The Wintons come to Virginia
Last weekend my family and community received a special blessing: The Wintons came to visit for a few days and performed a bluegrass gospel concert at our home. We enjoyed sweet fellowship while preparing for the concert, as well as during the dinner and concert that saw almost 100 people join us for a lovely evening of mountain music in our beautiful spot in the Highlands of Virginia. In addition to their fantastic musical performance, Randy preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, as well telling the Wintons’ story about adopting their daughters, Randy’s MS, and their family’s work on a adoption documentary film and in promoting CHI vendors across the country.
Family Farming with Pleasant Pastures Farm
On our way across the country for our bluegrass tour, we had the great pleasure of spending several days with Aaron Blick, owner of Pleasant Pasture Farms in Viola, Illinois. Aaron is the product of a multi-generational vision for farming, working alongside his father to build the farm so he can pass it down to his sons. Hear about how the Blick family has continued a tradition that used to be the norm, but is a rare phenomenon today.
A Family in the Plains
While in Nebraska, we visited with our friends the Coleman family in Arnold, a small town almost directly in the middle of the state with an approximate population of 600 people. I admit that it is by far one of my favorite places that we’ve been while on our bluegrass tour, and that Matt and Katie are some of the nicest people our family knows. Each morning during our visit, Matt, a second-generation farmer, would get up and go with his dad out to plant corn in the fields, and even now Matt often brings his 3 year-old son Josiah to ride in the tractor with him.
Living on the Road as a Family
We, The Wintons, recently left California on our nationwide bluegrass concert tour. We will be gone for about four months, playing 35+ concerts and living in our 29 ft. motorhome along the way. If you haven’t been in a motorhome before, that amounts to about 232 sq. ft. of living space. As a family of six that means less than 40 sq. ft. per person. This can be trying at times. Thankfully, we have done this kind of thing before, so we aren’t completely unprepared. Still, living in small spaces for four months poses its challenges.
