Living Hazzardously

Little pieces of our journey with Jesus

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Livinghazzardously, The update that is long overdue:

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First is WHAT:

We opened a business (Named “Spring Lake Heating and Air“)

and a mission (Named “Sam’s Place”).

We had hoped to one day open an adult foster care home as our primary occupation. But like so many plans I have made in life, God gave us something bigger, better and more achievable. Instead of focusing on 4-5 guys, we are now providing for up to 15! WHAT???!!? We still have our home, but we are no longer planning to open it up to “Adult foster care”… Instead, we opened a retired hospital built in 1938 and was converted to a retirement home in the late 1960’s. A home for 15 guys. A home (best as we can) family setting, a place for individuals to prosper in life, a place that’s quiet, safe, clean. Our “new” home is located on the Rice river and Bigfork river confluence in the bustling little town of Bigfork Mn. We still have plans of gardening, but gave up our plan on cows, a goat and a Donkey. Delivering help to the guys that sometimes need just a little bit of help to stay out of institutions, jail, sheds, parks, tents and cars. A warm clean place where meals are made from scratch and ramen noodles are no longer the only option. 

I am still working full time, providing the initial start up of Sam’s Place. Jess is working full time without a salary, together we are Livinghazzardously towards a goal of a self sufficient at Sam’s Place.

One thing that has never changed is: We desire to provide meaningful and productive opportunities that meet and advance the living skills of our new, expanded family.  We will see how God provides!

Second is WHY:

We first moved “up north” with plans to open an adult foster care home. Soon we discovered this would never happen, due to how Minnesota operates its systems (see Minnesota corruption and fraud in 2025). One of our motivations in this bold move was the inability to keep Al safe in the cities. With so many variables (that too is a long story, I would love to share, just ask) I quit my excellent paying job, and we loaded up the truck and moved to Spring Lake, much like Jed Clampet.

From a very early age, I wanted to open some form of “young-men’s camp” where individuals that struggle in life can go to get mentorship, guidance and direction. Jess has always had a big heart for the Special needs community and she has always wanted to help in that area…. Sam’s Place seems to be the perfect combination of both these heart driven paths. 

Now is WHEN:

God’s Timing! We had no idea that our son Sam would be taken away at the age of 22.  We had no idea that God’s plan, which included Sam’s love for those in need, would foster the hope and dreams we now call “Sam’s Place”. Never have we “given up” but we have always been on the hunt for that perfect opportunity in life to give back the blessings of God to those we can help. Through the pain of loss, God provided for us. In God’s plan we found the path. Confirmation came in so many ways (Family, friends, the Bible, our sons) it seemed to be the only option. So we started to take our leap of faith and changed everything in our lives, continuing to move toward this common theme we called “Living Hazzardously”. God’s provision has always been there!

Traveling to WHERE:

We needed the right place, right price, right peace! Where we thought our plan was in adult foster care, God’s plan was to move us into the area he would provide the perfect opportunity…  We thought we needed a house that could be used as adult foster care. God’s plan was to provide a business plan of Heating and Air conditioning so we could fund the big project of Sam’s Place. We thought our home needed to meet certain criteria to start adult foster care, God’s plan was to give us the basis to start a project we never thought of. We thought we would be giving up income and security, God had set us up to succeed in other areas. We thought we needed the land, God knew we needed a small part of a city block in Bigfork. We thought everything needed to fit our dream, God’s plan was bigger than our dreams.

We traveled for months, searching and visiting so many homes. We traveled from Chaska into the Arrowhead, over to Lake of the Woods, nearly to Fargo and all points in between.  Then we found Spring Lake.  It fit every requirement but one, the remainder of God’s plan…  

So, you want to know our bigger dream?

Our plan? It’s easy. We thought we would one day be building three cottages on our land to be used for our ministry of helping marriages survive and thrive in the world of special needs. Instead it was purchasing an old neglected hospital…. Although our dreams have changed a lot, our big dream was to provide respite care when needed. Now we provide direct support and instead of providing foster care, we provide adult care for those that need help in staying off the streets. 

Sam’s Place is a tax deductable 501c3. We need your help to continue in our long term mission. Not just to provide for our Guys, but to continue to improve & provide services, even when we dont make the ends meet, giving back, because God has first given so much.

Please join us on this “Hazzardous” adventure! We have many needs, but the most valuable is prayer.

One thing that has never changed is this: LivingHazzardously is stepping out in faith, knowing it’s God’s prompt, trusting the Lord to provide.

Thanks, God Bless, C.

(Edit)

Below is a letter, please continue as we are indeed needing some help…

Subject: Help Sam’s Place Continue to Provide Safe Housing and Hope in Itasca County

Dear Friend,

We urgently need your help.

For eleven months (as of December 2025), Sam’s Place has provided safe, stable housing, home-cooked meals, and personal care to more than twenty individuals who had nowhere else to go — people coming off the streets, out of literal sheds, out of shelters, or recovering from hardship.

Recently, we learned that the 16 county “Rate 2” supplemental service designations we depended on, have been given to a different organization. This means we will not receive payment for over $40,000 of services we’ve already provided — or for the critical care we continue to give daily.

Sam’s Place was founded in memory of our son, Sam Arseneau, who passed away in 2022. Sam’s heart for the needy and outcast motivated his family to help people rebuild their lives.

We believe in doing more than offering a room — we provide community, guidance, and compassion. Without immediate support, we face serious challenges in continuing that mission.

Your donation today will directly support residents — local veterans, retirees, and neighbors — who depend on us for housing, food, and care. Every dollar stays here in Itasca County, making a difference right now.

Please consider donating today:

Online: samsplacenorth.com
By mail:
 Sam’s Place
PO Box 313
Bigfork, MN 56628

You can also call us at 218-256-9154 to learn more or pledge your support.

Thank you for standing with us during this critical time. Together, we can keep hope alive for those who need it most.With gratitude,
Jess & Charlie Hazzard
 Founders, Sam’s Place

The cold has descended from the north.

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Winter sets in and reminds us to bundle our fragile bodies with arctic defying layers to protect our ever desired warmth. Oil furnaces start with a mighty puff. Lp and Natural gas furnaces start with a gentle woosh. Wood fires start with a strike of a match in the basements of so many homes. The heating season is on us like Groot on a laser light or a bouncing ball. 

Last week we took a day trip, Drax and Groot stayed at the farm as they do so many days. Playing and “protecting” the chickens from the many predators desiring a quick chicken dinner. As we arrived back home I noticed something “out of the norm”… Groot wasn’t in his normal spot and Drax was unseen. As I maneuvered into the parking spot, parking with the precision of a blind air traffic ground crew. Still no Drax. I approach the house behind Al moving at lightning speed, on a mission to check and make sure his “stuff” in his room has not disintegrated into a vapor while he was gone for hours…  I noticed a patch of blood, large, fresh and in the pattern of a paw… Two large pawed pups made the way into the house right behind Al. 

I discover Drax has a gushing wound on his paw, he is breathing rapidly and very shallow, his gums are pale and he gently lays down in front of me as if to say, “you are not walking past me dad”… I squat down, seeing a pulse of blood oozing out, I move into doctor mode “JESS, GRAB A WRAP OF SOME TYPE, NOW!” After a year’s long wait Jess comes flying around the corner with a towel and I proceed to wrap up the paw… “Direct pressure” I exclaimed “I need to get changed into something more suitable, hold this for a minute while I get changed” In my super man mode I am able to pass though walls and floors into the bedroom where I find a quick change of clothes. Now it’s time for my assistant, “Jess, change into some grubbies…”

Slide the time line forward, Drax is fully recovered and no worse for the wear. What’s with this dog? Last year he chased a plow truck and got a broken paw and bruised lung… leading to the GPS collar (may I add, that’s literally been a life saver).

Job 37:6 Doing great things which we do not comprehend.

For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’

Job37:9,10 From the south comes the storm,

And from the north wind the cold.

From the breath of God ice is made,

And the expanse of the waters is frozen.

I thank God he protected our pup yet again this year as the winter descends like a howling wolf. It was about this same time last year Drax played tag with the plow… winter is a bit rougher in Itasca County than it was in Scott County. There is a side of appreciation to this winter wonder land. It tests a man, makes a man stop and think… God is so much bigger than our “issues” God determines the earth, spins it on its axis and draws the cold from the north, the heat from the south and measures the length of the days… He is in charge, and he is the one we lean on… 

We praise God in the dark, in the light, in the sorrow, and in the Joy.

Today is Sam’s birthday, he has been sober and clean for 1,186 days… There is joy in this thought, even when we feel sad in our loss. 

Join with me in remembering the young man I remember, Sam. How he always took time to help those less fortunate, those in need and those that didn’t fit in. His love and generosity are a guide post for us still today.

Are you feeling the winter blues? Come on, it’s too early for that. Being grumpy, upset and sad won’t change anything, but deciding to find the joy in everything sure makes things better. 

Today, continue the thanksgiving and giving thanks from last Thursday, keep it in your heart the whole year and see what the Lord will do with that… 

C.

Cold-play @ Coldplay

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I am sure you have seen the fate filled night, a loving embrace and the end of a career, marriage, family as we know it. If not, it may be valuable to understanding this blog by just taking a quick peek on the web, type in “Coldplay” and I am certain you will see the heartbreaking betrayal that “everyone is buzzing about”.

What is it that drives a person to such a level of betrayal? What motivates us humans to make a solemn promise, and then break it for a moment of personal satisfaction? 

Jess and I sat at the table talking about another type of betrayal today… IGNORING, or better known as the silent treatment… The silent treatment is betrayal. It’s a form of manipulation and its distinctly different from “taking a break to gather your thoughts” … betrayal? Yes! It’s the intentional withholding of attention and acknowledgement of a human for the purpose of conforming that person to your own desires, will and intent… The cold treatment, silent treatment, cold shoulder, ignoring… This is how I am personally hurt the most deeply, most quickly and most reliably… and with my “big voice” and my “big personality” it is the most common form of rejection I experience… Now enter into my abandonment issues and it’s a perfect screen play. I have been living this drama my entire adult life… to me there is no way to hurt me more than to ignore me, it’s going deep into my trauma responses and the PTSD I live with everyday (the source of my Fibro).

Betrayal, Abandonment, Rejection, Exclusion… remember the kid that got picked last for the neighborhood football game? That kid was me… that kid was the kid whose father had never played ball with him, never brought him to a game, never bought him a football, basketball or a baseball… that kid that was me. I was only taught how to work, how to build a patio, building a terrace garden, Veggie-gardening, digging holes for fence posts. Being yelled at was pretty much the only attention I received from my father… I never got to see how to treat a wife, a child, a brother or how to be treated by a mother, I’m not looking for “OHH POOR CHARLIE” I’m simply saying that getting picked last, every time, for sports taught me to hate sports. It was just more rejection.

 So I raised myself, I grew up basically feral, like many kids in Gen X, our parents had little or no time to teach us what their parents taught them. So we found substitutes, we found music, MTV, Walkman and parachute pants with a rat tail…. I hid from life, from my brother, from my sister and most certainly from the man I called dad… I know what rejection is, how it plays out and how easy it is to give it right back.

I am at a different point in my life now, one of patience, calmness and understanding, I am pretty sure I am a bit more “grown up” now but as I am now closer to 60 than 50 and my body hurts, my mind is foggy and life is forcing me into an easy chair. I fight to maintain my autonomy. I fight like millions before me to stay young, agile, alert and useful. I watch quietly as the generation before me ages out of this world and begins the geriatric journey to meet our maker.

As I enter the age of strokes, heart failure, broken hips and saying goodbye to those I have known my who life, I pause for a moment and recognize an old man unable to stand as the song he once belted out is performed by others and all Randy Travis can sing is the last word “AMEN”.

I watch Ozzy as he ascends from below the stage and is wheeled into position and the chair is locked into place. He grabs the microphone and is able to bellow in a voice that was once powerful for other reasons “MOMMA, I’M COMING HOME”.  I grew up watching Ozzy perform all his crazy stunts, I saw Ozzy and I understood Ozzy, he performed songs that I could relate to, and now I can relate to this song, differently than ever before. Funny thing this life is, funny thing.

So back to the Coldplay concert, I see this performance by a man and woman. I see and feel the hurt they caused. Those who are left to struggle with this betrayal… Betrayal that can never be undone. It’s taken years for me to deal with the betrayal I felt on a crisp September morning.  Today, It plays back in my head and I remember the betrayal I felt. I remember the pain of being the last kid picked for the neighborhood games. I remember striving to “fit in”. I think of our son Sam, as he too struggled to be accepted by his peers. I see those at Sam’s Place that struggle… This life is definitely a “hard knock life” . But if we start to give back, rather than always looking for ways to get more, we seem to do better, find more joy and most importantly, we don’t hurt the ones who love us most. 

Betrayal isn’t about self fulfillment and joy, it’s about stealing that joy and destroying it, for what? A moment? A week? Two years of sneaking around? Destroying the life of a child, a spouse, a friend… I have learned so much and I feel like the more I learn, the more I need to learn. But there is one thing I can share, I have learned the hard way… be good to the ones you have today, because life without them in the future is only a memory of what you had and lost. 

Momma, I’m coming home, one day, I will see you again, say hello to my sister, father and grands, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbors.  I’m not sure who is waiting to be reunited with me, but it will be good to see them again. 

As for the rumors and such surrounding “Cold play” I’ve laughed at many of the memes, reels and references, it’s ok to laugh, but in reality, I find it hard to not feel the pain this betrayal has caused. 

Sing a new song to the Lord my friend, C.