Welcome to Thirsty Goose Farm where we regularly crowd our 16 foot dinner table with guests hungry for food and fellowship, pull zillions of weeds, laugh, cry, mess up the kitchen in record time, worship, practice natural farming and sustainable living methods, chase kamikaze chickens, cuddle muddy puppies, welcome the lonely, concoct strange probiotic food and drinks, love our neighbors and intentionally live life together.
Who are these crazy people?
We are an average, imperfect family chasing after Jesus and purposing to live a life glorifying to God by loving our neighbor- meaning whoever He brings in our path. This includes communities of people we have connected with throughout Africa, Europe, Indonesia, the Philippines and US along with our next door neighbors. We have chosen to live amongst several other families in a farming district in SC in order to intentionally engage in daily fellowship, work and ministry within a healthy community of fellow Christians who have the same desire to simply love God and the people around them.
My husband and I are blessed with five children- three incredible teenagers and two grown sons in Alaska who recently graduated from UAA. We designed our home to fit lots of people with a big kitchen, humongous dining room and guest rooms that have experienced a continual flow to of visitors since the day we unpacked the pillows. We usually have several people living with us at a time; currently there are a couple of young adults assimilating into our family and assisting with farm projects, a worn out missionary, a business woman seeking a safe place and a care giver in need of respite.
As a registered nurse in Alaska for 20 years and a missionary treating incredibly poor, undernourished populations, I have come to value the vital role of nutrition in health. This journey has led me to a stimulating new vocation- farming! At this point we have a big experimental garden- about 4,000 sf of deep mulched beds, 50 fruit trees, 12 grape vines, 5 dozen berry bushes, 60 chickens, 2 spoiled geese, 2 lonesome heritage turkeys, 2 naughty dogs and a feral cat who noticed we were lacking a feline presence and graciously adopted us. We are learning natural methods such as no- till farming, deep mulching and composting, Korean Natural Farming inputs, water catchment, growing our own IMOs (indigenous micro organisms) and using beneficial insects and animals on our seven acres smothered in wild, wicked, thorny blackberries.
My husband is a mechanical engineer with a PE in civil engineering and is the mastermind who creatively makes all my dreams and plans come true. He is running a DOT project in bush Alaska for the next year, but today he is home busy channeling an inlet to the little pond that waters our desperate plants (we have suffered intense months of drought and heat during our first year of farm establishment). His amazing skill set of designing, building and somehow figuring out how to fix ANYTHING is a gift I am so thankful for! We enjoy motorcycling through the nearby North Carolina mountains when we aren’t occupied with shoveling truck loads of mulch, hauling water, building fences, digging trenches or other such thrilling chores.
We desire to be wholehearted lovers of Jesus, pure hearted lovers of people, and acquire more knowledge and practice in sustainable farming and primary health care in order to teach here and abroad in developing villages we maintain relationship with.