Hole in the Fence

Who we are: Samson (your host, editor, and web geek)
* Jeanne (my mother, camerawoman, and chief yeller)
* Denette (my ever-loving wife, mother of our children, and blog contributor)
* Logan (my film-mad son)
* Kaia (my always-inquisitive daughter)
Where to start? Ummm…this could be a long story, or…

…let’s do the short/sweet version:

* My family was SUPER green/sustainable/off-the-grid kinda folks when I was growing up
* During the summer of ‘74, when I was a toddler, my parents, along with my dad’s two brothers, built a log cabin in Minnesota and filmed the whole process
* In the early ’80s my dad built an alternative-fuels company from the ground up, processing waste oranges into fuel alcohol
* In the late ’80s my mom built an all-natural pet products company from the waste generated by my dad’s process (talk about reusing!)
* We raised chickens and sold organic, fertile eggs at a farmer’s market
* We had an organic garden where we experimented with different kinds of growing methods
* We even had a garden and chickens when we were living in a trailer park—on the DL, of course
* We always tried to use as little as possible (partly because we were dirt poor, but mostly because we felt a responsibility to do so)

Then, after I left home, I kind of…took a break from living consciously. For about 10 years my wife and I would experience small, intermittent “greening” moments (like recycling, creating a very small garden outside of our apartment, and reusing glass jars), but it wasn’t until about a year ago—when we rented a house surrounded by fields and wildlife—that we went through a “green renaissance.”

And it’s all my mom’s fault. About a year ago she came to me with a camera and a request. I’m learning how to do filmmaking through Public Access, she said. Do a show with me, she said. Okay, I said. Now here I am, fully involved in doing the same things with my family that my parents did when I was a kid, and I’m absolutely loving it.

I hope you love it as much as I do. If you do, let’s share on "Hole in the Fence"