a fun place for guests to come, get away, create wonderful memories, and experience the outdoors. One of our long-term goals is to offer art classes to families and students. We have a love for art and craft: ceramics, painting, woodworking, glassblowing, etc, and would love to be able to offer classes where people can come and learn.
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
One thing that has helped launch our business has been platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and Hipcamp. All three e-commerce platforms seem to have a unique draw that raises awareness of our property rentals. Airbnb is very organized, has a wonderful calendar system, and does a great job creating a profile for owners and guests. Reviews provide a way to get feedback and provide accountability. As an owner, I have found Airbnb easy to communicate with and helpful whenever I have questions.
Vrbo has also been a great platform. They are widely used and provide a great way to promote our rentals. They recently featured Tullihas in the Trees on their Instagram page and I saw my @mckeefarm Instagram numbers go up quite a bit.
I enjoy using Instagram as a social media platform because it provides me with a way to share a few pictures and lets others share their experiences at the farm.
Hipcamp has a special niche and they’re good at it. They match campers with places to camp. When my husband and I first got married we moved to California. There were many times when we drove across the country. It would be late at night and we’d start getting tired, we thought how nice it would be if we could just pull over and pitch a tent on one of the many farms we passed. Hipcamp found a way to make that possible.
Airbnb, Vrbo, and Hipcamp do a great job with Internet searches. If you google Tullihas in the Trees, Oxley in the Woods, or McKee Farmhouse, you will undoubtedly find links to our rentals associated with these three platforms.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
I would say one of the best ways to foster brand loyalty is to clearly communicate and be available if our guests want to interact with us. Some guests do not want interaction. They prefer a quiet retreat where they can escape the world for just a little while, and we respect that. Other guests like to meet us and ask questions about the farm, the structures, and the area. We try to honor each guest’s individual needs. We love meeting our guests, offering them opportunities to explore the farm, and sharing the history of the farm and its structures. Some come to the main part of the farm and meet our goats and horses, or pick apples from our small family orchard. Making ourselves available, whether it’s bringing firewood to our guests, or showing them our goats and horses, is a great way to connect our guests with the farm. Often, our guests sign our guest books, which helps us learn what they loved and ties those memories to the farm. We also maintain contact through social media, where our guests often post photos to Instagram or Facebook. Many of our guests have made McKee Farm a part of their family traditions. We have guests who return year after year. McKee Farm is a special place to our family, and we love when it becomes a special place to our guests.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mckeefarm/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/McKeeFarm/
- Other: HipCamp: https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/ohio-mckee-farm-treehouses-and-camping-y0zhzpqj?adults=1&children=0 Airbnb treehouse: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/44015434 Airbnb A-frame https://es.airbnb.com/rooms/927568467676029773 VRBO Farmhouse https://www.vrbo.com/492364
Image Credits
Family Photos and A-Frame photos https://www.summitphotos.com