I grew up in a military family and moved around quite a bit when I was young. Being constantly on the move we rarely ever felt 'settled' and as such did not do much with regards to agriculture, however my father grew up on a rice farm in Arkansas and my mother always liked to garden. When my father retired from the military one of the first things that changed was that our back yard became a garden space, but I still was not terribly interested.

In 2007 I moved to West Africa for work and while there I saw the general conditions of a populace attempting to emulate a 'Western Model' by migrating to the city and leaving behind the farming culture. I saw the struggles this created and the issues of living conditions and loss of connectedness to nature. Three years past before I returned to the US and at that time I was fortunate enough to purchase a large acreage in Oklahoma. For the first few years we had no response for people when they asked us the plans for our property. Then my mother took a permaculture course and introduced the principles to me. From that point on I have been hooked, reading everything I can get my hands on and constantly researching.

Now we are developing a full plan for our property. I have already introduced approximately 30 species of productive plants into the environment, and have easily that many producers and probably twice that many support and beneficial species that I plan to add. The concept of abundance is easy to picture when you start to look at what you can do WITH nature. I have not decided if I will take a formal PDC, but I know I will utilize the principles and teachings to make a system that will provide food security for my family.