ADDISON — A trip to rural Maine in 2023 changed everything for Jessica Walton and her husband, Barry Kirksey.

The couple stayed in a 200-square-foot cabin that was “very primitive,” she said, with no plumbing, electricity, or wifi. An hour after they arrived, “I was like, ‘this is going to be the weirdest trip ever.’”

But as it turned out, “we ended up having the best three days of our lives.” It was a great opportunity for them to rest and unplug from the outside world. And it gave them an idea: to create the same basic concept much closer to home.

The couple had already been looking at a three-acre site near the lake on Cement City Highway, and in October 2023 they purchased the property in order to create what will be known as the Stickseed Inn.

The inn will be made up of three 200-square-foot cabins and a lodge. Each cabin will be equipped with a queen bed, a small table and chairs, a coffee space, and a hot tub, with an outdoor grill. Large picture windows will look out on the surrounding woods. The lodge will have more extensive kitchen facilities, patio space, and other amenities.

And while the property won’t be nearly as primitive as the place in Maine where Walton and Kirksey stayed — besides plumbing and electricity, there will be wifi available — Walton said it will still be a place where guests can slow down and get away from the noise and busy nature of everyday life.

How did they come up with the inn’s name?

Walton said that on the first day the couple owned the property, they went there with their daughter and her friends, and the girls immediately ran off to explore the woods. Then Walton heard screaming.

“They were completely covered head to toe in stickseeds,” she said. The tiny burr-like seeds were in the girls’ hair and all over them, including on — and even underneath — their clothes.

While she didn’t know what the seeds were at the time, Walton looked it up and learned that they were Virginia stickseed, which spread by clinging to whatever they come in contact with and then dispersing elsewhere.

In a sense, “that’s how we want to be,” Walton said: people can come to the inn to rejuvenate and then “re-seed” that feeling back out in the world.

The Stickseed Inn represents a reset for Walton herself. She has been a hair stylist for 25 years and has owned her own salon for 12 of those years. But she was recently diagnosed with a progressive medical condition that makes it increasingly hard for her to stand, forcing her to rethink her future.

“I faced a choice: what to do to if I couldn’t do hair anymore,” she said. “It was all I knew.”

She sees the couple’s new venture as “the next chapter of my life,” and a way to still serve people albeit in a different way.

As soon as the property was theirs, the couple set about getting the necessary approvals from the township, which took until last August. They also had to tear down the dilapidated house that was on the site, hauled out decades’ worth of trash, cleared the land, created walking trails and a 100-foot by 40-foot wildflower field, and are in the process of installing a new septic system.

Once that septic system is installed, “we should be able to get moving on stuff,” Walton said. The goal is to have one cabin available by the end of this summer, with the full project completed by summer 2027.

Although the couple currently lives Downriver in Gibraltar, Walton has a long history in the Addison area. Her family owns 40 acres on Silver Lake and “I’ve been coming there my whole life,” she said. “It’s a great area.”

Walton and Kirksey plan to move to the area permanently in about three years, once their daughter graduates from high school.

The couple has already invested some $60,000 of their own money in the project but have been unable to secure either a traditional bank loan or a farm loan, the latter because the property is only three acres instead of the required five.

And so, in March, they took the step of starting a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and give people the opportunity to become a part of the Stickseed Inn story themselves. Although that campaign ended the end of March, Walton said there are still ways to participate in the fundraising.

Donors can either go to the inn’s Instagram page, instagram.com/thestickseedinn, or donate via Venmo at @stickseed1. A website will be up and running soon.

Walton said that the inn helps fill a need for accommodations in the Irish Hills area, and has already received tremendous support not only from individuals but from the business community and area farms.

“Oh my gosh, we’ve had so much wonderful support. I’m just blown away,” she said. “The local businesses have been so welcoming and the farms are happy to collaborate with us. The support has been awesome.”