Great questions Lorenzo! I’ll go into my story a little bit in the film, but I’ll elaborate here for my buds!
Grandpa bought this 75 acre farm for $500! The year was 1932. He busted his butt making $50 a month to pay off the homestead in just 2 year!
My Dad bought the farm from Grandpa, but forsook the farm work and became very successful selling orthodontic equipment. I currently work for him, part time, to make ends meet! Thankfully, my dad loved the
land enough to keep it. Out of 6 kids, I’m the only one who has a passion for this place. So now, I live here, and stand to inherit it. WOOHOOO! Although, I dread the day my dad will die. Here’s a shot of the abandoned farm with a bear in it!
I got my 1st “real” job when I was 16, working at Wal-mart. After 6 weeks of bad hours, low pay and boredom, I quit and started my own business mowing grass. From there, I’ve sold
firewood, bred St. Bernard dogs and became a professional mountain boarder (selling online in the late 90’s with AOL dial up! That was before Facebook, Kickstarter and the like). Here I am with some of my St. Bernard puppies!
Here’s a commercial contest I was in from my “glory” days mountainboarding:
After the mountainboarding days, in 2006, God got a hold of our hearts and turned us towards aid work. We set off to Honduras to work in an orphanage of 400 kids, with only 15 staff. It was there that I was first exposed to farming. On day #2, I was put in charge of 12 boys and 1,200 one day old chicks! I didn’t speak 5 words of Spanish and knew NOTHING about raising chickens. I was forced to learn both, fast! It was a very conventional operation, but none the less, I fell for farming.
No lie, in 2007 someone just randomly asked us if we wanted some chickens. We said, “sure”. A couple of days later we’re driving home, proud owners of 4 hens we affectionately named Uno, Dos, Tres and Cuatro, in honor of our
experience in Honduras.
That night, Tres and Cuatro escaped as I was working in the coop. I turned my back for a second and then next thing I knew they were gone. I ran out to see if I could find them. Nope. They were gone forever. We got some “sisters” for Uno and Dos and we’ve improved ever since.
In 2008 a mentor gave me Joel Salatin’s book, “Salad Bar Beef”. If Joel ever had a “poster child”, I’m it. I did exactly what that book said, even if I did only have one cow! After that, it was his book, “pastured poultry”, then I discovered and implemented a lot of Harvey Ussury’s stuff from “Small Scale Poultry”. That was our launch into the sustainable farming and chickens. I have learned a lot, including how to sustain the flock without much (if any) outside input. I am still a student, ever learning and evolving. Here I am with my salad bar "family cows"!
As for the romance of our story behind
"Permaculture Chickens", it’s more of an adventure. In the summer of 2012 I began a major struggle with Lyme disease. Before this disease, we were doing well living frugally and growing a lot of own resources off the land. The debilitation spiked our bills (Dr’s, medicines, herbs) and lowered my ability to physically work.
I found permaculture out of an effort to be more efficient with my farm. I invested in the PDC with Geoff because I knew I’d have to find a different way to provide for my family than long days of physical work. I thought I’d be a designer. However, I quickly realized that wasn’t for me. The
"Permaculture Chickens" project is about 80% computer work and 20% physical. See... here I am hard at work:
Funny you mention
"Permaculture Orchard". Geoff showed us that film one evening, and I was totally impressed. I didn’t know it then, but that film set the stage for the quality of work that is going into
"Permaculture Chickens". In fact, Olivier was the 1st person I asked to be the videographer. He couldn’t do the project because he’ll be at home (in France) this summer.
In Geoff’s final speech, he challenged us to stop straddling the line between safe conventional livelihood and to jump on into a permaculture right livelihood. I was inspired.
Just 3 months after Geoff’s final speech, I had birthed the idea for
"Permaculture Chickens".
I will quickly admit, I am not THE best Chicken keeper in the world, BUT I am better than most! Plus! I’ve lined up 4 mega experts to help cover the basis! Here’s a picture of one of my latest projects:
"The Chicken Run on Steroids". My chickens thrived all summer on compost and food scraps!
The “Permaculture Chickens” project is more of an adventure than a romance for us because we’re “putting all our eggs into one basket” so to speak. This will be a different kind of livelihood than we’re used to. I’m trying to transition into work that is less demanding physically (films, teaching, blogging), but is still good for the sustainable food movement. I’m putting all I’ve got left in regards to time, money and
energy into this project. I believe it’s a great thing, and has outstanding potential to better our world!
Here's a quick link, if you want to help Kickstart,
"Permaculture Chickens"!
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Good luck Justin!
