My wife Velma and I believed we were living the dream, working hard. I had spent 20 yrs in the Marine Corps, and Velma had spent the majority of that time supporting my career and raising our three children. We had the cars, the big house, but it was turning out to be just an endless pit of maintenance. Velma finished her B.S. in Business, and I my M. in project management. We opened our home to o
thers, and found while we had many skills given to us growing up, that not everyone is lucky enough to be given. We began to evaluate how we were living and decided we no longer wanted to work merely to maintain things. We decided something had to change with our model for living our lives We began with stream lining our lives, so that we could spend more time sharing time and energy with others. We took a good look at those skills and talents that had been shared with us growing up and decided to start a non-profit where we could share the strategies, skills and education that had been given to us. We have designed our programs to provide instruction and share basic life skills in areas such as home care, household financial management, producing and preparing food for their families. These skills will be taught directly through hands-on and practical real world application. Other instruction will include areas such parenting skills, interpersonal relationships and self-reliance. These skills will be taught in guided discussion, practice groups, and modeling of skills from mentors. Other areas of instruction may be added as needed to meet emerging needs of those being served. What sets our organization apart from other organizations is our belief that most individuals are capable of becoming self reliant. Our commitment to teaching and sharing “back to basics” skills. We will teach skills that used to be common-place with our grandparents generations such as raising food from seed through gardening, canning, storage, preparation and cooking. We will include all the steps from seed to table. We will teach and mentor a no-nonsense approach to life challenges through problem solving, evaluating inputs, identifying a desired outcome, and finding the tools necessary to follow through. In conjunction with back to basic skills for food and living, we are also embracing the Tiny House movement for providing low cost, highly sustaining living though tiny houses. We incorporate building techniques and skills. Through building tiny house either from scratch or conversion, we share carpentry, electrical and plumbing skills with our participants. Our journey is ever evolving, come join and share.
