Please welcome our newest member of the Catholic Restorationists, Chris Blunt, otherwise known as The Yeoman Farmer.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, a theme I want to focus on in this group is agrarianism, and the way it builds up Catholic family life and the contemplation of God.

Chris makes the third homesteader in the group after Jeff and Dan, and his site is loaded with great stories about the practical aspects and life lessons of a Catholic, homeschooling, agrarian family.

What I enjoy most about Chris’s blog is that it’s not at all abstract. It’s a journal of the day to day life of restoration from a first-person perspective. In one of my favorite posts, Chris details the experience of going out of town during lambing season at precisely the wrong time, and leaving his flock in the care of a young neighbor boy:

Thankfully, we left the farm in good hands. A sixteen year old home schooled neighbor, Matthew, who has the maturity of a 32 year old, agreed to handle the chores and keep an eye on the sheep. He has extensive experience managing his own family’s farm and livestock, and plans to attend veterinary school some day.

This weekend, he got lots of material to use on his application.

He called Friday afternoon to let us know that Bianca had delivered twin lambs in the pasture shelter. This was a big surprise, as Bianca had just lambed in August; I hadn’t been expecting her to lamb again so soon. It must have happened right after we’d left that morning, because they were dry and getting around nicely. Last year, she rejected one of her lambs. Matthew still remembered helping me hold Bianca so the rejected lamb could nurse, and said he’d keep close tabs on the situation this weekend.

Saturday morning, he called to tell us about two more new arrivals: Nera twinned out in the pasture. They looked okay, and Bianca’s lambs seemed to be doing alright, and the weather seemed fine, so we didn’t think any intervention was necessary. But by Saturday evening, Matthew was very concerned: the weather had turned miserable, and only one of Bianca’s lambs was following her around. The other was huddling weakly in the shelter. Together, he and I talked it through and improvised a strategy (thank God for cell phones)…

…I was already well aware of Matthew’s maturity, but this incident brought it out in spades. All of our conversations seemed like they were taking place between two adults. He suggested possible courses of action without hesitation. When I apologized for all the extra and unexpected work, he immediately interjected with “It’s no problem. I told you I’d take care of everything while you were gone, and this is what we’ve got.” I can’t imagine another sixteen year old who would’ve stepped up to the plate and taken the kind of adult, personal responsibility for our farm that he did this weekend. Anyone curious as to the results of growing up in a large homeschooled family should sit down and talk with him and his siblings.

To me, stories like speak admirably about the quality of character that can be formed in children by families who conscientiously choose this way of life, and confirms my own desire to do so.

I’m grateful to have Chris on board. I encourage you to give his blog a read.