Legacy Soil & Stone — Master Proposal v3 (DRAFT)
Drafted 2026-04-26 PM. Read-through version. Ships to legacy.thebarnetts.info on sign-off. Live financials companion: v3 Financials.
Earlier revisions (4, 3, 2, 1)
Rev 4: "Tangible" added. Cremains acceptance cap (~9 lb). Pearl size honestly described. Schnauzer in §1 only. Line 3 reframed with community-participation tier. Stream A tagline candidates surfaced.
Rev 3: Artisan framing, golf ball reference, Stream A pricing raised to $250-$1,295, Stream B raised to $375-$995, seed packet dropped, Line 3 nonprofit, margin target ≥88%.
Rev 2: Soothe Stone dropped. Stream B paragraph in Mark's wording. Bundle option removed. Western Red Cedar specifics dropped. Bob Ross / pillars / "use everything" preaching removed. Tagline updated.
Rev 1: Initial v3 draft from morning brain dump.
1. The business in one paragraph
Legacy Soil & Stone is a regional memorial business in North Georgia operating two streams that share a single workshop.
Stream A — Memorial Stones is a cremains business. Any cremains, pet or human, are processed through the Pearl Method. A pan-tilted aggregator turns cremains into various-size pearls when a mineral binder is applied. The pearls are then hand-painted with a slurry of cremains and natural pigments, polished, and sealed. This is an artisan line that produces tangible, display-worthy products. Stream A accepts both pet and human cremains; the Pearl Method works the same whether the input is a hamster, a schnauzer, or a human, and pricing is set by cremains weight.
Stream B — Memorial Soil is a pet-only business, licensed under Georgia mortality composting law (O.C.G.A. 4-5). Companion animals up to 40 lbs are processed through Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) in commercial vessels, then cured in hand-built cedar vessels for a 45-day stabilization phase. The cured soil and its vessel are returned to the family as a ready-to-plant memorial.
2. The Pearl Method
Cremains are loaded into a pan-tilted aggregator with a fine mist of a mineral binder. The pan rotates and the cremains form into pearls 25-40 mm in diameter — between marble-sized and approaching golf-ball-sized.
Pearl yield scales with cremains volume:
- Smallest orders: 1-3 hand-rolled pearls
- Mid-range orders: 20-30 pearls per batch
- Largest orders: up to 90 pearls per batch
Pearls are removed from the aggregator and cured. They are then hand-painted with a slurry of cremains and natural pigments (mica, pearlescent, North Georgia mineral oxides), polished, and finished with a clear sealing coat.
25 mm sits at the upper end of marble sizing. 40 mm is approaching but just under regulation golf-ball (42.67 mm); a 40 mm pearl reads as "small golf ball" to most viewers. Per-tier pearl yield numbers are working ranges from initial bench testing — research will calibrate as production volume builds.
3. Stream A catalog
Five tiers, weight-based. No separate intake fee — granulation, sieving, and chain-of-custody labor is built into the tier price.
| Tier | Cremains | Typical source | Pearls (approx.) | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XS | < 0.5 lb | Hamster, parakeet, small reptile, partial keepsake portion | 1-3 hand-rolled | $250 |
| S | 0.5-1 lb | Cat, small dog | ~20-30 | $475 |
| M | 1-2 lb | Medium dog, partial-share human | ~40-55 | $695 |
| L | 2-4 lb | Large dog, partial-share human | ~60-75 | $995 |
| XL | 4-9 lb | Full human cremains (typical adult to large adult) | ~75-90 | $1,295 |
Acceptance cap: 9 lb of cremains. A 300-lb adult human cremation typically yields about 9 lb of remains, so this cap covers any normal human or pet cremation. Anything beyond 9 lb is by special arrangement only — keeps Stream A focused on family memorial work and out of livestock or non-mammalian-pet processing.
4. Stream B catalog (private NOR)
Three tiers, weight-based. Pricing scales with vessel cycle complexity. Every tier returns the same standardized 1.5 cu ft of finished memorial soil in the same hand-built cedar planter — the artisan piece is what's consistent, not the volume.
| Tier | Pet weight | Vessel cycle | Return | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny | < 10 lbs | JK270 dual-chamber | 1.5 cu ft + cedar planter | $475 |
| Small-Medium | 10-30 lbs | JK400 dual-chamber | 1.5 cu ft + cedar planter | $675 |
| Large | 30-40 lbs | JK400 full capacity | 1.5 cu ft + cedar planter | $895 |
Every tier delivers the cured soil in a hand-built Western cedar planter — the same standardized design that served as its 45-day curing chamber, returned to the family ready to plant.
Why standardized: a 40-lb dog can yield 2.5-3 cu ft of soil, which would push shipping into freight territory and create wildly variable customer cost. Standardizing the return at 1.5 cu ft (a large bag of premium garden soil, ~45-55 lbs in a standard FedEx box) keeps shipping predictable, simplifies the workshop's packaging line, and makes the product visually consistent regardless of pet size. Surplus from larger pets goes to the Unconditional Forest at the workshop — a permanent, photographable mother pile that becomes part of the brand story. No remains are ever discarded; the surplus has a home.
Stream B is pets only. Whole-body NOR for humans is not legal in Georgia. The Pearl Method (Stream A) carries the human cremains use-case.
For families who don't want a private NOR vessel, see Line 3 — Community Composting below: pets can be composted communally with shelter animals at a lower price, with all proceeds going to shelter partners.
5. The four service lines
Two money-making lines and two community-aligned lines.
| Line | What | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Line 1 — Memorial Stones | Stream A: Pearl Method, hand-painted pearls. Direct retail, weight-tiered $250-$1,295. | Money-making |
| Line 2 — Memorial Soil | Stream B: pet-only private NOR, standardized 1.5 cu ft return + cedar planter. Direct retail, weight-tiered $475-$895. Surplus from larger pets goes to the Unconditional Forest at the workshop. | Money-making |
| Line 3 — Community Composting | Two-part program: (a) zero-revenue mortality intake from rural-shelter partners (shelter animals composted in bulk for free, soil used on-property or — see (b)). (b) Community participation: pet owners who don't want a private NOR vessel can opt into a communal composting batch with shelter animals at a lower price (proposed $150-$200), receiving back a labeled bag of finished soil. All net proceeds donate directly to participating shelter partners. Operated as a community-service program inside the for-profit, not a separate 501(c)(3). | Service / pass-through to shelters |
| Line 4 — Academic Outreach | Pure outreach to university partners (UGA Extension, Auburn, Appalachian State, Berry College). Pairs naturally with Line 3 — Line 2's controlled curing environment plus Line 3's volume gives institutional partners real-world data they cannot replicate in a lab. Not a revenue line. | Service |
6. Unit economics
Margin target: ≥88% gross on Stream A (achieved across all tiers, blended ~90%). Stream B blended margin sits at ~87.6% — the standardized hand-built cedar planter is the cost driver and the artisan story; closing the last point to 88% would require a small price bump or a vendor-built planter, neither recommended yet.
Year 1-3 volumes (10 Stream A orders/month + 3 Stream B orders/month, ramping 2.5× into Year 2 and ~2× into Year 3) project to $111K Year 1 → $278K Year 2 → $555K Year 3 in revenue, with corresponding net income (after $54K operator draw + marketing + insurance + misc opex) of ~$33K → ~$176K → ~$417K.
Detailed COGS, projected volumes, capital paths, and the per-tier breakdown are in the companion financials report: Legacy Soil v3 — Financials.
7. Capital — two paths
Solid path: $33,000 - $40,000. Self-funded launch. Aggregator pan + painting station + cedar workshop tools + initial inventory + Year 1 marketing budget. Equipment is rented or owned, the workshop runs out of existing space, and Year 2 ramp is funded entirely by Year 1 net income (~$33K) plus the operator's continued draw. No external capital needed.
Dream path: $120,000 - $130,000 — the founder-funded scenario
The Dream path is the pitch when someone asks "what's your dream version of this?" A backer who believes in the work — a person who lost a dog, who has the means to fund the kind of business they wish had existed for them — underwrites the proper start.
The dream is not bigger margin or faster ramp. The dream is the land. Twenty to forty acres in the North Georgia foothills — pasture for the soil program, forest the soil itself feeds back into, a creek the workshop sits beside, a pond. A purpose-built workshop with the aggregator pan, the painting bench, the curing room, the cedar build station. Soil from the Community Composting line goes into the field. Cremains-fed pearls cure in a room that smells like cedar and wood polish.
Customers visit if they want to. Most never need to — the land does its work whether anyone watches or not.
What the Dream path buys: a permanent home for the workshop, the land asset itself as long-horizon collateral, and the time and quiet to build at the artisan pace this work asks for. What it doesn't buy: faster volume, higher margin, or any change in the business model. Same product, same pricing, same lines — just on the right ground.
8. Brand
Stream B + Line 3 (community composting) tagline: "Unconditional love regrown."
Stream A tagline candidates — pick one or rewrite:
One-line description: Hand-painted memorial pearls from cremains, and living memorial soil for the pets we loved unconditionally. Made in the North Georgia mountains.