Our Story

Jenelle and I met in 2000. Finding a connection and a confluence in our love for adventure and the pursuit of God, we married in 2002. Our adventure of life was soon filled with 3 kids and the fast-paced race that so many of us find ourselves in.

Our dream has always been a simpler one. Hiking, canoeing, card games, and campfires have all been a reality, but often contained with tight schedules that left the fire going out long before Orion and the big dipper made their appearance.

The onset of the Covid pandemic caused so many varied experiences.  My work week became a  more viable 40 hours with a weird and varied schedule. At the same time, our quarantine in the middle of nowhere was one of family solace and reunification. It felt like we were doing so much more as a family, little things that take time like bumping the volleyball in the yard and doing short family hikes and early morning fishing trips on days when I was working the late shift. Although the pandemic brought out lots of the good and the bad, it left us with the question, "How do we shape our lives to live in the freedom that our souls call out to?”

Welcome to Keen and Bright!

Growing up the son of a history nut, my mind was filled with visions and dreams from my father’s stories and those in the history books lying around. Ancestry books and old ledgers with entries in pennies of what it cost to have an ax sharpened or for selling a basket of eggs. Family genealogy books with preface stories that talked about hacking a living out of the wilderness or a massacre that left a family  ancestor to be adopted by the natives of the land.

It wasn’t long until I was a voyageur camping by the farm pond, hacking down saplings and making a framework out of sticks and baler twine and tying canvas over them to build my first canoe. Even though it wouldn’t float, and mainly because it didn’t sit upright in the water, in my mind I was well on my way to becoming a real mountain man, voyageur, or homesteader.  And maybe there was even this possibility that somehow I had Native American blood coursing through my veins that came from my ancestor Christian.

I remember the joys of ordering my Hudson Bay trapping ax when I was thirteen or so, running a trapline down Slaubaugh Run, catching catfish, hunting a lot, camping out almost every night through summer. And then too soon, my youth was gone. Like the voyageurs paddling through the fog on Lake Champlain, somehow I got caught up in the driving rhythm of the paddle, keeping my head down and paddling forward. Only it wasn’t a paddle that I was pushing, but life and work, and the goal was to get us to the other side. And like the voyageurs singing their fun songs as they paddled, my life was interspersed with the joys of life as well. Things such as a beautiful wife, three kids, canoe trips, camping trips, road trips, backpacking trips, and lots of backyard adventures. So many things to be thankful for, and as we paddled we sang. And as we sang the old canoeing song "my paddle’s keen and bright" we added in our own verse of Thanksgiving, one that has become our family camp song.

Thank you our father God

For all your blessings

They are so bountiful

Dip dip and swing

As 2020 rolled in, a year that has caused almost everyone to take inventory of their mental and spiritual state, we did our own heart check and it felt like wow, we were really close to shore. It’s time to take our gear, shoulder the canoe, and head to the next lake!

And so we are doing it. Using Jenelle’s organizational skills to bring together all of my years of crafting and creating, we invite you to follow along as we refresh the ancient ways of creating. After spending 20 years as a professional glass blower along with lots of dabbling in canoe building, paddle making, forging and taxidermy, we are excited to follow our hearts and create pieces of beauty, character and individuality. An even greater hope is that we inspire the like-minded, the adventuresome, those who truly have the voyageur heart to pull ashore, check their maps, and head for a  lake  that the Creator laid out in their hearts a long time ago.

-Dwight Yoder