Meet-a-Student: Jacob Struble
- Laura Wayte
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Sometimes life needs to be shaken up and stirred. At 26 years old, our newest student Jacob Struble found himself wanting to add new skills and awareness to his life before continuing down his career path.
“I began thinking it would be really nice to experience some rural life and gain some completely different skills that have been missing from all our families for three generations,” he said. We talked in the barn this week on his day off, listening to the rain hit the roof.
Jacob graduated in 2021 from California Polytechnic Pomona with a Bachelor of Architecture degree and then immediately took a job at a southern California design firm.
“It was a great time! It was a small firm so I got to learn pretty much the whole process of doing design, from initial design to coordinating with the clients and consultants, to permitting with the city,” he said. For three years, the work mostly consisted of single family homes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and renovations, with some multifamily/commercial developments.
He said that as he began looking at his own life trajectory, he imagined building his own house. But these musings were colored by the upheaval in our recent history.
“I want to build and design my own house, and you need an empty plot of land to do that. Am I just going to have a small plot of dirt with a house or is it going to be a whole thing?” he asked himself. “It would be nice to plant trees and have animals. And while I was thinking about that, in an purely intellectual, architectural way, the economy took a nosedive… Well, maybe I should build my own house and have my own land … that’s how I started thinking about that. It wasn’t fear so much as just thinking maybe this is a direction we should take.”
But there was a problem in his mind that needed solving.
“I have no idea how to do anything: raise some chickens, plant a tree, or hitch a truck… anything!” he said. “All these things I know how to do are completely based on urban life. I wasn’t thinking about applying to Deck as a permanent change to my life. But I kind of just wanted it to have an adventure. I’m single, relatively unattached to everything. This is the moment.”
Jacob found Deck Family Farm when he came to Junction City for a Cob House course from Allie Maggio. While there, the group took a trip to Deck to see the examples of cob houses on the farm. Also, another student, Erin Coughennower, was in the course and encouraged him to think about working here,
“Erin was like, ‘Jacob, you should apply to the farm!’ And I was like, okay, that’s not probably going to happen… um, I have a whole job and everything in California. But then I started thinking about it and took the leap and applied,” he said.
He started with us in February and has been working with the chickens and pig programs this winter. He is getting right into the hard work and learning.
“I appreciate all the animals. But, maybe the dogs are my favorite. Dogs are the best animals,” he said. He made that statement while a cat named Kevin was making a nuisance of himself begging for attention!
Jacob is still planning for his “normal” future. He just returned from Temple, Texas, where he went to a meeting to network in the architecture world. He feels he made some good connections but is committed to being at the farm for 12 full months. By then, he should have a whole new set of values to bring to whatever work he chooses.
“I love having new experiences with friends,” he said. To me, he looks and sounds like someone who knows he’s in the right place.