October 12th, 2023 Issue

In this issue of the newsletter I will take some time to introduce the different types of articles I will be sharing each week.

The style of gardening that I have developed over the years, I refer to as Quilt Gardening. The Quilt aspect refers to the different organized squares the crops occupy. Laying out a garden like this is very beautiful. But I have many reasons for arranging the different species of plants that I seek to nurture in this way. We will be exploring those reasons in upcoming issues.

I am the type of person that needs and enjoys a creative outlet. Designing my garden in a beautiful way really brings deep satisfaction. Even developing this newsletter for you is a way that I can enjoy being creative. I hope the fruit of that labor you will enjoy as well.

My gardening mentors have been Eliot Coleman, from Four Seasons Farm in Harborside Maine and John Jeavons, at Ecology Action in Willits California . If you were to combine thier experience, it would give you a full century of working to nurture good soil. I have spent time with both of them, and value their teaching very much. One of the reasons I share my teaching free of charge, is because both of these individuals freely shared their time with me as I was learning. God bless both of them.

One of the things you will soon learn about me is that I really enjoy being innovative. I have had some real successes and big failures. But I find great satisfaction in my daily work, by thinking of ways that I can do things better or different than before. Change is not something that bothers me for the most part. This part of the newsletter will be where I share with you many of the different innovations I have developed over the years, and how you could utilize them on your homestead.

This is a picture of our South American style Barrel oven. I collaborated with a friend on this, and will share with you more in the future how we utilize it on the homestead.

If you’re not a forager, let me encourage you to begin to take some baby steps in that direction. The amount of mineral dense free food that is available is amazing. I will often refer to my time in the fields and forests as shopping in God’s garden. If times ever did get tough and garden space was limited, then understanding what is available around you could be very important. It will be really enjoyable for me, to give you a glimpse into a forager’s seasons throughout the year.

The acorn harvest has been amazing this fall here in Northern Michigan. Here in an upcoming issue I will be sharing with you how I enjoy using this very nutritious resource.

I am an unapologetic lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has gifted me, with the gifts of teaching and exhortation. The gift of exhortation is either loved or hated. To those that are spiritually hungry, they love to be around an exhorter. To those that are complaisant it is a despised gift. The exhorter is passionate about encouraging other believers to grow in their faith and relationship with the Lord. As the Lord lays things on my heart, I will share them with you here in this part of the newsletter.

When I was a young lad, at the age of 17 I was very fortunate to have fished on the United States Fishing Team. After fishing in the Match Fishing World Championships in Mullingar Ireland in 1987, I returned to America and two years later started a mail order company called Float Fishing Specialists. I imported difficult to find European fishing tackle and sold it to my student here in America.

In this part of the newsletter I will be sharing with you many of the things I learned fishing with some of the best fisherman in the world. Our coach was Mick Thill. He is the only fisherman to have won gold metals in two different types of World Championship fishing. He won two gold metals in the Match Fishing World Championship and one gold metal in the Ice Fishing World Championship.

Fishing for me is part of my foraging activities. The reason I want to teach you this specific form of fishing is because it is so effective. Most of my students that have applied themselves have learned to catch 10X the number of fish they typically would have caught before. Most American fisherman have no idea this form of float fishing even exists. It developed in Europe because the fish have been caught so many times. Here in Michigan the average fish I catch has never been caught before. In many places in Europe the average fish has been caught 6 times or even more. It will be fun to teach you how effective these advanced techniques are on our seldom caught fish.

In this section of the newsletter I will be teaching a fly tying class to those that are interested. When I was 12 years old, an uncle that I loved very much began to teach me how to tie flies. Shortly after I began to learn, he died from a brain tumor. Before he died he gave me all of his fly tying equipment. By the time I was 16 I was working in a fly shop in my home town, tying special order flies for their customers. I really enjoy being creative with my hands. At that time I was referring to my fly tying business as Grandad’s Fly Box. I enjoyed tying many of the historical type patterns that you would have found in a grandfather’s fly box. Now that I am a grandad it takes on a different light. I put this video series together so my future grandchildren will be able to learn from me after I am gone. I offer it free to everyone. It was a labor of love to produce. Since I am new to Substack I still have to figure out how to embed a video here. If someone is familiar with how to do that, please leave a comment. Thank you!

Writing this newsletter will be a creative labor of love for me. I hope you enjoy it. If you would like to subscribe, and not miss an issue, you can hit the subscribe button. Each time I have a new issue it will be sent to your email inbox. If you know someone you feel would really enjoy and benefit from this resource, just hit the share button. Thank you and God bless!