November 2005 – December 2005 I took the month of November off from work to focus on classes and to help get the alpaca barn ready before our end-of-year deadline. My dad needed my help, and with the amount of schoolwork piling up, something had to give. By the end of October, the papers had…
Category: Part 3
Four States: Chapter Twenty Nine – The Great Ice Storm of 2005
October 25, 2005 Late October had held onto its warmth longer than usual, and the farm still looked more like late summer than the edge of winter. Many of the trees stubbornly clung to their leaves—some even stayed green. We knew cold weather would come eventually, probably sometime in November, but not now. Not tonight….
Four States: Chapter Twenty Eight – Fall on The Farm
September 2005 – November 2005 The end of August was hectic. Classes at Fairmont State started in a week, and I still had to enroll. Campus was buzzing with students buying books, carrying stacks of papers, and trying to figure out where their classes were located. Parking was impossible. I spent hours poring over the…
Four States: Chapter Twenty Seven – Summer on The Farm
June 2005 – August 2005 June marked a month of major transformation on the farm. The weather helped—sunny days, surprisingly low humidity, and that early-summer clarity where the air feels clean. We spent those warm mornings tearing out the last remnants of the old property, the old bones of a farm that had lived many…
Four States: Chapter Twenty Six – Road Trip!
Memorial Day Weekend 2005 While living on the farm, I still kept in touch with my friends from South Carolina. The one I talked to most often was Courtland. He and his sister had trained as missionaries with New Tribes Mission, and we frequently discussed his impending departure to China. Around that same time, a…
Four States: Chapter Twenty Five – Spring on The Farm
March 2005 – May 2005 To recap, over the winter, we focused on work inside the house, and we actually got a lot accomplished. The place had felt cold and empty for months—just beams, studs, and bare sub-floor. It was the kind of environment where you were always stepping over a stray two-by-four, dodging a…
Four States: Chapter Twenty Four – Duran Duran and the Ordinary World
March 29, 2005 – CSU Convocation Center – Cleveland, Ohio I was an ’80s kid in every sense of the word. I had an original Walkman clipped to my jeans pocket and a stack of Garbage Pail Kids held together with a rubber band. My toy box was filled with Masters of the Universe, Transformers,…
Four States: Chapter Twenty Three – Worship Team, Chasing Mice and a Breaking Point
February – March 2005 When South Ridge Church moved its worship services to the YWCA, something seemed to awaken in everyone. The building wasn’t grand or fancy, but it was full of light and song. The music lifted through the rooms and made even the plain walls seem to glow. The church began to grow…
Four States: Chapter Twenty Two – Warmth and the Winter Storm
January – February 2005 My winter vacation to South Carolina was relaxing—a welcome change from the quiet hills of Marion County. The South was congested and metropolitan, full of life and energy, a sharp contrast to the post-industrial stillness of home. It felt good to be surrounded by people and movement again. I got to…
Four States: Chapter Twenty One – The Right of Way Part 2
November 2004 – January 2005 After receiving the blue letter, we reached out to the lawyer who had been helping us with the contractor issue to ask how we should proceed. He advised us to speak with someone who specialized in property law, so we scheduled a consultation with an attorney experienced in that area….









