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Welcome! You've found my first official blog post on the updated website! This has  been a work in progress for the past several months, and.... not being exactly technically savvy (give me science or farming any other day!), I've had to call in some excellent tech help to assist in the upgrade. You can finally find ALL you need right here in one place!

The move to the new website put blogging on a little hiatus until we could get everything matched up properly. I think you'll find this venue MUCH easier to navigate. Growing means learning, expanding, and exploring new options, right? 

Speaking of growing.... She's now 10 months old, and it's well past time for an Elsa update! Sweet girl shows up on Facebook with some regularity, but I need to update here.... this is kind of her 'baby book' after all. For all my love of animals, I never thought I'd love a cow as much as I love this heifer. I guess that's what might happen when one lives in your bathtub for a few weeks, and syringe feeding around the clock takes control of your life! The cards were certainly stacked against her. Birth during 20 degree weather (which cost her parts of both ears), failure to thrive (because she couldn't suck properly), trips to the vet (because we didn't know any better.. couldn't see the internal cleft palate... and subsequently also missed by the vet).... it did not look good for Elsa. If you scroll back thru my early 2018 posts, you'll find her history scattered throughout.

Nonetheless, she prevailed.

Her story hasn't been without a little work and some modifications in her/our life. Elsa is a permanent mascot on our farm. She is a greeter, social maven, photo bomber, and so much more. As she's grown, we've adapted and risen to the challenge.

Her cleft palate is not easily repairable. According to a couple of vets I've consulted at Texas A&M Veterinary College, the surgery would not be easy on her. Cow mouths do not open very wide, and any repair of this nature would only be manageable by entering thru the side of her face...effectively eliminating the possibility of surgery unless absolutely necessary.

Elsa eats well (albeit messily!), and does not seem to be hindered much by her birth defect. Fairly early on, we discovered that she is also moderately tongue tied, and is only able to stick her tongue out of the right side of her mouth. This really doesn't seem to affect her much, so I'm torn between getting it fixed surgically (rather, putting her thru that surgery), and just letting her carry on as she has been. She doesn't know any differently, and so it seems more like the surgery would be for us moreso than for her.

Cleft palates in calves are not as rare as you'd think. Unfortunately, most calves are birthed fairly unattended, and if they go without nursing for long, they die. As in the case of Elsa, if the cleft palate is undetectable externally, the rancher usually assumes the calf simply died of natural causes. Cleft palate in calves is not a genetic anomaly...it's caused by eating the wrong plant during the first trimester of pregnancy (a similar thing can happen in people if certain medications or products are consumed during the first trimester too). In Honey's case (Elsa's mama)..... she apparently got ahold of a select few plants in the lupine family..... the most common culprit for bovine cleft palates. Honestly, we're blessed. Her deformity could have been much much worse, and her personality more than makes up for the bit of added work that is required for her health and safety.

Milestones
Just like all babies, Elsa has had her milestones.

• She survived the first month! It took a team of dedicated friends and 'nannies', as well as Charlie and I to get her thru the first month.
  
• Around the six weeks mark, she finally figured out how to eat properly from one teat.... the left front. Each teat is different on a cow, and Elsa had to figure out how. We never gave up, and every day, I would encourage her to try. After the mastered one teat, she gradually learned how to nurse (in her own way) on 2 other teats. Because of the angle and size (And probably because of her limited use of her tongue on the left side of her mouth) she never mastered the 4th teat on the back left quarter. As she grew, her nursing got pretty rough on Honey. She used her teeth more than most calves, and consequently, was really tearing her mama up. We made the difficult decision to wean her at 4 1/2 months (early!) because the damage she was doing prevented us from milking Honey too.
  
• Eating creep feed and grass is not a problem for Elsa. Occasionally, she will have grass coming out her nose and she will stamp her feet and blow until it comes out. For awhile, we had to wet her creep feed so that it wouldn't end up in her nose. She has outgrown that need now, and eats food just like the big girls! 
  
• Cud chewing.... all cows regurgitate their food and then thoughtfully re-chew it for better digest-ability. Elsa does this too, but the liquified food comes out her nose if her head is in a downward position. It doesn't seem to bother her overly much, but it can get messy. Because of this, she gets a spongebath about once a week.
  
• Schooling. She is going to make an amazing hand milked dairy cow. She is calm, cool, and collected, AND she's about as social as you could possibly imagine. Because the facial deformities are not genetic, we are not worried that the cleft palate will carry forward to her offspring.
  

Lessons from raising a Cleft Palate Calf

• Life is what you make of it.
  
• When you are able, make the most of running, bucking, and living like there's no tomorrow.... but above all else, never ever give up! 
  
• Resiliency is a good thing. Bounce forward not backwards!
  
• Vitamin D is a necessary part of healing. Lay in the sunshine even when you think you don't have time to.
  
• Be friends with those who are different from you. (Elsa doesn't know a stranger... 2 or 4 legged!)
  
• Work with what you've got! Not everyone is born with the same tools.
  
• Family doesn't always mean blood relatives.
• Being 'schooled' is not a bad thing. We all need to be haltered and given parameters on occasion.
  
• Patience is still a virtue.
  
• Love IS worth it.
  

Stay tuned.... Elsa will always be making an appearance here. She's one of us..... part of the 'farmily'. 

Thanks for visiting and celebrating our imperfectly perfect life on the farm.

Hugs and Love - Liz  

One of my passions in life is pursuing all manners of sustainability. I believe that whatever you are passionate about overflows into all areas of your life.

​I was sitting in an airport back in June watching people. Summer is a huge family vacation time. Vacation should be synonymous with Happy, right? And yet…. the vast majority did not appear to be all that happy. Granted, flying isn’t necessarily fun anymore, but still… where was the joy in the journey? During the flight, I had a growing conviction that I needed to do more in life to spread Joy and Happiness to others. I started researching and found that I am not alone in this. Did you know that there are actually college classes now on finding happiness? Seriously. Are we that bankrupt on happiness and joy as a country that college classes are needed to find it? 

This month, with the help of some friends, we’ve got a Facebook event called Project Joy and Happiness! If you’d like to join us, feel free to do so. Our goal is to spread holiday cheer this December, and hopefully teach others how to spread both where ever they go year round. Let’s make Joy and Happiness contagious emotions! We’ve got science, psychology, posts that bring a smile to your face, and even weekly giveaways.

But wait, aren’t Joy and Happiness the same thing? Uh….no. Happiness is an emotion reserved for moments in time. Joy is the sustainable emotion…. once you choose Joy, it stays with you as long as you continue to choose it. (You’ll learn all about the nuances of Joy vs Happiness in the Facebook event).

​Yesterday, I saw the greatest testimony to the difference between Joy and Happiness. It came in the form of a funeral. 

You see, a friend within our Young Living  family lost their daughter Layla last month to childhood cancer. Her parents, Bryan & Sara,  held her celebration of life service yesterday. It was a true celebration, with balloons, snow cones, fun for the kids that attended, bright colors and happy music.

No, this was not a happy event. Happy is not a word that describes a funeral. Ever. And yet….. the service was filled with smiles, laughter, and many many tears. Tears that were joy filled and sadness filled simultaneously. This is the difference between Happiness and Joy. You can’t be happy and sad simultaneously, but you CAN be joyful and sad simultaneously.

Biblically speaking, deep within Psalm 30 you see the words “….Joy comes with the morning”. Joy also comes TO the mourning when a child of God meets Jesus face to face. I believe that celebrating the beautiful life of a beautiful girl who is now sitting on the lap of Jesus is worthy of Joy. Nobody is happy that she is gone, but thousands of her friends are filled with Joy that she is now in the presence of her heavenly Father and is healed.

I can think of no better example of Joy than this.

In all my researching these last 6 months, I found that one of the things that boosts your happy and joy quotient is giving without respect to what you might receive in return. If you’d like to help Stamp Out Childhood Cancer (a 501c3 nonprofit), please consider donating in memory of Layla Stamp (nothing would bring her parents greater Joy than that). Please visit LaylaStrongFoundation.org for more information. I am 100% in favor of practicing what I teach….. so when donating to LaylaStrongFoundation, please reference The Wellness Prepper (in the message section of your paypal donation), and we (Charlie and I) will match donations up to a cumulative amount of $1000. 

Find your Joy today my friends, and celebrate! Joy lasts a lifetime. Happiness comes and goes depending on the situation.

Hugs and Love, Liz

When we began seriously weeding out chemicals from our lives and our farm, one of the largest looming threats was grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are a serious issue for farms and gardens in this part of Texas. They will literally eat you out of house and home some years…..and their abundant presence makes it virtually impossible to grow anything.

​We first attempted gardening about 15 years ago…. one of the same years that grasshoppers were exceptionally abundant. The garden failed. More pointedly, it never even got started. The following year, we used a ‘safe’ control ( Nosema locustae ) that supposedly kills grasshoppers in the nymph stage. While there might have been a slight decline in population, it wasn’t enough to make gardening a successful endeavor. An elderly lady who had grown up on a farm suggested guineas to me as a viable solution…. and that first set of guineas started my appreciation of this odd looking poultry species.

Guineas are indigenous to Africa, and they are odd  fowl. Most people have never heard of them and they are hard to describe…. they look like a cross between a turkey, a teradactyl, and a football (yes, their body is shaped like one). There are two types of people when it comes to guineas… those that love them and those that don’t.

Let’s just get the dirt out on ’em now:

• They can be loud
• They can be bullies
• They can be roamers
• They are stupid as a box of rocks
• The adults have a face only a mama could love (but the babies are adorable!)
• Sadly, they do not eat squash bugs or cucumber beetles
• While they are very good at procreating, they are NOT good at keeping track of their babies after they’ve hatched.

All that to say, I am in the league of lovers when it comes to these birds. In my book, their assets outweigh their issues. Guineas are by far the best pest control for larger farmsteads. Yes, they may roam if they need food (they are great foragers), so they may not be ideal for a 1-2 acre farmstead…. but for larger acreage, they generally don’t travel more than 5 acres or so. Since we’ve had ours, we’ve had nearly zero issues with grasshoppers. We also came to realize that they do a magnificent job of eliminating and controlling ticks, fleas, and snakes. Copperheads, a poisonous snake found in this part of Texas, are especially common here. Since the addition of Guineas to our farm, we have had no issues with snakes (barring the occasional large rat or chicken snake). Ultimately, we estimate that they save us roughly 1200$ per year on pest control, without the use of harmful chemicals…. not to mention preventing the garden vegetation devastation from the hoppers.

​Secondly, they are pretty remarkable watch dogs. Although they are a dull bunch of crayons in the knowledge box, I’d have to give them an A+ for being observant. They warn the free roaming chickens when a bird of prey is nearby, and the chatter can get pretty raucous if there is a new person or a new dog on the property. They are blind as bats at night, so most attrition occurs thru night time predation. During they day, they are actually quite good about banding together and making their cumulative appearance look (and sound) large and menacing. I once saw a group of them chase a coyote off with his tail between his legs! I can’t imagine a flock of chickens doing the same thing.

I can’t really say much about the bullying. In my book, they really aren’t much worse than some chickens and roosters are. Our guineas have been raised in the presence of chickens, so there really appears to be a symbiotic relationship between the two species. Last year, I actually had a rooster RAISE a handful of guinea keets (the babies). It was truly remarkable… especially watching how kind he was to them (note in the picture: the teen guinea keet sleeping on his back at night).

Guineas are prolific egg layers. They lay eggs until the nest is overflowing with 40-60 eggs… at which point they commence to sitting on them. Unless they get scared off, a guinea will sit for about 25-28 days on her pile of progeny. She is quite protective unless she fears for her life. Usually, about 30-40 babies hatch, and here is where some of the trouble starts. God clearly knew what he was doing…. giving them that many babies… because it takes that many to get just a handful of survivors. Apparently, guineas cannot count, and for the first few weeks post nesting time….. little feathered popcorn sized keets get left everywhere to die. It’s tragic… especially to my tender heart. So, whenever I find a nest (they are ground nesters, and do a pretty darn good job of camouflaging), I watch it closely and mark the days til the estimated hatching occurs. Once that happens, I herd them all (or catch them up) into a safe pen for a few weeks until they are both big enough and strong enough to survive. Despite my best efforts, only a small percentage ever reach adulthood. The parents are an odd mix of aggressively protective and negligently passive. This year and last year, I think the inbreeding of our guinea clan has actually led to either an increase in IQ or better parenting skills. Regardless, we are heavy in the guinea inventory…… real heavy. In past years, we have averaged 8-14 adult guineas at any one time. Today…. well, I’m just not sure exactly how many we have, but it’s over 30 for sure. Guineas are tree roosters at night, and as winter approaches, so usually do the bobcats and owls. Our livestock guard dogs do an excellent job of keeping ground predators away, but nighttime arboreal predators are a harder thing to manage. I still doubt we will lose that many to natural attrition. Next spring, I feel certain that I’m going to be looking for homes for the new batches of keets that will start hatching in June. As much as I love having them around, too much of a good thing is, well….. too much.

I hardly know where to begin. I am so far behind on all the wildly magical things going on in our life that this Summer has somehow morphed into Fall. I can hardly recall a year that has gone so quickly in my adult life.

I’ve always said I could be a professional student if only I was independently wealthy. Well, We’re still not independently wealthy, but we have somehow begun building a life that is allowing me to explore my passions and get paid. I pinch myself occasionally. Is this really me, getting to do this?

Pharmacy has been good to me ya’ll, but it’s no walk in the park. There is a reason it’s listed among the Top 10 Professions most likely to commit suicide. It’s a high stress job with long hours and demands 100% perfection. No surprise that the burnout rate is also remarkable. I am tremendously blessed with a husband who enjoys his job and has encouraged me to pursue what pulls at my heart.  It is a gift he has given me this year… and a timely one at that!

At the end of September, I was fortunate enough to attend The 2017 Farm & Food Leadership Conference. Blessedly, this national event was held in nearby McKinney, Texas.

FARFA…. Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance is a national organization supporting independent family farmers. It works to protect a healthy and productive food supply for American consumers.  FARFA is an advocate for independent farmers, ranchers, livestock owners, and homesteaders, as well as the consumers who support them.

Ya’ll, you’d hardly think this organization would be necessary. We all need food and farmers. Shouldn’t it be easy to farm enough nutritious food to feed our huddled masses? Let these statistics sink in:

• The average age of a farmer in the United States is 65 (in Texas it’s 58)
• Soil depletion (of minerals) and hybridization of seeds has decreased the nutritional value of commercial fruits and vegetables by 50-70%.
• The GDP spent on healthcare used to be 2.5%. It is now a whopping 18%, due largely to quality of food.
• Farmers too rank in the Top 10 Professions most likely to commit suicide.
• Non-sustainable farming practices expose farmers and farm families to a tremendous amount of chemicals including (but not limited to) pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. Farmers have an elevated risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma and soft tissue sarcoma. They also have higher rates of brain cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, and various Auto Immune Disorders.

This AMAZING Conference covered so many facets of Farm to Table Education. There were so many education opportunities, but not nearly enough time to attend each session. I settled on those that pertained directly to our farm and the direction we are headed.

• Q&A Session on Cooperatives
• Growing sustainable grains (not surprisingly, Einkorn Wheat was a large part of this discussion… one of the reasons Young Living remains committed to producing healthy grain options for its members)
• Activating your Microbiota for Health (So excited to see this topic offered at a farm conference!!) This is truly one of the most important things we can do to be healthy, and it is the reason I offer monthly Gut Health Classes .
• Opportunities for Military Veterans and Young Farmers. Did you know that there are really some amazing opportunities offered to those who want to farm but have no idea how or where to start? There are even opportunities (in the form of grants, education, low interest loans, and equipment for disabled farmers) available thru various programs. Healing (both emotional and physical) occurs when you connect with the earth. This is not some new age mumbo jumbo…. this is real scientific fact.
• Fermentation techniques taught by the incredible Nancy Falster of Falster Farms. Gut health again!!! I LOVE IT! Fermented foods were incorporated into the food supply for thousands of years in every single culture. Modern culture had nearly eliminated it, to the detriment of our gut health… I hope it’s making a comeback!
• Alternative revenue streams for small farmers. This falls right into our vision for our farm. It’s too early to reveal what is in my heart, but this topic was so interesting and helpful. City folk are simply craving connection with their food and with nature. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve had people come thru our gates and tell us they experience a type of peace (on our farm) they don’t normally feel in their day to day lives.
• Sustainable home gardening. I felt like we are ahead of the curveball on this topic. We are the king and queen of composting, and are figuring out what works for organic pest control around here.
• 20 other topics ranging from Legislative policy to Home Brewing and Distilling.

I almost forgot… the most amazing Farm to Table dinner too. This was our first, but it won’t be our last. Dinner for about 150 people at Pure Land Organic Farm , catered by the incredible sustainably (and locally) sourced ingredient restaurant in McKinney: Harvest .

​Connecting people with a common bond. Farmers, Ranchers, Nutritionists, Chefs, Sociologists and Anthropologists, Beekeepers, Backyard gardeners with a vision, Inner City gardeners with a plan for their community.  This event paid no heed to political affiliation, ethnicity, age, or religious beliefs. Our goal is the same. To learn. To provide sustainable nutritious food for the body, mind, and soul to all walks of life.  Breaking bread together never tasted so good.

In early winter I start itching to get my paws on the latest edition of The Whole Seed Catalog. It’s crack for the organic gardener. Truly. I’m not sure how many times I thumb thru the catalog highlighting, circling, and dogear-ing pages before I make my final selections. I feel like Imelda Marcos in a shoe store. Rareseeds.com is my ‘go to’ source for seeds simply because I trust them and I respect their ethical stance on heirloom seed preservation. Their seeds aren’t just heirloom, they are also organic.

We are organic gardeners, and that includes our seed choices. I am frequently asked why  seed choice is so important. Oh ho ho. Seed choice is VERY important any time you are asking something of a plant ( it’s one of the things that really sealed the deal for me on my essential oil company of choice ).

Organic heirloom seeds are better for a multitude of reasons:

• Exceptional Taste and Flavor (far superior to hybridized fruits and veggies whose genetics have sacrificed both in favor of ship-ability & gas-ripening/green picking )
•  Seeds from organically grown plants are more likely to do well in an organic garden because the parent plant has proven that it can meet the challenges of an organic environment (We certainly experienced this too when we opted to convert our beehives to 100% organic management!).
• Organic seeds have never been exposed to toxic pesticides, and they are chemical free! (this is a bigger deal than you might think)
• Organic seeds are NEVER the product of genetic engineering.
• Heirloom seeds are nearly ALWAYS more nutritious than their counterparts. You can read more about that here.
• Heirloom seeds can be open pollinated (kind of a big deal if you are a seed saver!). Hybridized usually cannot.
• Heirloom plants tend to mature at different rates. This means that you can usually assume a longer harvest period for your crops.

My seeds arrived last week and I’m itching to plant. It’s still a little early for most things. I prefer to plant directly into the soil, but will prestart a few that take longer to germinate in my greenhouse.

Cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, onions, zucchini, butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, beans, beans, and more beans…. and so much more! I’m even making an attempt at growing loofah sponges this year!

​Come on spring! We’re ready!

As you’ve probably already noticed, I have a strong belief in the importance of personal and family preparedness. I’ve been in the place where there was none and it was almost disastrous. It sounds strange, but the prospect of homelessness and starvation changes people…I know! Go figure. Now, in my home, we are prepared to […]

​via Food Storage and Emergency Prep — Realistic Sustainability, Ltd.

“When is comes to being prepared, there is a place between fanatical and nothing, and that is the place where Realistic Sustainability lives. Realistic Sustainability is a concept that provides a m…

​Source: Home

Prepping. The word connotes to many the idea that we (preppers) are a bit like Chicken Little (you know… The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling). It used to be if you ‘prepped’ for something like the SAT, or a big dinner party, that was a good thing and the action was smiled upon. So how did it happen that we exchanged the “d” for an “r”, and suddenly those who prepare for the unknown are thought by many to be a few Fruit Loops short of a full box? Just something to think about.

​In the meantime, I’d like to introduce you to one of our farm mascots and the ULTIMATE prepper…. Henri! Henri was hand raised after falling out of a tree onto an unsuspecting friend (who may or may not have screamed like a girl). Her mother was nowhere to be found, and she had no interest in returning to her nest despite attempts to place her there. I’ve worked with animals all my life, even having had a short career as a zoo keeper, and this is not my first rodeo squirrel raising experience. She was still young enough to need milk replacer, but was becoming of age to move on to more varied foods. She really thrived on a product called Ningxia Red, as well as other food supplements that baby squirrels need.

Today, she is about 7 months old, and is quite the #oilyfarmsquirrel / farm mascot. We have 6 very large dogs, and not only is she friends with them, she has also become part of their pack, and considers herself one of their own. See friends, …. animals have this down…. no matter their differences, ideologies, and predator vs prey status, it is possible to work out a friendship. Seems like since we have bigger brains than both squirrel or dog, our world ought to spin with a little more friendship and handshakes if we bypassed prejudices like we do out here on the farm :).

Henri was raised and released once she was old enough. She has chosen to live alongside us, and we are happy to accommodate her. Her presence has gifted us with additional smiles and quiet peace. She reminds us as only squirrels can:
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• Look both ways before you cross the path
• Plan ahead…. and hide and protect your nuts!
• Stay active and alert
• Enjoy the sunshine & value sleep
• Find your friends wherever you are, but know your enemies
• Adapt to whatever life throws your way
• Take care of the business and then take time to play

We might have bigger brains and opposable thumbs, but we can still learn a lot from our four legged friends!
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Henri the squirrel video, Enjoy your day!