Suffolk family finds tranquility in self-sufficient living

SUFFOLK

Full Quiver Farm is home to a fresh-faced family that could have stepped out of a simpler, gentler place reminiscent of "Little House on the Prairie."

But this idyllic aura is the down-to-earth reality of Scott and Alison Wilson's family vision that springs from the Psalm 127 inspiration for the name of their family:

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

The fruit of the womb is a reward

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one's youth.

Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them."

 Calves graze by the roadside, cows low in a back meadow and a rooster struts the barnyard, crowing loud and often. Towheaded children seem to be everywhere - the toddler pulling a homemade wagon, youngsters playing on a tree full of rope swings, teenaged girls in long skirts and straw hats milking cows.

For the past five years the Wilson family has led a largely self-sufficient life on their 25 acres in southern Suffolk. In January, Scott Wilson left his job to devote his full energy to farm and family.

Their farm is a haven of sorts where the Wilsons' home church group often meets for Sunday services and picnics and the family hones their blossoming harmony during evening hymn-sings.

Such simple tranquility might not be for everyone, but works well for Wilson, his wife, Alison, and their nine children ranging in age from 2 to 17.

His vision evolved over the past decade to encompass a self-sufficient family where children develop entrepreneurial creative spirits, value family, work ethics and opportunities to serve their family and others.

"What we're doing is counter-culture but it's us," Scott Wilson said. "I want to be able to pass my faith and vision onto the children and teach them to teach their children."

"We're on board with what our parents are doing and want to carry on the vision," Morgan Wilson, 17, said.

The Full Quiver Farm store sells eggs, chicken, pork and beef the family raises.

They don't use the "O word," Scott said because they believe the government standards for organic meats don't come up to the Full Quiver Farm standards.

"We go a step above, using all natural techniques and no medicated feed," he said. "We don't use confinement techniques but keep everything moving to new ground, important for the pasture and for the animals."

A recycled camping trailer is a mobile hen house for the egg layers and hitches to a tractor to be moved every three days. The Cornish Cross broilers roost in lightweight tents like chicken houses, designed so Morgan and a few of the younger children may easily move them to fresh grass every day. The chickens thrive on a diet of grass, bugs and grasshoppers supplemented by feed and are ready for market at eight weeks.

A large vegetable garden grows on the ground the hogs rooted up as their pen is moved every few days. In the summer, the hogs take to the shade of the woods, but still run snorting for the trough when Will, 9, doles out leftover eggs and clabbered milk.

"Then you know what hog heaven sounds like," Scott Wilson said.

A few beef calves live on the farm but the Wilsons graze more cattle on a friend's farm. Friends help the family slaughter the chickens but the hogs and cattle are sent to North Carolina for processing. The younger children often ride with Scott to pick up the butchered pork and beef to sell in the farm store.

"Everyone is aware the animals are food, not pets," he said.

Even as 4-year-old Sam reels off the names of all the farm animals - Lily the goat, Marge the cow, Bess the dog - he stops at the chickens.

"They don't have names," he explained, "Because they will be processed."

The children tend the chickens, goats, cows and pigs, dividing the work into a milk team and a chicken team.

Madeline, 13, and Katie, 15, are the "cow whisperers," according to their mother.

"You can tell the cows' moods by looking at them," Katie said as she demonstrated hand milking.

Madeline also tends a small herd of LaMancha dairy goats, a result of a home schooling project.

The youngest children gather eggs and help weed the garden. And, Scott Wilson said proudly, Morgan can run the whole chicken operation almost by herself.

Home-schooled by their parents, the Wilson crew is pretty much cloistered on the farm. But what about when the chores and lessons are done?

"We play on the tree swing," Morgan said, giggling with her sisters about their games of "crash."

Do they miss what other teens might be doing - shopping, movies, concerts?

"We don't know what they're doing," Katie said.

"We protect the children from the world out there," Alison Wilson agreed. "We tell them some of the things we're protecting them from and others they don't need to know about."

Ten years ago the Wilsons were a fairly typical, if large, suburban family in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake.

Scott and Alison met playing trumpet in the First Colonial High School band. They went to James Madison University and married in 1984. Alison finished at JMU and Scott went to Northwestern University in Chicago for a year of graduate study in music performance.

But their careers took another turn. Alison, now 44, went into graphic design. Scott, a year older, became an Adobe software instructor. Then the children started to arrive.

"In the early days we had no vision," Scott said. "Just feed and water the kids and hope they turn out all right."

He believes God gave him the foresight that guides his family.

"We wanted to be more involved in our children's lives," he said. "I wanted them to see me doing my best work with them, not just watching me go to work, come home and vege at night."

His idea included a healthier way to eat and a family business that could involve the children, but farming was not an overnight decision.

For five years they researched and visited farmers. The family style had always been "seat of the pants," Scott said, so they'd have to stretch, to discipline themselves to meet a farm's relentless schedule.

They bought eggs to hatch and kept two roosters - shooing them into the garage when the crowing annoyed the Greenbrier neighbors. Then, when Scott was looking for a bigger family home, he discovered the farm on Manning Road and knew he'd found his dream's future venue.

Friends worried about the logic of their decision. Alison's father, a farmer, asked why they would want to work so hard.

"Now that everyone has seen what we're doing, they're very supportive," Alison said.

The farm is one big hands-on learning lab for the Wilsons.

During school hours in the family dining room, lessons focus on the practical such as calculating the right protein percentages in feed for different animals.

Scott Wilson wrapped in a lesson for the younger children on the changing needs of growing animals. Gabriel, 2, sat in Alison's lap with a picture book and Sam drew a picture of a chicken.

"Our goal is for the children to read and express themselves well, to know how to learn and love doing it," Alison said. "We're preparing the boys to lead their families and the girls to be wives and support their husbands."

Everyone has assigned household chores as well as farm duties, but life is not all about work.

On Sundays the Wilsons gather for worship with half a dozen other families at one of their homes. It's a full day with a potluck supper and lots of other young people to play and socialize with. They are not affiliated with either the Amish or Mennonites, as visitors often ask.

Birthdays are celebrated with streamers and a special meal chosen by the birthday child. Presents are small and hand-made with more coming from Alison's mother, who enjoys taking each child for a birthday shopping trip and lunch.

What's ahead for the Full Quiver family?

Scott Wilson said they are always looking for more land and more creative ways to use what they already own. He knows the older children will marry soon. The boys want to be farmers and the girls all want to be farmer's wives, even the ones as young as Hannah, 11, and Rebecca, 7, except six-year-old Lucy, who wants to be a "cooker."

"While it's hard to have them leave, maybe they'll bring their husbands into the farm and family," he said. "We wanted to experience the tough and good times with the children and we certainly do both, from beautiful sunrises to traipsing through cold mud to round up a hundred chickens."

For more about Full Quiver Farm go to www.fullquiverfarm.com

Phyllis Speidell, 757-222-5556, Phyllis.Speidell@pilotonline.com