Thomas and Nanci Kuykendall

At 04:48 PM 6/1/99 -0400, you wrote:
>From: Lois Hoover <lhoover@...>
If you haven't heard of Winona Farm check out
>http://members.xoom.com/winfarm/ The page was created by the 14 yo boy
>from Australia who is currently living there with his family.
>
>Lois


What an absolutely awesome place! I read the Web site "cover to cover" and
I wish we could go right away! Our kids are a little too young for such a
long trip and for farm work yet, however. I'll send them an email later,
telling them how wonderful I think their whole concept is.

It's increasingly difficult to find people who want to give of themselves,
their homes and their time to like minded "friends." Everyone is so
suspicious, it breeds more distrust. I am beginning to see, however, that
the Unschooling "community" seems to be a very open lot, with "radically"
forward (or is it deliciously backward?) thinking.

Nanci K.

Lois Hoover

>From: Thomas and Nanci Kuykendall <tn-k4of5@...>
>
>What an absolutely awesome place! I read the Web site "cover to cover" and
>I wish we could go right away! Our kids are a little too young for such a
>long trip and for farm work yet, however. I'll send them an email later,
>telling them how wonderful I think their whole concept is.
>
Actually, I don't think any child is too young for the Winona Farm. Little
two year old Stephanie was better at chasing down piglets than many of the
adults. Dick doesn't expect much out of the little ones. My youngest
having then just turned 11 wasn't expected to do much of the hard work, but
he joined even the two year old in collecting corn or the 10 yo in finding
potatoes for dinner or eggs for breakfast. He also got to feed the chickens
some kitchen scraps which is very safe there.

I know Sue, Dick and Nathan will be glad to hear how much you liked their
ideas and the web page.

>It's increasingly difficult to find people who want to give of themselves,
>their homes and their time to like minded "friends." Everyone is so
>suspicious, it breeds more distrust.

It's funny, but because Dick doesn't charge anyone to stay in his home many
people think he has alterior motives. But he's one of the nicest people
we've met.


I am beginning to see, however, that
>the Unschooling "community" seems to be a very open lot, with "radically"
>forward (or is it deliciously backward?) thinking.
>
Hmm, I'm not sure which would be the better term, but either way I like it.
We would like to get back there, maybe in the fall as summer is pretty
busy right now, we just miss the place and the people so much.

Lois

Sue

> If you live anywhere near Winona, try to make it over there! Dick and Sue
> are two of the most fascinating people we have ever had the pleasure to
> meet! Dick Gallien is a man that has been many places and has done many
> things and has some great stories to tell. Sue (who I just noticed is on
> this list, HI SUE!!) is Dicks partner and after nine kids has seen
> everything I think.

HI SANDI, Thanks, though I don't think I've seen everything yet, though
yesterday I found a fortune cookie in the food waste barrel from
Econo-foods; it said "you will step on the soil of many countries"... and I
sure have, I was born in England, and am not sure how many countries I
actually stepped on during the journey to Australia [where I lived for 40
years].... Malta, Africa, India for sure and now the USA.

> The four kids that live there now were fun to hang out
> with (tell them that Ian and Riley miss them terribly already!!). We
spent
> quite a few evenings sitting around with the kids sipping hot cocoa and
> watching them play.

Rhianon, Madeleine and Stephanie say Hi. They aren't fun to hang out with
at the moment, they all have colds and Stephanie is "barking" all night.
I''m making echinacea tea for them in the hopes of fighting it off.


> Though, if you are looking for a quaint country cottage where you can sit
> sipping tea while watching the youngsters frolic in the meadows with the
> sheep, you are probably going to be disappointed.

That is an option as the cabins are designed for "tourists" and we have had
a few unschoolers who opt to stay in the cabins and pay their way with cash
and a very small involvement in the work, or none at all if that's what they
want..... that's fine but we prefer to have visitors who are interested in
participating in the way your family did.
Some parents will "vacation" in the cabin while their kids get involved with
the dirty work, that's fine too. We have even had "normal" people staying
in the cabins who's children hang out with mine, collecting eggs, milking
goats, hatching eggs, looking after the new chicks, climbing the hill and
playing in the creek.


> This is a working farm,
> where there is a ton of work to be done and take part in. No one is going
> to hold your hand through it all either. Just like we leave the bulk of
> learning up to our young unschoolers, the exact same is expected of us.
It
> was truly a wonderful experience for our whole family.

That's a good way of putting it Sandi, and it sums up our ideas, as you
found out we like to let people rest on their first day, particularly if
they have driven a distance to get here as you did, then we hope that you
become involved with whatever is going on here, and as you found there's
plenty to do, even in Winter which is the quietest time of the year, in
summer we often don't get indoors until 10 at night, then we are back out
there by 7 in the morning.

>
> The town of Winona is GORGEOUS too. This was our first visit to
Minnesota,
> and instantly fell in love with its landscape. I even HATED snow before
> this visit, but now I can appreciate its beauty. Living in a huge city
> like St Louis, snow is usually a nightmare waiting to happen. There it
was
> almost peaceful.

I love the snow, as it slows things down even more, it's a great opportunity
to sit indoors and reflect on life, or get out and watch the kids sledding
and making snowmen. I just received an email "Winter weather statement"
predicting snow with significant accumulation for tomorrow afternoon, that's
way better than the rain and ice we had last week!

However no matter what the weather we have to make our daily trip to town to
collect the food waste, well we do have one day a year off as the store
isn't open on Christmas day, so I shouldn't grumble.... We started off
collecting food waste from two stores and did this for seven days a week
with no payment, we discovered that we were saving them huge amounts of
money when we started collecting from Econo-foods who wanted to pay us for
taking away their outdated produce and baked goods. So we quit taking from
the cheapskates who looked on us as cockroaches.... it's odd the difference
in the way we are treated now we get paid for doing a service, rather than
them looking at us as though they are doing us a favor by letting us take
their trash! We have now built up or number of "customers" so from our
lowly start as dumpster divers we now take the waste from two universities,
a hospital and the food co-op and are generating a reasonable income from
it. It may seem a lowly profession, but I figure that over the years we
have saved at least 3,500 tons of waste from ending up in landfills to rot
and pollute. So Dick's idea of "finding a worthwhile endeavor which you
would do for no payment" and then hopefully being able to make a living from
it in real unschooling fashion has worked for us. The kids are all
involved to a degree, depending on their ages, Stephanie [almost 5] and
Madeleine [7 yesterday] help with opening some of the packaged items such as
lettuce and yoghurt and feeding them to the chickens and collocting eggs,
Rhianon [12] does these jobs and helps feed the sheep and goats and milks a
goat and is in charge of public relations with the Hmongs when they come to
buy chickens, Nathan [almost 16] sorts the food waste from Econo-foods in
the warm weather [now Dick and I do that at Econo-foods] washes the barrels,
maintains the electric fence, raises steers and helps Dick with quite a bit
of the heavy work. He loves knowing that what he does makes a difference
to the environment. Rhianon is also our "tour guide" last year she took a
school group around the farm showing them the animals and explaining a lot
of things to them, she also loves to do this with visitors, either
unschoolers or "normal" people.

In summer we all help with the hay making... Steph and Maddi help by riding
on the hay wagon..... This is the heaviest hottest work on the farm, and it
feels so good when you're done. It amazes me to watch as Dick and Nathan
throw bales to the top of the wagon as I stack them, Rhianon is the lucky
one who gets to drive the tractor. Last summer we were racing the weather
and I took the truck to one field to collect hay while Dick, Nathan and
Rhianon collected it from another, we got all but 15 bales in before the
rain came. I did another load single handed as Dick was bailing some more,
that's something I'd prefer not to do again, getting up and down from the
tractor, throwing and stacking the bales in that hot weather was not fun
[til I was done].

Some times because of the work load we don't have a lot of time spare for
"visiting", that's partly why we prefer visitors who want to be involved.


>
> So, if you are looking for a REAL experience and not just some
manufactured
> one, take a trip to meet the nice people at Winona Farm. Open your minds
> and take in the new experience and learn along with your kids. It is a
> great way to prove that we are always learning, never to old to learn
> something new, and that age should never be a restriction (Dick is almost
> 70 and is the most agile and tenacious person I have ever met! He makes
> most people 1/4 his age look like slugs!!).

Now don't be too nice to Dick, may he makes people half his age look like
sluggs, but not those 1/4 his age. I sometimes have trouble keeping up with
his energy level, by the time we are finished with the food waste at around
5 or 6pm I'm ready to come indoors, but there is still things that need
doing outdoors, feeding the furnaces to keep the hoop-house and house warm,
feeding hay to the sheep and goats etc. Right now I have to get out and
help with the barrels, with Nathan away there's a lot of extra things for
Dick and I to do.

Sue

Sandi & Scott Spaeth

>HI SANDI, Thanks, though I don't think I've seen everything yet, though
>yesterday I found a fortune cookie in the food waste barrel from
>Econo-foods; it said "you will step on the soil of many countries"... and I
>sure have, I was born in England, and am not sure how many countries I
>actually stepped on during the journey to Australia [where I lived for 40
>years].... Malta, Africa, India for sure and now the USA.

That is cool Sue!! The last time I got a fortune cookie it was blank!! I
was not sure what to make of that, hahahaha!

>Rhianon, Madeleine and Stephanie say Hi. They aren't fun to hang out with
>at the moment, they all have colds and Stephanie is "barking" all night.
>I''m making echinacea tea for them in the hopes of fighting it off.

I was afraid of that. Ian caught a cold up there, and by the time we got
home I had it too (mine is mostly in my nose, I sound like some whacked out
cartoon character when I talk!!). I was worried the girls might catch it
too! I thought maybe mine might have been the extreme change in temps
though (it is currently 52 degrees in St Louis!! Thursday it is supposed
to reach 70 *sigh* then drop again *double sigh*). I hope they get better
soon :( Did Maddi have a good bday (other than being sick)?


>That is an option as the cabins are designed for "tourists" and we have had
>a few unschoolers who opt to stay in the cabins and pay their way with cash
>and a very small involvement in the work, or none at all if that's what they
>want..... that's fine but we prefer to have visitors who are interested in
>participating in the way your family did.


The cabins ARE gorgeous too!!!!! Though I would rather stay up at the
house where the action is.

>Some parents will "vacation" in the cabin while their kids get involved with
>the dirty work, that's fine too. We have even had "normal" people staying
>in the cabins who's children hang out with mine, collecting eggs, milking
>goats, hatching eggs, looking after the new chicks, climbing the hill and
>playing in the creek.


OH MY GOSH NOT NORMAL PEOPLE!!!!!! UGH!!!! HAHAHAH!!


>I love the snow, as it slows things down even more, it's a great opportunity
>to sit indoors and reflect on life, or get out and watch the kids sledding
>and making snowmen. I just received an email "Winter weather statement"
>predicting snow with significant accumulation for tomorrow afternoon, that's
>way better than the rain and ice we had last week!

Yeah, that was pretty darn nasty!! I will take snow over ice any day!

So we quit taking from
>the cheapskates who looked on us as cockroaches.... it's odd the difference
>in the way we are treated now we get paid for doing a service, rather than
>them looking at us as though they are doing us a favor by letting us take
>their trash!

Isn't that just SAD!!! We have become such a capitalistic society that
must people do not know how to deal with people that just DO something to
do it. They do not feel comfortable unless money is exchanged. I am the
kind of person that would rather barter, because I am just the opposite.



> We have now built up or number of "customers" so from our
>lowly start as dumpster divers we now take the waste from two universities,
>a hospital and the food co-op and are generating a reasonable income from
>it. It may seem a lowly profession, but I figure that over the years we
>have saved at least 3,500 tons of waste from ending up in landfills to rot
>and pollute.

I think what you guys are doing up there is great.


> So Dick's idea of "finding a worthwhile endeavor which you
>would do for no payment" and then hopefully being able to make a living from
>it in real unschooling fashion has worked for us.

And that is one reason it is so great.

Rhianon is also our "tour guide" last year she took a
>school group around the farm showing them the animals and explaining a lot
>of things to them, she also loves to do this with visitors, either
>unschoolers or "normal" people.

There are them 'normals' again!!! :)


>Some times because of the work load we don't have a lot of time spare for
>"visiting", that's partly why we prefer visitors who want to be involved.

I can imagine!


>Now don't be too nice to Dick, may he makes people half his age look like
>sluggs, but not those 1/4 his age.

Ok, I did the math and that would be a 17.5 year old person. I do know
some slugs in that age group, but that mostly stems from the fact that they
are trapped in school all day long and too bored and tired to do much else.

Right now I have to get out and
>help with the barrels, with Nathan away there's a lot of extra things for
>Dick and I to do.
>
>Sue

Have you heard from Nathan? Is he having a good time at his friends
house? We felt kind of bad leaving since we took your help away too! We
almost turned around to come back and help when we left last friday (how
did it go at St Marys?), but we were afraid if we did we might never return
to St Louis (and after we got back that started to seem like not such a bad
option!!). I also accidentally stole your bucket, hahahaha! I do not know
if you meant for me to take it or not, and once I realized I had it I felt
like a dork!

Oh well, I have been at this contraption long enough! Stay warm!

Sandi
--------------------------------------------------------------

Take no heroes,
Only inspiration.

Piston Ported Vespas:
http://www.piston-ported.hompage.com/index.html
words
http://www.geocities.com/vespass/words.html
ST Louis Secular Homeschooler's Co-Op
http://www.stlsecularhomeschool.org

-------------------------------------------------------------

Susan (mother to 5 in Fla)

Wait a minute Sandy & Sue.  I disagree with you both.  WE ARE THE NORMAL PEOPLE not the others.
 
Just teasing.

Tracy Oldfield

Normal? Me?? Never!!!!! I resent the implication!!! LOL

Tracy

> Wait a minute Sandy & Sue. I disagree with you both. WE ARE THE
> NORMAL PEOPLE not the others.
>
> Just teasing.
>