Dan is a recent college graduate from the University of Illinois who has fallen in love with the idea of Permaculture. He actually contacted JB after becoming a follower of his Blog. He learned we were getting ready to start a farm and asked if there was any way he could sort of "work for keep" as an Intern. While it is true that JB doesn't have a lot of "in the field" knowledge, his Blog (www.tcpermaculture.com) is quite popular, and Dan really felt he could learn a lot to be here from the beginning.
JB and I prayed about this a lot. It isn't a small thing to invite someone to live at your home. (This is especially true with having men over women. No offense to any men, but women are obviously a "safer" inclusion on a broad scale.) But after following up with Dan's references, learning about his faith, and spending some trial time with him during the last week, we have decided (and he has decided) that he is going to stay!
We are currently working (or should I say, my father-in-law is doing almost all of the work) on an apartment above our garage. It will have two rooms. One for guests. One for Dan. And they will share a kitchen/living room area. The one for guests is already done so Dan is living there while the work on his room is finished. He eats meals with our family, and in addition to helping with anything going on around the farm, is going to head up his own chicken endeavor in the very near future.
This is a two-way street with Dan and our family. He needs us (okay, so mostly JB) to learn and grow in Permaculture. JB has already given him a ton of things to read from his extensive Permaculture library (which is taking over our home by the way). We can also really use his help around these parts -- especially with homeschool starting up for me. We really felt like we needed someone outside of the family that could stay at the farm if there was ever an emergency that took both us and JB's parents away from here. He is a SUPER nice guy, fun to be around, and a really hard worker too. We are not setting an end time for his time on our farm. It could be quick. It could be long. It really has to do with where his life moves him and how quickly he learns what he needs to go to the next place.
So that's the newest news on our farm. I'm sure you'll be seeing Dan poking around on my Blog and JB's videos from time to time so I thought I'd take the time to introduce him!
Welcome Dan!
No comments:
Post a Comment