MILEPOSTS OF MY LIFE: DAN MOVES BACK TO MINNESOTA

Dan put his home in Kentucky on the market and it sold immediately. The buyers were in a hurry to seal the deal so the closing was actually the next day after the purchase agreement. A termite inspection was required but there was no access to the underside of the home. The old stone foundation on the 100-year-old home was continuous and there was no basement or trap door to the underside. But the buyers insisted on an inspection. With their permission, Dan cut a hole in a corner of the craft room right in the beautiful hard wood floor to access the crawl space. No termites. Possession of the home wouldn’t be for several weeks so Dan and the family had time to go to Minnesota and look for a home to purchase.

With only a $12/hour income at the new job, their budget was limited but they had a decent down payment so there were a few possibilities. Dan still had country living on his brain so to get acreage he had to look a bit of a distance from the metro area to stay on budget. After looking here and there, they found a nice five bedroom home on two acres a few miles north of Princeton, MN, a 40-minute drive from his new job.

Dan and his family would miss lots of things about their life in Kentucky. But their hearts had returned to the northland and they would never regret the move back to Minnesota. In the end of May 1995, they loaded up a large moving truck, pulled a trailer with a car on it, and also drove their van on a two-day drive back “home”. They arrived at Dan’s parent’s home and stayed there until closing on June first. During this time Dan was all bothered that time was passing and he wasn’t getting his summer garden planted. So the sellers of the new home gave him permission to till and plant the large garden plot prior to closing. The closing came and went fine, however, Dan would inherit some basement renters for the first month. The renters were nice enough but the month sure went slow. Finally, they moved out and the Erickson family had their entire home to themselves.

One of the first thing on the to-do list at the new home was to find a decent church. Having had good experiences in an Assembly of God church the local Assembly church was the first choice. On Sunday the Erickson family headed out to the church just a few miles away. The facility was modest but nice, able to seat about 100-150 people. No one said a peep to Dan and family when they arrived, so they just sat down. There were only about 30 or so people scattered throughout the pews. After the perfectly average service, no one said anything to the Ericksons as they left. Clearly, with the nice facility and so few cold people, there was a story there and not a good one. That church wasn’t going to be home for them. Having grown up in the Evangelical Free church, Dan decided to try the local free church. Dan didn’t particularly like all the doctrines and attitudes of the free church, but they usually had kindness and friendliness right. The church was full of good people so the Ericksons settled there for the next few years. The children prospered in their faith in the youth programs and conferences, so it ended up being a good decision. An interesting side story: A few years later Dan drove but that cold Assembly of God church and he couldn’t believe what he saw. They were putting on an addition! A zealous, God loving pastor had come to the church and preached the word that people needed and wanted to hear. The church grew incredibly over the years and is a great light to the community and a great place to grow in one’s faith.

Dan soon began work at the school in Andover, MN and realized that he had gotten himself into harder work than he anticipated. The immediate projects he had were physically challenging and his already bad shoulders screamed in violent protest. Within two weeks it was clear that full-time work at the school wasn’t going to be a possibility. The various bosses were understanding and kindly reduced his hours to half time and took it easy on him with the hard labor. Of course, Dan couldn’t pay all the bills with the reduced income so another source of cash had to be pursued. As it had been so good to them in the past, reviving the craft business was the clear choice. So, for the next few years, the business grew again and did a fine job of meeting the needs, along with the maintenance job. Dan knew that neither the maintenance job nor the craft business was a long-term solution, so he often considered what he might do instead that would be more of a career that would work for the long haul.

For years Dan had wondered about and been a bit intrigued with the idea of selling Real Estate. Dan’s Dad had a successful second career in the Real Estate business while Dan still lived at home so he knew a bit about what the job would entail, the good, bad and the ugly. In late 1996 he heard a commercial on the radio with Century 21 offering careers and training in Real Estate and something just jumped inside and said it was time to give it a try. Next time: The start of a new, rewarding, successful career.

 

MILEPOSTS: THE KENTUCKY CHRONICLES 5: THE CRAFT BUSINESS

During the seven years Dan lived in Kentucky he did not have a regular job. Sometimes he worked for farmers bailing hay or whatever. He delivered the newspaper. He worked with his friend Steve in construction. He painted. Also, he and his wife grew their business of handcrafted gifts. While they still lived in Minnesota they made dolls and quilts for a company. In Kentucky, they developed their own line of dolls and then expanded into woodcrafts. The crafts were really pretty good and sold very well. At first, they sold wholesale to stores mainly in Kentucky. Eventually, they expanded to craft shows and got to the point where they could live exclusively on the profits from the craft business. The business demanded plenty of work and hours, but the work was at home and mostly very satisfying. For several years selling their crafts paid all the bills and then some. Over time it got a little old and both Dan and his wife wore wrist braces because of the constant pain from hand work. Sooner or later something different would have to be done for an income, but the Kentucky years were largely craft years.

For years while Dan worked at the School district in Minnesota he went on prayer walks whenever possible. In the winter he would pray alone someplace in his home but when the weather warmed up, the great outdoors called him to pray. In Kentucky on their 47 acres, there were great, scenic wooded paths to walk and because of the warmer weather, prayer walks could be done most of the year. Dan met with God very regularly in those hills of backwoods Kentucky and maintained great zeal for God and his ways.

With all the animals and gardening there were always things to do on the farm. But also there were crafts to make. Eli, Dan’s youngest son, loved to go out on the farm and work with Dan. Dan remembers fondly the days when Eli would hound him all day while he was working on crafts with the question, “Is it time to work yet?” When Dan finally said yes, Eli’s face would light up and he would head straight for the door excited about anything Dan would throw at him in the way of farm work. As Dan looks back to that time he wishes he could have spent more time with Eli and less time with the crafts. But that is a common thought of parents. Money must be made, that’s just the way it is. It’s not all bad for kids to learn that it isn’t all about them in this life. Being home with the children all those years was a great blessing.

When it became time to start school with the children the decision was made to homeschool them. Kentucky’s educational statistics were horrendous. Besides that, Dan wanted his children to learn his values and he wanted to help keep them from the temptation to sin that so often is rampant in the public school. They purchased school books from Rod and Staff, a Kentucky-based creator of homeschool curriculum. The first year the family drove to Eastern Kentucky to see the sights of Eastern Kentucky and go and buy the curriculum in person and see the Rod and Staff headquarters. It was run primarily by Mennonites. What wonderful believers they were. Dan and his family were invited to one of the employee’s home for supper and fellowship that evening. The old fashioned lifestyle and Christianity the Mennonites lived was very inspiring and encouraging. The fellowship was sweet. At home, when Josiah started his schooling, the first word he learned to read in the Rod and Staff curriculum was…God.

After three and a half years of roughing it on the farm Dan had had enough and he purchased a more modern home on an acre and a half for $15,000 on a contract for deed. Yes, it needed a tremendous amount of work. More about that home and lifestyle next time.