behind the scenes ON THE COVER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EMILY DESJARDINS

My first impression upon meeting Pete was that he seemed to be a really nice, creative, and family-oriented guy. But, I’ll admit, it surprised me how big his mustache and beard are—he really embodies his name and marketing title, Mustache Pete.

We choose his family woodworking shop for our photoshoot location. It’s on his mom’s property and she was there, so we captured a couple of cute photos of Pete with her. The shop had been his father’s—I thought that was very sweet and meaningful. And what’s more, it was made of out a shipping container; how cool is that?

I was thoroughly impressed by Pete’s woodwork, it was awesome and I really enjoyed hearing the stories behind each piece. Not only is he handy with woodworking, he’s also a bit of a mechanic. He’d been working on his truck for a long time and shared that he has a sentimental connection to it. He shared: “My dad had an early 1970s Ford Truck that he drove everywhere, even brought each of us home from the hospital when we were born. He passed away when I was seven, and thirty years later my brother and I each got the same style truck as an homage to our dad. I kept mine as a “rat-rod” style with rust on the outside but a brand new motor under the hood. My father in law and I are constantly working on it together, fixing this or upgrading that. It primarily serves as my lumber hauler, although my kids also love riding around in it with me, the way I loved getting to drive with my dad in his.” SLO LIFE