Ben Baker Email & Phone Number

Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Became a serious Off Grid Homesteader in the fall of 2013, teamed up with my good friend Roger Legault and assisted in animal husbandry, permaculture design and implementation, quite a bit of harvesting trees, bucking and splitting logs, making gardens and composts and tended to flocks of sheep, goats, a horse, chickens, geese, ducks, I had a lot of ducks of my own, Muskovies, they are delicious. At the moment I only tend to my dog honey badger and several of my neighbors dogs that seem to live on my doorstep half of the time, but do not currently have any fowl or other stock, I miss having sheep, and geese especially. Right now I am working on multiple gardens, hugulkultres and composts, I have moved back onto the same land I started on a decade ago, however, now I am in a different spot and have built myself a two story cabin, a small green house, and some gardens.. I have the advantage of pulling transplants from gardens, and pens, that I had stocked with plants years ago, and am on a roll spreading out chocolate mint and not all the other wierd mints I grew years ago, chocolate mint is the best one, and it is insanely easy to spread it too. I have jerusalem artichokes in a couple old pens from years ago too, they are still going strong, I am going to dig some up in the spring and eat some of them as well as plant some of them where I want the to grow here, just not in my precious greenhouse as they can take over.. I do plan to grow some fruit trees out here as well but need to work the remaining land a bit more first, labor has gotten much more difficult due to health issues, but I do a bit here and there at my leisure and enjoy it like that. Couldn't think of a better way to live.

Canada

I moderate the Victory Square Technologies Investors Forum on discord, and assist with communications with the company and its shareholders

Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Burwash Ontario

Me and my Dog Honey Badger got to go live in the Abandoned Prison in Burwash Ontario . My Friend Josh Reynolds was the owner of the property at that time. I spent my days doing a bit of farming on the property, mainly attempting to grow tomatoes in the Mollisoil of the area, but also making some home brewed Terra Preta with the resources on hand which stayed on site but likely has a patch of mint growing in it to this day., Like other properties, there will be patches of mint growing there that I planted a long time ago, because it is delicious and ridiculously easy to do so, just needs a bit of wet dirt and it is good to grow. My duties included watching over the place, preventing vandalism, cleaning at leisure, mostly keeping people from trespassing unless they paid to be there, getting people to sign waivers and giving safe and informative tours to those who did pay to be there. Most of the time was not work though, I could fish, farm, explore, and enjoy the great outdoors. There are a great deal of amazing things about that property, really thick wild life, dozens of black bears surrounding the prison at multiple times, happily chewing on elderberries and gooseberries and choke cherries and blue berries and black berries, totally ignoring me and my dog , and they never went for my kitchen either, or enter the building at all , they did however totally demolish the apples on both trees just as the were in their prime, which frustrate the owner josh who wanted to make some jellies. At night you could pick up the mud swallows and put them on your shoulder, but by day thousands of them would swim through the air like schools of fish, you could see the elk and hear their bugle, what an eiry sound it is, you could spot white tailed dear in one field and look a bit further and see the occasional moose, every day snowy owls in their daily hunt, falling onto their prey like a cork screw,come face to face with a humming bird ,the stars, Wow, that is the Milky Way!!

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Several positions over the years, mainly as a volunteer, but also two paid short term contracts. I have worked as both assistant and advisor to Executive Director Robert Dimeglio, as well as somewhat of a teacher and enabler to get our members online, including the use of specialized accessibility software and the programming of smart cards with individual profiles for said accessibility software, so that members could save a configuration that worked for them and use it across the smart card enabled systems. Staff members took pride in taking turns cooking for our regular lunch program, where members and staff very often would buy a great meal for 2$ . Other tasks such as a bit of routine cleaning were included in all positions as well .Working for the ILRC was easy and satisfying work, very laid back, friendly environment surrounded by life long friends , a nice change of pace from the laborer and Dishwasher roles I had worked Previously.There was no quitting or dismissal involved with this one, Just Multiple Short Term Contracts that came and whent. Most of the contracts for this establishment are funded externally and have specific criteria ie you must be a student, or just young, or another criteria, and are designed more to employ more people for short periods, rather than the same person over and over, or for a long period of time. Rob managed to hold down his position as a permanent Cap Trainer until the day came where the center needed an executive director, which he took temporarily, and then another person took temporarily, and then another person took temporarily, and then the Executive Director position whent back to him permanently. He has done a great job, and has moved the center to its own location now, bought and paid for, and now funds a good deal or all of the local center by collecting commercial rents on other parts of the building !!!Contact Robert D during business hours for reference. Bias Alert! Robby is still a good friend ;)

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Worked as general labor for a group of companies owned by the same family. Projects included interior renovations, outdoor labor, and roofing. Worked as part of a team on both commercial flat roofs as well as residential shingled roofs, as well as an assistant to a carpenter for many interior renovations on commercial and residential buildings, some new construction as well. For health purposes, I would like to remain retired from the construction industry , especially where labor is concerned. TBH I quit this job over a decade ago, have been asked back recently by Patrick when I bought some shingles off of him to do my roof with, so I assume he might provide a decent reference. for references contactMicheal Diotte (Carpenter)Patrick Diotte (Roofer)Richard Diotte (office)

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Worked as a dishwasher, cleaner, food prep for several restaurants over the course of several years, the shortest of which was the first one at Casa Mexicana , where I worked for a week before a pay dispute, the restaurant argued that everyone there made students wage, I argued that Minimum wage was the minimum, I got my minimum wage but also didn't get scheduled back to work without any official dismissal or quitting. The other two restaurants paid more than minimum wage for this position and were much longer lasting, with a lot more hours as well. I quit landings but was dismissed from Respect is Burning . The dismissal from Respect Is Burning was for something I did not do, I swear I am innocent, the head chef pissed somebody off obviously , because they got his car with the mop water, He swore up and down it was me and fired me for it despite my protests and his not being able to prove a word of it. He might have actually made the whole thing up because he was butt hurt from a really funny joke I made once that had the whole kitchen cracking up , but he walked right into that one.

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Myself and a two other students from the chef training at Cambrian College were offered part time work in town at an authentic Italian Restaurant Called Pasta e Vino , where we all worked during our studies. Some experience was had in the process, but better than that, Frank the owner of that fine establishment showed us how you can turn the right sized multi level building into a home, and a restaurant , saving on bills, and was the only restaurant I'd worked for where the head chef (or anyone for that matter) doubles as Communard at the end of each shift, which is also a nice touch, communards are Great!I suppose you could contact Frank as reference, doubt he would remember me, there were three of us for a short period, and it was over a decade and a half ago.