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

When is it enough

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I was thinking about my father, I was disconnected from my family, I didn’t really spend much time thinking about the old man… I did my own thing. How he hadnt realy any opinion about me joining the Navy… That decision led me onto path of no return, a path that filled my life with anxiety, depression and chaos. I knew God, or at least a form of God that I liked. My God stood around waiting for me to need him, and I seldom actually needed him.

The Navy was a disaster for me, I signed up, went to do the intake to become an electronics specialist, something I really enjoyed and was a challenge. That is the day my life fell apart. I was “IN” the Navy and had no way to escape enlistment. I scored really high on all the tests, I could have gone into the Nuclear program until… I was pulled out of line into a closed room where I was interrogated for about half an hour. Alone, I was left until the end of the day, stressed out and scared, no support, a teenager that entered that day with dreams of success and hope for a great future… I was finally told I had two choices. 

I remembered the tests from my early days, 6th grade I think… “Look at this picture and tell me the number you see?” over and over, card after card, when it was done, not a word… I thought “OHH GOOD, I PASSED THE COLOR BLIND TEST!”

It was now that fateful day after getting pulled aside. Navy doctors scrutinized my every part, every answer, interaction… Something was not right, but what? At age 18, I was informed, “You are color blind” They went on to say “Did you really think you could fool us?” Gasping for my breath, they continued to describe what will happen to if I continued to lie on official US dept of Navy documents.

My dreams slipped out of my mind like a walleye always, somehow finds a hole in the bottom of a fishing net.

Terrified, I was told they would give me a break. Taking another type of test, this time three colored lights, one green, one white and one red. I was relieved they told me the colors, at least I knew what to look for… I could tell the reds… NAILED THE REDS. I had no clue about the whites and greens, they both looked identical…

In a fit of disbelief, the doctors said, “How could you not know you are color blind?” I had 2 choices, become a cook in the belly of the beast feeding thousands of men (believe me, that was not appealing) or become “Builder” (guess what i picked)? I went on the be trained on how to take an unleveled spot of ground and transform it into a building with all the finishes.

How was I able to make it through 18 years of life without knowing? I don’t see colors like everyone around me? The answer to this was located in the same brain that was deficient in determining colors. It’s actually my super power. I discovered my dyslexia was actually a super power very late in life. Don’t get me wrong, I knew I had dyslexia.

I dropped out of school in Tenth grade, abandoning a two year, all expense paid scholorship at the U of M… I’ve knew I had dyslexia from before 6th grade, but I had no idea it was actually a “super power”.

The same “deficiency that makes me have scrambled words and makes writing so difficult and reading nearly impossible allows me to excel in “pattern recognition”… TROUBLSHOOTING! It’s what makes electronics so appealing and makes my brain see problems so easily.

But, not just patterns in things and stuff. Dyslexia helps me recognize patterns in personalities, systems, procedures and concepts.

Are you wondering “how can he drive? He can’t see green lights” … But, I can see patterns and I can recognize shapes and systems, so even though I can’t see that green light, I can see when the light is “out” of place or better yet, I can see when a light is “supposed to be there”. 

Dyslexia is a super power, and even though I can’t see green lights, spot a drop of blood on a brown leaf, determine the colors on a color code for electronics… I learned to adapt, overcome and actually excel in trouble shooting industrial boilers. I had a super power! I would not trade this super power in to be able to see colors, even If I could. 

I sit back and wonder why I was never told, “you are color blind” . Was this some cheap way of sparing my gentle heart from the disappointment of not being “perfect”? Imagine what difference it would have made if I had known I was color blind? I didn’t know I was color blind because instead I have the super power of Dyslexia. I was able to not just overcome the issue of not seeing colors, but it helped me develop my career and adult life in an amazing way…

I was told I had a deficiency in seeing colors, a deficiency in reading and writing and as my 6th grade teacher wrote on my year end report card “Charlie is not much use”… The reality is, my brain was different, and my teachers were not smart enough to provide me with the healthy challenges and guidance I needed to become successful, so I became “Autodidactic”.

God alone knew my path, he protected my journey, he was kind and loving, he gave me a “super power” and I bet you have one as well! Have you discovered it yet? I was in my late 40s when I started to discover I actually have two super powers, the other is called ADHD… Neither of them needed to be muted, they work in harmony… If you know what to look for, you will see ADHD has the gift of “hyper focus” and that hyper focus coupled with superior pattern recognition means my brain is perfect for troubleshooting almost anything, God knew that, God gave me this combined gift. 

Have you discovered your super power? If not, reach out in prayer today and ask God to give you a correct view of your life. Maybe stop, ask God to reveal to you what his will is for you, he has one. God made you perfect, and you would benefit from knowing just how perfect HE made you. 

In HIS service, C.

PS, no, I really cant see a number in the picture

PSS, Join the Navy, see the world, from the belly of a ship….

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.