Jeri and Roger Hensley have been married for 34 years and are now also small business owners. The Hensleys recently opened The Singing Bowl Bed and Breakfast on Mullen Road in Cassopolis.

As the name implies, it is a bed and breakfast out of the Hensleys’ home. However, there are two reasons for naming it The Singing Bowl: Roger, 62, is a neuropsychiatrist who collects Tibetan singing bowls, and the house sits on a ridge over-looking a bowl of trees. Tibetan singing bowls were created more than 2,500 years ago and are most commonly used for meditation.

“We have a Queen Anne meets the Orient decor in the house,” said Jeri, 58.

The Hensleys have an eclectic collection of furniture, including a 100-year-old Sarouk Persian rug and Victorian-style couches.

The Singing Bowl Bed and Breakfast offers the “Victorian Room,” the “Oriental Room,” the “Carriage Suite,” the “Rumpus Room,” the “Orchid Room,” a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, an handicap-assessable first floor, a library and two guest bathrooms with programable bidet toilet seats.

The “Rumpus Room” consists of exercise equipment, a pool table, an entertainment center and a bar. If visitors wish to consume alcohol they must provide their own.

“We put the ‘Rumpus Room’ in the basement on purpose,” Jeri said. “Our room is on the second floor and this way, if people are up late having a rumpus we won’t hear them two flights up.”

The “Orchid Room” is home to orchids and other plants as well as a small artificial waterfall pond that holds the Hensleys’ fish, named Orange Sherbet, Komodo, Harvey and Moby Dick.

The house has a wraparound porch that overlooks a variety of trees in the forrest. There are also two hammocks and a number of wooden porch chairs for visitors to use while enjoying the surrounding nature.

“I’ve been told all my life that I should own a restaurant, but I know cooks and they don’t have lives,” Jeri said. “I wanted a life.”

Although they have entertained the idea of owning a bed and breakfast before, The Hensleys are using The Singing Bowl as a way to ease into retirement.

“When we got the opportunity, we took advantage of it,” Jeri said.

For more information on The Singing Bowl Bed and Breakfast, call Jeri and Roger at (269) 445-2168.