The Jr SkillCenters Country Living and Rural Adventures Campus located in Monterey Tennessee is a nine acre working farm utilizing an outdoor classroom model to empower youth with traditional skill-sets.  Traditional, rural, country, all describe a lifestyle where families were self-sustainalbe.  Food production included a cycle of life that includes a natural stewardship of the land and the domestic creatures that shared it.  From bees to earthworms, early homesteaders relied on nature to participate in the rhythm of seasons to feed themselves.  Skill-sets including gardening, planting orchards, raising animals, preserving foods, cooking, smoking meat, canning, butchering, not to mention all the construction trades needed to maintain a farm.

The Jr SkillCenters Country Living and Rural Adventures Campus will serve to unite youth and their family members in a series of learning adventures.  Programs planned to start this year include the Jr Tillers (Family Self-Sustainable Gardening incubator) Jr AgTech (Farm Safety, Construction and Fabrication program) Jr Anglers (Aquaculture and Sport Fishing program)  These programs join the already popular Jr Chefs (Youth Cooking program) and the Jr Grillers (Outdoor Competition Cooking team)  The 2011 year is a start-up year for many programs, but the schedule includes a lot of neat adventures, a lot of hard work, and hands-on experiences.  Early settlers worked hard, played hard and enjoyed life to the fullest.  The Jr SkillCenters’ Country Living and Rural Adventures Campus plans to inspire families to use all of natures gifts to become self-supportive.