After 6 months

The Plan

My wife, two children, and myself moved to South Africa November, 2012.  We bought 40 hectares of a farm, and planned to build our own cob house, live off the grid, have a large organic garden and animals, and then work on community development.  Corné is a nurse, and wanted to help with HIV and premature births, and hoped to get involved that way as well. 

What Happened

About a month and half after arriving, we meet Pastor John and Nsoaki, who had a vision nearly identical to ours.  They were building the church at the moment we met, with the next plan to be a soup kitchen, then to start a Christian school next year (January 2014), and also begin a "Granny Garden" project to help the grandparents raising grandkids.  My experience as a teacher naturally lead me to be a part of the school project, and Corné wanted to be involved in the soup kitchen.  Our plan was quickly turned on its head, as we were brought into the church and the opportunities for ministry were right there in front of us!!

Cob Building

Another dream of ours was to build our own cob home.  We attended a workshop in Tennessee, in summer 2011 that gave us a hands-on experience of cobbing.  Here in South Africa, homes have been made from earth for centuries, and we had even seen earthen homes, so we knew it could be done.  The original plan was to build a small practice building (the store room), then a two story "barn/house"-the front half living space, the back a garage, workshop/storeroom, and a indoor area for the goats and small animals in cold weather.  After thinking long about the long lintel for the garage door, we changed that to a guest room.  Then we lowered the house-less cob to mix-to a one story with loft bedrooms at the lowest side of the house. The barn area became a TV/lounge room.  Originally the barnhouse was to be a place to live while we built our "final" house.  Just a couple weeks ago, we scratched the final house, and will live in the barnhouse until we feel like building again!!

The Name!

When we first started looking around for a spot to build, we found lots of porcupine quills.  The Afrikaans word for porcupine is ystervark, literally, iron-pig,which I took a liking to.  In emails with a close friend, the