The $10,000 Summer

I asked Andrea to write this article for our website. She was a little reluctant to do so because "we aren't supposed to talk about money, right". 

I told her that her ideas on how to fund her college education could be very helpful to other students. 

Her approach is very entrepreneurial and unique. 

Andread started her own business. 

She developed a whole series of curriculum for a broad age-range of students her first summer out of college, and she has been implementing this vision for teaching young people about music and music theory. God has been blessing her vision academically, financially, and spiritually as she serves her students and their parents through these classes.

Andrea is a double major in Music Composition and Vocal Music Education at The University of Northwestern in St. Paul. She has a 2-inch thick binder full of very positive evaluations from her students and recommendations from her student's parents, from these summer classes she has been teaching, and she hasn't even started her student teaching yet.

As you can tell she is a very talented teacher and a very hard worker both in the classroom and on the farm.

--- Brian, Andrea's father

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Some things just don’t seem possible.

Like graduating from college without debt. Right? With the price of universities all across the country skyrocketing, there is no way to go to a university for 4 years without at least a LITTLE debt, is there?

What would your world look like if you could make $10,000 in one summer?

But is THAT possible? (Probably only if you are a senior in engineering or maybe if you worked construction and a lot of overtime.)

I am here to tell you that it is; here's how I did it:

Watershed Moments - Farming

The journey back to the farm was a watershed moment. In an act of serendipity when Andrea was 3 years old we had some extra spring garden produce.

Watershed Moments - Silicon Valley

Even if you know us, you probably didn't know that we were in California when Andrea was born. We lived in Silicon Valley just down the road from the then struggling Apple Inc., about 15 miles from Gilroy the garlic capital of the world and about two hours from the Napa Valley vineyards.

Watershed Moments - Parenting

One of those watershed moments for every parent is the birth of your first child. Farm families are intimately familiar with the annual cycle of renewal. Lambing, calving, farrowing, budding of perennials and planting the new crop in the spring, all have a promise of blessing, potential and great things to come. But the blessing of a human child dwarfs all these other births combined

Watershed Moments - Marriage

There are many relationships in our lives that are important but the decision on who to marry is one of the most far reaching.

Watershed Moments - Graduation

The transition from college to career is one of the watershed moments in our lives. It is a pivotal moment of decision, investment and commitment.  Work is the biggest tool we have to generate income and make an impact on the world around us.

Watershed Moments - Never Quit

In her book, "Watershed Moments", Gari Meacham says, "A watershed moment is a turning point brought on by circumstances that stop us in our tracks. Some call it epiphany. A moment when everything changes. A point in time when nothing will ever be the same. Like a compass that provides direction, these are the moments that move us to new ways of thinking, relating, discerning and accepting life's challenges." In this series we will consider some of my "watershed moments" some will apply to farming and some are just life.

Watershed Moments - Work

We spend a great deal of time at our work over the course of our lives. While work should not defined who we are, work is the biggest tool we have to generate income and contribute to the world around us.

Watershed Moments - A Farmers Best Friend

If diamonds are "a girls best friend" according to the DeBeers marketing campaign, and a dog is man's best friend according to legend, then a pickup is the farmers best friend. I bought my first pickup when I was 17 it was a 1973 model, which was the year before