The Dilemma: Why are People Getting Sick from Food?
We noticed that whenever we or our friends ate certain foods that our bodies didn’t react well. Processed milk, grains, corn, meat, sugar etc. all caused discomfort or sickness. People were having all sorts of allergic reactions to normal, everyday food. Even foods we know are supposed to be good for us, like fruits and vegetables, didn’t taste good. This didn’t jive with us. How could our perfect Creator create a world that no longer fed us healthy, incredibly tasting food?
Aha!
I remember sitting in my office cubicle one morning and having one of those “Aha!” moments. Yes, I was making a good income, I had steady work and I was serving my customers, but I just didn’t feel like I had a deep sense of purpose in my day to day work. I wanted to wake up everyday excited to implement all the wonderful things we were learning at home. I needed to make it happen. The Lord would help me provide for my family if my intent was pure. He had always helped me in the past and would surely help me now [side note: He had helped me start a successful fencing business and become a chaplain in the Army. It had always been a success whenever we decided to trust Him and step off the proverbial cliff]. So I went in and told my company I appreciated the job they had given me but I needed to be done and that was it. Our next phase of our journey began!
I thought that if I bought a skid steer I could use that to build our own regenerative paradise and help others do the same. We took on some debt to get the equipment and were fully invested into a new business venture. We were overwhelmed with gratitude that it actually worked. We were able to do more of what we liked at our own place and help others with their own needs and get paid for it. The work I did quickly evolved into a thriving landscape business and my goal to help others build their own regenerative paradise mutated into helping them with any and all of their landscape needs. One thing led to another until I soon became so busy helping others with their needs that our little farm was left to the children and a tired dad. What should we do? We were almost in the same predicament as before with the office job. Something had to give.
The oldest boys had been learning more and more about rotating animals on fresh pasture, creating healthy compost and integrating everything together to be self-sustaining and profitable. They were practicing regenerative agriculture with the animals and garden that we had.
They would share with me but in large part I was absent, unable to really help them implement all the incredible things we were learning and doing. We studied, thought, prayed and finally decided that we would love to have a family farm business. In this way we could work together all day doing what we loved and creating good, wholesome, non-processed foods for others. We and our customers would live healthier lives.
We decided to sell the business and take the plunge. We had one foot in and one foot out and now we were going to be “real” farmers and do it together as a family. We continued feverishly devouring anything we could get our hands on to learn about farming in a regenerative way, a way that fed itself, us and our community. We realized we needed more land. That’s when northern Idaho came into view.
We wanted a place closer to us in the Treasure Valley in southwest Idaho, but we just couldn’t find the right property in our price range. We came across an incredible property in northern Idaho but it was WAY out of our price range. We tried to look at other places but kept feeling called back to this expensive farm up north. So, we decided we’d take a family trip up north, look at the property and get it out of our system so we could continue to find the right place closer to home. Well, you can guess what happened! We made a list of 5 places to check out when we got there, just in case the first one wasn’t what we thought it was. Sure enough, the first place wasn’t it. We decided to hit the others on the way out and wouldn’t know it, the fourth place we stopped at everything fell into place, the stars aligned and celestial songs played in our hearts. We were bound for the border. Pack your bags and head north!
Once we decided to go we got our home ready for sale and put it on the market, a hot market until covid hit. A week and half after having our home for sale covid hit and all sorts of issues ensued. Getting a mortgage became more difficult for self-employed buyers and for us as a self-employed business. Every time we were in contract for the dream farm we would fall out of contract in the current home we lived in with the potential buyer. We decided to move with faith and made several trips to storage units and to a barn of a new found friend. It was an exasperating process. At times we wondered if our dreams would have to change but we kept going forward. We even made one final trip and decided to live in a canvas wall tent until the two homes closed. It ended up being a wonderful blessing and needless to say, we were overjoyed with gratitude when God delivered our home to someone else and paved the way for us to purchase the farm up north. Yee-HAW! Now we’re farmers...well, at least we had a farm and we thought we were farmers.
Because it took 8 months to sell the old house and get the new farm, we ended up arriving in the fall instead of the spring. We decided it was a blessing because now we didn’t feel pressured to have produce and meat available for customers in the current year but could focus on infrastructure for the fall and hit it hard in the spring. We put it in overdrive and started putting fences up and bringing animals in. One of our philosophies is to rotate animals to fresh pastures often or daily, depending upon the animal. This played to our advantage as we could put up our temporary fencing and keep animals moving on pasture while we put up our 2 miles of permanent, border fencing.
Thankfully in this process we ended up with some equity with the sale of our farm and we could pay the down payment and start buying cows, pigs, compost, fencing, seeds, wood chips, hay, feed, straw, animal bedding, etc. You get the picture. We had budgeted an amount for sunk costs and it definitely felt like a sunk cost. It was easy to feel a little discouraged with the money it took to get things rolling but we pushed back our fears and went to work.
We were blessed with incredible mentors. Everyone we bought livestock from would spend hours sharing their knowledge with us and teaching us the intricacies of animal husbandry and the unique characteristics of northern Idaho weather. We learned what a blessing it was to be on the north bench above Bonners Ferry. It was a fertile bread basket that many called a “banana belt.” Maybe there was a chance we’d make a living at this after all!
There is nothing like waking up under the wide open skies of the Rocky Mountains and going to the milk stall to milk the cow, then heading over to feed and water the chicks, chickens, cows and pigs. Then spending the day in the garden weeding the beds or pulling a bundle of ripe carrots out of dark, rich soil. There is something divine about grabbing a handful of soil, sifting it through your fingers and taking in the smells of the living earth. There is a deep, resonating frequency inside of us that says, “This is good. This is healthy. I want to be part of this cycle.”
We want others to enjoy this too. So we decided to create campsites, RV sites and an AirBnB where others can come and enjoy the fruits of this earth on our farm with us. You can participate in the normal routines of farm life without getting too dirty. We are constantly thinking of new ideas that we think will bring joy to us and others. We hope that you can come and join us here or be blessed by the fruit of our labors. We are so grateful for you because without you blessing us with the financial fruit of your labors, we would never be able to bless you with our fruits. We will love to meet you here, at the farmer’s market or through whatever avenue works for you.
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