Olivia Keiter
I grew up in Bedford, Pennsylvania, which is a small town in the Appalachian mountains where everybody knows everybody, nobody locks their doors, and kids are expected to come home dirty. It was the kind of place where your neighbors checked on you without being asked and the community took care of itself because that was just how things worked. I had the freedom to roam and explore and just be a kid, and I did not fully appreciate that until I was grown and trying to find my way back to it. Long live that kind of place.
My parents both served careers in the U.S. Navy and were proud of it. I spent most of my teenage years convinced I was going to do something else entirely. Turns out stubbornness runs in the family, and the Navy was exactly what a young, wild, independent version of me needed. I enlisted as an Information Systems Technician and spent seven years moving around: the Middle East, Japan, Hawaii, the West Coast. I based out of Whidbey Island, Washington for most of it, which is where I met Alex. We knew each other for six months before we got married. When you know, you know.
Whidbey Island, WA
Whidbey Island from above, in the plane Alex flew
We loved living in the Pacific Northwest. I miss it all too well. But when we separated from the Navy in 2022, I was pregnant with our daughter Ellie, and we wanted to put down roots somewhere that had space to grow things, raise animals, and give our kids the same kind of childhood I had. Petersburg, NY sits in a valley in the Taconics and looks exactly like the mountains I grew up in. It felt like home before we even unpacked.
Our place in Petersburg, NY
On the professional side, I used a military transition training program on my way out of the Navy to bridge into the civilian tech world. I landed at a major enterprise software company, where I support over thirty U.S. Government enterprise customers as a Business Program Manager. Along the way I built a production multi-agent AI platform that runs nine agents and eliminates over a thousand manual actions a day across federal environments. Nobody asked me to build it. I just saw a problem and figured it out.
That is basically how I operate.
Outside of Keiter & Co., I keep a personal home base at oliviakeiter.com. That is where my AI consulting work, the Strata product, and my writing at Building Out Loud all live in one place.
When I am not working or chasing toddlers or keeping Dave the turkey out of the living room, I am outside as much as possible because fresh air genuinely cures most things. I make sourdough, paint anything that holds still long enough, embroider, cross stitch, and I used to refinish furniture before the kids arrived and time became a theoretical concept. I am also a lifelong Swiftie and have been since before that was officially a word for it. I am trying to teach Ellie and Harrison that the best days end with dirty hands and tired legs.
The garden
Keiter & Co. came out of something simple. When we moved here we kept running into local businesses that did not exist online. No menu, no hours, no way to know if they were even still open. We try to shop local as much as possible and it is genuinely hard to do that when you are new to a town and nobody has a website. We noticed it over and over. AI gave us the tools to do something about it, and Alex has the engineering background to build it right. I am a spec-driven developer and prompt engineer. Together we can move faster than either of us could alone.
We are building this business the same way we are building everything else here: by hand, on purpose, in a community we actually care about, one era at a time.
Alex Keiter
I grew up as a Navy brat, which means I grew up everywhere. Southern Maryland was the closest thing to a home base. Semi-rural, good childhood, the kind where kids spend all day outside and come home when the street lights click on.
I enlisted after school and served six years as an AWO, non-acoustic. Whidbey Island was where I was based for most of it, which is also where I met Olivia. We were friends for six months, then we were married. When you know, you know.
Whidbey Island, Washington
Software was always where I wanted to end up. I grew up playing video games and at some point it clicked that building them was a real career, not just something other people had. I earned my software engineering degree from the University of Maryland Global Campus, landed an internship at a major game studio that turned into a full-time role, and have been in the industry since.
My day job is quality assurance for AAA titles: scripting functional tests, building automation tools for other teams, maintaining the API between the testing framework and the game client. Making sure complex systems hold together when real players get their hands on them. What keeps me in it is the problem-solving. Finding the thing that is broken and seeing it all the way through to fixed.
Every site that goes out under the Keiter and Co. name is handwritten by me. No page builders, no bloated theme files full of code nobody understands. I also build for accessibility. Sites should work for everyone, not just people on fast connections with new phones.
We chose Petersburg on purpose. The Navy gave us flexibility in where to land and we used it. We wanted land, space, room to grow things and raise animals and put down real roots. On the homestead I do whatever needs doing, which is a longer list than it sounds. Build, plant, dig, move things, then move them again when the first spot turns out to be wrong. There is a suspicious and ongoing amount of hole digging here. I have made peace with it.
Alex and Archie on Whidbey Island
Ellie is my girl. Harrison is already learning to charm everyone in the room. They are the whole point. After the kids are in bed I unwind with the games I spend my days testing. Blizzard titles mostly, ARPGs, FPS, MOBAs. Casual but genuinely good.
The Kids
Ellie is three years old and has her mother's stubbornness and her father's face, which means she gets away with a lot. She is a daddy's girl through and through, loves music, loves mud, and has appointed herself personal supervisor of the roosters. They listen to her. We are not entirely sure why.
Harrison arrived in May 2025 and is everything Ellie is not, in the best possible way. Laid back, smiley, goes with the flow, loves his snacks, and has his dad's personality in his mom's face. He is the family's emotional counterweight and he is very good at the job.
Our kids are the whole point. We sacrifice a lot of ourselves for them and it is a joy to do it because we know this time is short. We are trying to give them good roots. The rest they can figure out on their own.
We do not share photos of Eliana or Harrison publicly online. That is a choice for them to make a very long time from now.
The Rest of the Crew
Dogs and Cats
Tri-colored corgi and Tank's littermate. Technically the family dog but in practice she is Alex's dog. Where he goes, she goes. She has strong opinions about this arrangement and so does he.
Aussie merle and certified weirdo. Archie is the family dog in the truest sense, which means he belongs to everyone and specifically to the kids. He has taken it upon himself to herd Ellie and Harrison around the house. They do not appreciate this. He does not care.
Tank was a merle corgi who was named Tank because he was built like one and moved like one and had absolutely no awareness of his own size. He loved people without reservation and tolerated exactly zero nonsense from other dogs. He was Cora's littermate and spent his whole life convinced he was in charge of everything. He was lost to lymphoma in February 2026. He was a good one and we miss him every day.
Feral turned tolerable. Leo spent the early part of his life outdoors and has never fully forgiven us for bringing him inside. He attempts to escape every single time a door opens, makes it approximately four feet into the yard, eats a concerning amount of grass, comes back inside, and throws up on the floor. We have accepted this as his process.
Rescue cat, brown tabby, arrived with a history of kitty kidney stones and the energy of a dog who got lost and ended up in the wrong body. Boots follows Leo outside every time Leo goes, which is to say every time a door opens. He makes it slightly further than Leo before remembering that outside is terrifying, then hides under the couch for three days to process the experience. We love him very much.
Outside
Dave is a young turkey who has decided that Olivia is his mother and is conducting himself accordingly. He follows her everywhere, causes general havoc, and sleeps inside significantly more than any turkey ever should. He thinks he is in charge of the chickens. The chickens have mixed feelings about this. He is a gentle giant with new chicks and takes his protector role seriously, which is the most endearing thing about him. He is also the least turkey-like turkey we have ever encountered. He is Olivia's problem and she would not have it any other way.
Sisters, partners in crime, and the ruling class of this homestead. Henrietta lays her eggs in the gazebo by the back door instead of the coop because she has decided that is where eggs go and no amount of redirection has changed her mind. She is the head hen and everyone knows it. Helen is her sister, her shadow, and significantly less friendly. Helen thinks she is in charge. Helen is wrong. Henrietta rules the roost and Helen has simply not accepted this yet.
Tan Polish hen and rooster. They look absolutely unhinged and they act accordingly. We love them for it.
Brown silky hen with a spectacular dark fluffy afro, hence the Bob Ross name, hence the rename to Fluffy when we realized the original name was doing her a disservice. She hangs out with Regina and Reggie and tolerates Reggie's presence on a day by day basis. Some days are better than others.
These are the ones who run the yard, mind everyone else's business, and consider the back door their personal gathering spot. A few of their names:
- Rooster
- Snowball
- Cottonball
- Seagull 1
- Seagull 2
- Seagull 3
- Seagull 4
- Fried Chicken
A single mom who works too hard, loves her kids, and never stops. She is doing great and she knows it.
22 acres in Petersburg, NY
The Locals
We share 22 acres in Petersburg with a rotating cast of wildlife that did not ask our permission and does not require it.
The coyotes come through at dusk and remind us why the chickens have a coop. The raccoons come through at night and remind us why the coop has a lock. The deer show up in the garden with the confidence of people who have been doing this longer than we have, which they have. We have had black bear on the property, which is always a good reminder that we are guests in this landscape as much as anyone. Wild turkeys pass through regularly, which Dave finds confusing. The birds are everywhere and relentless and we would not have it any other way.
we are guests in this landscape as much as anyone
This is not a managed property. It is a place where a lot of living things have decided to be, and we are lucky to be among them.