Who is The Historical Hillbilly?

A living historian, outdoorsman, DIYer and family man.

My wife gave me the idea of starting a blog to share my life with others. This blog is a telling of my story, and my family life. My goal is to get debt free, and support my family with a debt free lifestyle.

Who am I?

This is a question that I find we must all ask ourselves. If you don’t like that answer, you need to make a change. Identity is the most intimate concept of one’s self, and must be expressed openly. My identity as a husband and as a father is where I find self worth, and in providing for my wife and child, I find the most supreme satisfaction. I believe this started with my upbringing.

I grew up in a military family. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. When I was two years old, my family moved to western Missouri. I spent my childhood growing up on an Air Force base in western Missouri. I was lucky enough to not have to move around like other kids. This being said, many of my friends did move around. To this day, I have friends living all over this world.

My upbringing was very structured. I was fortunate that of my father’s deployments, I was only old enough to remember one. My friends came and went, minus a few very close friends (who I am very bleesed to have had). This instilled in me a strong sense of family.

When I was around eleven years old, my family and I moved home. Home to me has always been Washington County, Missouri, specifically around the small town of Potosi. This is where I spent the only vacations we took as a child. And as an adolescent, I loved being around family. I grew up four hours away from my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Now I lived within twenty minutes of them.

I graduated from Potosi High School in 2015. I was a student of theatre, which I enjoyed immensely. This is when I started getting involved in living history. I was a middle of the road student, getting semi-decent grades, and like all teenagers, thought I had life all figured out. After high school I was going to go to college, get a bachelor’s degree in education, and teach high school English, while directing theatre. As we all know, things change.

College was a bit of a breeze for me. I kept up with theatre and was in several productions as a college student. I had started doing community theatre at Mineral Area College (MAC) the summer after my Sophomore year of high school. Not long after I started at MAC, I took my first job working fast food. This is where I met my wife.

After breezing through most of the general education courses, I decided that teaching wasn’t what I wanted to do. I dropped out of college, because I was making (what I thought at the time was) pretty decent money as a shift manager.

After close to five years at my first job, and after proposing to my wife (girlfriend at the time), I left fast food to work for a fence company. I came to realize, I wouldn’t be able to afford a home for my wife and myself, so I left shortly after to work as a Correctional Officer.

With my new job as a Correctional Officer, I was able to get a loan for a fifth wheel camper, and my wife and I moved into our tiny home together. And life was quite cozy. Not long after we had been married, my wife and I were expecting. Our home was not big enough for us and a baby, so we had to make a change of plans. We sold our camper and moved in with family.

We received the unsettling news one day during an ultrasound appointment that our daughter (I don’t believe we knew the sex of our baby at that time) was going to be born with dual clubfoot. My wife and I were scared that there may be other issues and the doctors were no help. We were told we should undergo genetic testing and we would have to monitor for all sorts of things. It’s a very hard thing listening to a doctor telling you that your child is going to be born with a disability. All we could do was pray.

The pregnancy was very hard on my wife, as my daughter (who can be very stubborn at times) was breech and refused to turn. It was a very stressful situation on us, as we had planned a natural birth in a birthing center with a midwife. That didn’t happen. We had to plan a C-section for my daughter’s birth, and it was the scariest but most rewarding thing I have ever been through. I love being a dad.

Not much could be done about my daughter’s clubfoot at the beginning, but once she was old enough for treatment, it was intense. My daughter was eight weeks old when she had to go through her first casting. Listening to my infant daughter scream and wail through the casting was the worst thing I have ever endured. She would scream and wail the entire time the doctor put the casts on, and when she realized that she could not bend her legs, the screaming would continue. It is a very helpless feeling going through something like that.

My daughter had to undergo several rounds of casting. This was during the Covid-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020, so after the first round of casting, I was not allowed to go to the appointments. My wife had to endure four more rounds of casting, and each time she said they crying got worse. I’m incredibly proud of my wife and in awe of her ability to endure seeing our child go through such trauma. In one way, it was a good thing that I was not allowed in the appointments, because of the way the doctor would talk to my wife. I would surely have ended up with assault charges.

After five rounds of casting, my daughter had both of her Achilles tendons clipped, and had to be in casts for three more weeks. This method of treatment is known as the Ponsetti Method, and the end result is the child wearing ankle braces with a metal bar connecting the feet. My daughter did not tolerate the braces, and the midnight fits that our otherwise calm, happy baby girl would have led us to make an important decision.

There is a method of treatment for clubfoot called the French Method. The French Method is also used for other ailments, and consists of bone and joint manipulation and taping. There is a lot of physical therapy related with this method. There are very few clubfoot specialists in the United States and in our area, we had a choice of two orthopedic surgeons that are both a two hour drive from home. My wife and I were tired of dealing with doctors and surgeons that wouldn’t answer any questions and were impersonal so we took matters into our own hands.

through stretching and taping my daughter’s feet, as well as seeing a physical therapist, her feet have improved tremendously. They continue to get better each day.

Recently, I decided to make another career change, in order to spend more time with my family. When I was working at the prison, I was working multiple sixteen hour shifts a week. Eventually, it got to the point where everybody switched to working five twelve hour shifts per week. All I would do is sleep, eat, and go to work. Something had to change.

I left the prison, where I was overworked and ran the risk of getting beat up or stabbed everyday, and took a job offer from a close friend. I started the best job I’ve ever had working as a Behavioral Health Technician in an adolescent group home. My current position has me finally feeling like I can make a difference, and I now have time for my family. I won’t have to feel like I’m missing my daughter grow up.

This brings me to now. I type this as I lay next to my wife, after a long, rewarding day. We bought a mobile home, and had it moved to my in-laws’ property. We spent the morning working on the trailer. After about four hours working in the trailer, I left for work and some of her family helped her in the trailer. And after working seven and a half hours at my new job, I’m at peace and relaxed. I don’t feel worn down like I once did.

As I sign off, I would like to say I’m excited to share our journey with you. This is the beginning of an important chapter in my family’s life. I can’t wait to share it with you.