Believe. Connectedness. Agriculture. These are three of my favorite words. I believe that we connect with words that speak to our core and who we want to be. We want to live those words. I need to believe in my work, and I do that through agriculture and writing. I dream up abstract worlds and grand ideals with my pen and notebook and capture the colors of reality through my camera lens: an idealist checking reality.
I am an Indiana farmer and writer who recently lived for a year in New Zealand. There, I worked on farms and learned about community and food while traveling around the North and South Islands. After my New Zealand visa expired, I took the next four months to visit Australia, Singapore, the Philippines, Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland. The year before traveling, I served as an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at the high school from which I graduated. Even though I taught for only a year, my students impacted me deeply, and I am grateful for them and the time spent as a teacher.
These experiences and many others, such as growing up on a farm, serving as a state FFA officer, and my time at Purdue and Penn State, have shaped my life and direction deeply.
And now, I work on the family farm, where we raise sheep, beef cattle, chickens, Clydesdale horses, and hay. I also own Root 61 Communications, which focuses on memoir, videography, and public speaking. The Kiwi Hoosier Blog features stories from these endeavors and more. I’m also a member of the Covered Bridge Art Association and am working on selecting photographs to display in the Art Gallery on the town square.
Thank you so much for your support in reading this blog and supporting the work of an idealist checking reality. Without you, the readers, this could not happen.
If you’d like to support me further, consider “buying me a coffee” (I’ll actually have a tea…) at my Ko-fi page. It means a lot, and it will help me print my photographs on canvas, cards, and more for the gallery. (In the future, I may perhaps expand into online sales!). I also will be able to complete a book I’m writing about my travels. The first draft is finished, and I am in the revision process.
Thanks again, and I’m excited to see where this goes!
~Elise
The Kiwi Hoosier 