Ben

Ben was born in 1995. He was the first to be born at home in our new master bedroom. His pleasant nature blended well with the busy life around him. And life with six older siblings in a house under construction certainly was entertaining!

As a young child, Ben was quiet and observant. To add to this, he had an eardrum burst from a bad earache around the age of four. This caused him to quit talking to us almost completely for the next several years. It made it very difficult to teach school to him, therefore putting him a couple years behind academically. By the time he reached high school, he’d caught back up because he was a keen learner.

He apparently picked up many other skills by observation. Later he became involved in our continuous home building project as well as the renovation projects on our two rental homes. During high school, he ended up earning a lot of credit for carpentry, home maintenance, and other related topics.

People began hiring him for projects of all sorts and expanded his skills to roofing, decking, and many other things. On the side, he enjoyed developing homesteading skills. I could fill this page with the number of crafts Ben has done, but I also want to show his deep intellectual side.

He is an American History buff. He took several high school classes along this line. He also took a number of Bible classes our church offered at their Ohio Bible College during high school and afterward. He has applied his Bible knowledge by occasionally teaching lessons at a home church in Michigan where he now resides with his wife Marlin.

Ben and Marlin have finished building a Tiny House together. Ben had started building it down at our house in Ohio before they were married. Then, he hauled it up to Marlin’s parent’s property. They plan to stay in that area while Marlin finishes her college degree in music, majoring in Cello.

If you’d like to check out how Ben and Marlin’s Tiny house project went, go to Blue Water Tiny House and “like” his page.