Ark Homesteads

Dear friend,

A few years ago my family was living in California, and it felt like we were working harder every year just to stay in the same place. Prices kept going up and our savings kept going down. My parents were both working, Aaron and I were in school, and we were all running in different directions. We'd see each other for a few minutes at night and then do it all again the next day.

I didn't have the words for it back then, but we were living a disintegrated life. Work, school, faith, and family were all happening in separate places, and none of it really held together.

So we moved to the Midwest. My dad found a job in Missouri, and we rented a townhome near Kansas City for about $2,000 a month. It was a nice place, but none of it was ours. We didn't own the ground we slept on, we didn't know where our food came from, and if anything went wrong we didn't have much to fall back on. It felt like we were renting our whole life.

One Tuesday night we lit a blessed candle at the dinner table, held hands, and each of us asked God out loud for land. The next morning Aaron and I were at the county office paying property taxes, and an older woman overheard us asking about land. She said, "You're trying to get in? I'm trying to get out." We saw her place on Thursday and signed on Friday. We paid $53,000, and there was no bank involved. She financed it for us, and we paid it off in a year.

Today we have three acres. My parents live in the main house. My wife Rachel and I live in a tiny cabin, and Aaron has his own cabin across the field. We have a cow and her calf, goats, over seventy laying hens, and two Great Pyrenees named Pax and Pia who guard the animals. Solar panels run our fridges, we're setting up two 3,000-gallon water tanks for our permaculture system, and we even built a sauna. We've also been able to buy more lots around us. We now have over 10 lots, with one main house and two tiny cabins.

Most of our work and prayer happens right here at home now, and our family is closer than it has ever been. The first time I pulled a dozen eggs out of our own coop, I understood what words like “heritage” and “legacy” actually mean.

Rachel and I hope to have a family of our own someday. When we do, I don’t want to leave our children a house in the suburbs they don’t care about. I want to leave them land, and a community of good Catholic families to grow up alongside.

Our mission is to build Catholic villages across the world.

We want to bring back the towns where the bell tower is the tallest thing on the horizon — communities where Christ rules, children thrive, and family is the foundation of everything.

Where we're going

We see these three acres as the beginning. Our hope is to build a Catholic village on a few hundred acres, with a working farm that families can visit and learn from. We want to help Catholic families make a good living and raise their kids close to the land and close to the faith, wherever God puts them.

We're praying about where and how that happens, and we'll share every step of it. In the meantime, we want to help your family take your first step toward a homestead of your own.

Ark Homesteads is our family's own work. It isn't a program of any parish, diocese, or Catholic organization. Our story is our real experience, not legal or financial advice.