J.D.'s Farm Story

In a sense, I have lived in the country all my life. I grew up far from my nearest neighbor in rural Missouri. My folks were educated idealists from a long line of farmers, and they wanted their children to experience the country life they found most comfortable. They also provided plenty of books, and these became my escape from my little world.

I left for college with hopes of finding a way to live as a poet, and ended up exploring the country over the next ten years. When I reached Phoenix Rising Farm in Florida, I knew I’d found a place where the poetry in my heart could live. I also found out about the intense rhythms of farm life and farm work. Working on a 40 acre organic farm, I was expected to pull long days of hard labor with minimal breaks. I learned some strategies for making my motions efficient in Florida, and in the wild blueberry fields of Maine where my friends and I traveled to work in the summers. Over time this efficiency of motion became a kind of dance, or prayer.

When I was ready to move on to my own farm, my grandmother was ready to pass her family land on to me. I moved to Indiana in 2003 with my partner Kilgore, and we started building a cabin on the 80 acres of old forest and fields that had been in my family since the 1880s. Over the next year, we struggled to build our house with hand tools while living in a tent nearby. We started a painting company in the nearby town of Greencastle to support ourselves and pay for our building materials—in time, this evolved into my business Rogue Renovation. When Kilgore left, I began reaching out to Bloomington, Indiana for a community to support me while I built my farm. I’m still connected to the wonderful community there, but I’m slowly working my way back to my land.

I have been amazingly lucky to be able to steward a piece of land this beautiful and untouched, and so imbued with my family’s history. I am even more excited about building my farm here now that I am starting a family of my own. My partner Bruce and I are having a great time parenting two-year-old Silvan, and renovating a tiny farmhouse in Spencer, Indiana while we build our farming skills and business. We have goats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, dogs, and many cats… and two beautiful peacocks I couldn’t resist. We are fledgling vendors at the area farmers markets, and supporters of the local foods movement.

Grace lives down the road, and we make soap, salves, massage oils, lip butters, and anything else we can think of in each other’s kitchens, and work together in her family’s gardens. This is one of the most fun and positive things I do. Working with herbs in this way to make beautiful, natural cosmetics and soaps is a great fit for me, and brings me back to many of the things I enjoyed in my childhood. I call my farm Fullcircle because I feel like I’m always coming back to this… my feeling of deep connection to the natural world and people who take care of it.