Welcome! We’re so glad you’re here.
Photo credit Megan Bourrette Photography
I am so excited to finally be putting my ideas into a unique space where they can be organized and be used as a reference for others. The blog part of this endeavor, our family farming endeavor, is partly for me to document our journey to look back on and partly to inspire any family out there to do the same.
As I’m writing this post today, I’m sitting in a hospital at what I would like to refer to as my “side job.” I’m a nurse and have been for 12 years, but early on I knew it wasn’t my calling. There are parts I enjoy, but bigger parts I don’t enjoy, like the allopathic healthcare model. That’s why I refer to it as my side job; I’m hoping that someday that’s all it is.
I have spent the last 10 years as a nurse questioning everything: our health model, mainstream nutrition, the body vs the mind’s role in disease, how our food is grown, how our animals are raised, and how we are born onto this planet. I was ignited to get closer to nature after the birth of my first. It was a fairly common hospital scenario:
Mom makes birth plan 2. Arrives at hospital where everyone laughs at birth plan 3. Hospital’s agenda gets pushed 4. Epidural 5. Coached pushing 6. Horrible tears 7. Poor bonding with baby 8. Post partum depression
The only thing I was lucky enough to miss out on was the induction and the c-section.
Knowing there had to be something different, I started taking a deep dive of all the routine medical procedures and norms, and what the actual research was showing. This included things like our vaccines, “well baby checks”, and hospital birth. Anyway, you know how things spiral out from here which leads us to today.
We are living within the city limits of a small town in Iowa. We raise chickens, have a small garden, a couple dogs, and five kids. Oh, and we are a blended family. That is a huge part of this adventure. My oldest three children are ‘legally bound’ to the town we are living in unless my ex and my current family both decide to move. We have been wanting farm land for awhile, but with all the drastic changes in the world over the last two years, we know the crucial time is now. Every day I wake up thanking the Universe for my kids, my husband, and our farmland. I know it is coming to us and I hope you’re here to learn with us as we navigate this new adventure!