Well, here it goes.

This is my very first blog! Where do I begin? I only really found out what blogging was this past Thanksgiving. I was in the house and doing some searches on the internet and came across a bunch of bloggers talking about a subject called Christian Agrarianism. I had never really heard the word agrarian put in such a context. I am thrilled to have found a discussion on the things I’m passionate about and from a Christian perspective.

I do a lot of journal writing and most of my thought’s and idea’s lay closed away or hidden inside the computers internal workings to pretty much just waste away into electronic nothingness. Perhaps someday my kids might come across them and get a kick out of what old Dad used to think about back then. Other than that, if I don’t discuss any of it with my wife, that’s about all there is to my writings. It’s just for my own satisfaction and perhaps it is a little therapeutic. Of course in my journals I often times do a lot of ranting and raving which I would never want to broadcast across cyberspace in a forum like this. So I will attempt to make this a little more reader friendly than what I do in my journal writings.

I reckon, since this is my first blog I should introduce myself. I don’t imagine I should get too personal since after all this is on the internet and only the Lord knows how many people will be looking at this.

My name is Russ. My wife’s name is Kelli and we have three children, 14, 17 and 19. We homeschool and live on a 120 acre homestead in northern Wisconsin. When I say homestead I have to mention that we aren’t homesteaders in the truest sense of the word. We have been experimenting with it and have dabbled in a multitude of homesteading practices. We homeschool, garden, and raise animals. However we are not really all that self-sufficient. It is more like a hobby with the eventual goal of becoming more proficient at it.

When we first moved here we made a serious effort to raise all or most of our food. I had found a proverb that said " plant your crops first, after that build your house". So we planted a garden first. After that we put up a 30' by 30' commercial green house that we had purchased from a florist who went out of business. We used that for growing plants and for raising poultry. Within the first year we had acquired all kinds of livestock. We met many nice and interesting people in the process.

We co-own our property with my parents and my Dad had already built a garage which we moved into. There wasn't any water or septic. Eventually we have made the garage into a house and are still living in it. We built a log cabin which we rent out as a getaway for city people or anyone looking for a quiet relaxing place to stay. Our main income however, is that we have our own business picking up peoples trash and hauling it to the dump. Actually, the garbage business goes along alright with homesteading since it is kind of a home based business which is something that fits with the ethic of being self-sufficient or self-reliant.

That being said, I do want to mention that I have come to the realization that the idea of being “self-sufficient” is really quite a myth. God never intended for us to be an island unto ourselves. He made us to live in families and communities being interdependent on one another for both emotional and physical needs. Not that we should be dependant on each other but, that we should serve and love one another with Christ being our prime example. The goal instead of being self-reliant should be to obey the biblical exhortation to work with our hands so that we might have something to share with others.

I like the term agrarian but, I’m not entirely sure of the exact definition. It will take me awhile to get used to using it. I tend to get hung up on the meaning of words and how we use them. I’ll have to study it some more. It took me some time to get comfortable calling what we are trying to do, homesteading. After all homesteading was what they did back when the government was giving away land way back in them olden days. So it took a little bit to get comfortable with that. It seems to me Jd Belanger from Countryside magazine is the one who has popularized the modern usage of homestead. Actually agrarian is probably a more accurate term for going back to the land. Agriculture conjures up images of Big Ag. but, agrarian seems to give a broader sense of getting subsistence from the land or really having anything to do with the land be it growing crops or grazing animals on it.

Well, I don’t suppose I should make this introductory blog too long or in-depth lest I bore you with useless jabber. I am looking forward to communicating with other Christian, homesteader, agrarian type folks out there. There is so much to talk about and so many things to discuss. This could go on till Jesus comes back. Actually, I hope it does.