Good Medicine
Holistic Health Coaching
For those of you who don’t know this furry face yet, this is Henri the #oilyfarmsquirrel ! She is part of our porch picnics and dear part of our farm life. If you’ve been around for the duration, you’ll know this question…. What Young Living supplement was she raised on? 😍
We love our Henri 💓
#oilyfarmsquirrel
#ThanksYL
……. stands a man who supports me in all that I do. My farm guy and I have been married for 25+ years, and he truly never ceases to amaze me with his support, care, and love.
I’m not gonna lie, these past three weeks have pushed me to the limit and have brought out the cranky side of me. I feel like lack of sleep has called out my evil twin. Charlie has been awesome despite all this, and has picked up where I’ve had to leave off to keep Elsa fed and cared for. (She is doing INCREDIBLE by the way… and feedings are now spread to every 5 hours!)
Charlie learned early on that my love language is service. We make a great team…. I say something like, “I wish I had a ______________” (this blank usually requires power tools to complete), and the next thing you know, he’s out there building it! No joke. My dad was a handy guy, and I married an equally handy one. My guy is gifted beyond measure and can visualize something and then the next thing you know, it’s built. He is a man’s man, and he is also a tenderhearted sweet soul that God gifted me.
Last year, he encouraged me to step out and pursue a passion that I’ve been carrying in my heart. He did this verbally, and then backed that encouragement by physically stepping in and being present when I was absent. That is no small feat when it entails caring for 60+ animals, managing farm chores, being an elder at our church, AND holding down a 50+hr per week job that is a 2+hr round trip commute each day. He sees value in what I am passionate about, and he supports me 100%. This is a gift beyond measure, and he does it without complaint.
Last week, I pretty much hit my stress limit. I’ve got alot going on here…. at times, I wonder if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew (especially when you throw Elsa’s care into the mix). In some ways, I feel like I’ve gone back to college…. but these things I’m doing are part of a much bigger vision that God has on my heart, and I have a sense of urgency in completing them. People are hurting (physically and emotionally) and feel it. It is driving me to learn how to help them find healthier ways to heal (instead of being ‘band-aided’ by meds).
This is a season, and it won’t be forever, but it’s a busy time right now, especially with Elsa’s needs. (I only have words of admiration for you moms of special needs human babies….YOU are amazing if someone did not tell you that today!)
My ‘to do’ list of farm chores is steadily falling further behind. For having a working farm, I’d say we run a pretty tight ship around here. We both like ‘neat and tidy’, and my efforts with Elsa mean that other duties have fallen to the wayside. We’ve recently hired a young man to help us for a few hours a week…. I think you might have heard us both audibly sigh in relief.
We are in the process of converting our barn apartment into a home office to house ‘my vision’ that has become ‘our vision’. Charlie has been working tirelessly to get the physical upgrades done, and it is looking awesome! I am the caulker and painter in the family, and both of those duties have fallen to the side. He knew that was stressing me out (falling behind on my end of the work project), so he quietly arranged for a dear friend who owns a commercial painting company to come out and do what I have not had time to complete, and then surprised me with it. If you want to see a grown woman cry, that was it…. a blessing beyond measure.
He even surprised me with my dream of a purple door on ‘The Dairy Palace’. The whole palace (another ‘wish’ that became a reality) isn’t quite done yet (there is a little more to complete), but I love the whimsical pop of color!
’m a tired farmgirl. It’s a passing season, and I’ve got a farm guy who is my favorite person in the world, my best friend, and greatest cheerleader. It is a blessed woman indeed who has a man such as mine. (And by the way, our animals are blessed too, because his heart is big enough for all of us).
was out of town for 5 days last week working to further my education and edging closer to Dolphin MPS certification. It was a whirlwind trip and I got home late in the afternoon on the 21st.
My hubby has been a trooper this last year….. working full time, and managing the farm when I am out of town either educating others or getting educated myself. We are a great team, he and I, and we both see the benefits of what we are working towards.
As I drove up the driveway, I automatically began scanning my the pastures and doing a mental farm-ily checklist. I stopped and checked water troughs. The last one I checked caught me right in the heart. Despite the fact that there was a piece of wood floating in the trough (for little critters who might fall in and need a lifeboat), there were two dead squirrels. Drowned.
Of course, my first thought and breath prayer was that neither body belonged to Henri. It was not in an area that I could imagine she or her babies would be, but still….. it’s also not that far from the house. Charlie went out and disposed of the squirrels and cleaned the trough. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it… simply because I wasn’t sure who exactly had drowned. Let’s face it, squirrels all look pretty much alike. As much close contact as we have with Henri, I still can’t tell her apart from other squirrels except by her personality and approximate size.
We have incredible relationships with all of our animals out here, and although we grieve when one passes away, we are healthy about it. Life goes on, and so must we. What is nearly harder than death is when an animal comes up missing. It’s been a rare occurrence, but it has happened. Then you have a kind of limbo grief it’s hard to let go of… not knowing whether to grieve and move on or keep on hoping. Charlie hadn’t seen Henri the entire time I was gone so she had been missing already for about a week. As the days wore on, I started giving up on hope. I left nuts out and they didn’t get eaten. She really seemed to be gone, so my hope was that she had just gone into the wild and not drowned. That thought was a little sad too… but better than the alternative reason for her absence.
Today was a great day! Henri returned…. acting as tho she had never been missing. She looked thru the window and asked for nuts. Her favorite nuts come from our local pecan orchard, Foster Crossing Pecans.
Just because he’s so pretty! This is probably one of the most beautiful roosters we’ve had. I believe he is a Blue Orpington…..but we got him as a chick at the feed store, so who knows! Looking for a name for him and for some reason, Conrad seems appropriate to me. Pretty is is pretty does tho…. I hope he stays sweet. We have 4 roosters on location now… which is two too many for our hens. #nofilter #yeshiscombisthatred #prettyroo
Kindergarten: In the midst of the summer, we had 3 healthy calves. Rosie is the oldest (she is in the middle)…she was the tinest little calf you ever saw… not sure if you remember her from a post back in June, but now she looks like a hulk compared to her half brother. Her mama is Mercy. Willie was born in August, and he was a fairly big boy. Clementine is his mama and she is a large Jersey herself… so, like mama like son…. HUGE. He is two months younger than Rosie, but nearly her size. Waylon, our newest is almost two weeks old. His mama is Hershey. Hershey is 1/2 Angus and 1/2 Jersey, and we don’t milk her….. the Angus side of her makes her a little temperamental, and her milk is not A2/A2.
If you see a bit of a trend here on naming, you’ve guessed right. We name our male livestock after country music singers. Right now, our pasture is singin’ the blues with Willie, Waylon, Cash, and Conway. (Our bull’s name is Benny…. it’s the name he came with. As luck would have it, he got to keep his name….. there was a country music singer in the 50’s named Benny Barnes!)
Daisy : Things have settled back down after my mad dash around the country. Homeostasis within the hierarchy. Two weeks ago we agreed to foster a pup named Cole. Cole’s family has some health issues they are working thru, so he came to live with us til they get everything ironed out. Cole is a mini Aussie / Kelpie cross. He is smart as a whip, and he’s only 5 months old. It’s been a LONG time around here since we’ve had a puppy. He is all tiny teeth and endless energy. Interestingly, Daisy immediately took him under paw and began mothering him. She watches out for him, tolerates his sharp teeth, and reprimands him fairly gently when needed. She also plays HARD with him. His presence has really mellowed her demeanor….. either that, or she just seems more mellow compared to her companion! We’ve had no more skirmishes around here, and Lily is getting her courage back. I’d call this a foster win-win this time around :).
Henri : Henri has been a busy winter prepper these last several weeks. When we do see her, she nearly always has a nut in her mouth that she is about to tuck away. She is taking very little time to socialize, although she does stop and chat very briefly. Someone told me today that scientists have found that squirrels store nuts by category…. meaning they put their best nuts in one location, and their worst nuts in another location. I guess that’s akin to not putting all your eggs in one basket if you are a squirrel! I’m having visions of thousands of nuts eventually falling out of our porch ceiling :). Life with a squirrel is never dull. Her babies appear to have moved to the driveway trees. That area is not far from the house, and it’s loaded with acorns. I’m tickled that they vacated on their own, and that I didn’t have to do a trap and release maneuver.
Halloween Farm Style : It’s finally cooling off around here and like everywhere else, the days are getting shorter. I don’t normally mind spiders… they have their place on our farm. That said, I do NOT like walking thru spider webs in the dark!….. especially when you have no idea where said owner of the spider web is at the time of destruction. I have been bitten several times this summer by spiders, and I’m about done with it. You know it’s bad when you walk around at night in a salute so you don’t get a face full of web.
I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall weather! I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is a month away.
Be blessed! ~ liz
These past two weeks have been very different for our household. I am the poster child homebody. I get homesick after about 4 days away from my refuge. I am grounded and in harmony with my ‘feeps’ (farm peeps), and start to feel off when I’m gone for too long. Back in January, Charlie and I made the decision to cut back my hours at the pharmacy to 20hrs/week. I was killing myself trying to get everything done on the farm, educate others on holistic wellness, and work at the pharmacy. Something had to give…. either that or I was going to run out of steam. I was scared to death. It was the first time in my 25+ year career that I carried no benefits of my own. Our new routine took about 5 months to settle into but I finally got my groove, and I am loving every minute of it! My income from Young Living has enabled me to step out from behind the pharmacy counter and actually DO life the way it was meant to be done.
At the end of August, I took a whirlwind four day trip up to Iowa to teach a few wellness classes in person. Women’s health (as you know…. a particular passion of mine). General wellness. Non Toxic Skincare. It was a fabulous trip and I met so many neat ladies (and guys) in the midwest. I spent a few of my youngest years in Des Moines, and we managed a quick peek at the house I spent those years in. I have only fragments of memories of those years, but Iowa felt familiar to me.
While I was gone, tragedy struck our fair state. A monster by the name of Harvey came ashore and changed lives and landscapes forever. We live in very North Texas where tornadoes and hail storms are our nemesis, but this storm down south affected us all. We are a state that sticks together, and the pain is real. My heart goes out to everyone touched by the disaster, but especially those who are grieving the loss of life, including those of their pets and livestock. I know how it feels to love animals fiercely, and many people are grieving for losses beyond mere possessions. Heartbreaking.
Those 4 days I was gone, were just enough to make me homesick, and it made the storm in our home state nearly surreal. Charlie was a trooper… my sweet husband assumed the mantle of being ‘both of us’ for those 4 days and that is no small feat. We are both busy people, and time is already managed efficiently within each of our schedules.
The animals noticed my absence….. and a small seismic shift began occurring. I came home, but 3 days later I left again for another 4 days for a scheduled visit to Philly to see family. The seismic shift grew larger. Animals are creatures of habit….. but then again, aren’t we all (two legged and four legged alike)? I’ll speak more of this shift later this week…. it deserves a post of its own.
I miss home when I’m not here. The peace of it all. The solitude that isn’t really. I am surrounded by unconditional love. Even the sunlight showers me with affection. I am grounded in the Spirit. I feel God…. REALLY feel His presence when I am here in my place of peace. Dogs. Horses. Cows. The chicken’s excitement at my presence. The unseasonably cool morning breeze kissing my skin. Spiderwebs… as much as I hate running into them nearly every morning….. I appreciate their presence. Nature is nurturing my spirit.
I am a people watcher, and see people who have not yet found their place of peace. They are constantly searching for the next best thing to purchase or booking their next travel destination because they are restless in spirit and seeking something they’ve not yet found. Contentment of place, time, and circumstance. Groundedness. Peace.
I love that I get homesick. Crazy isn’t it? Crazy but true. In the grand scheme of 365 days, I am gone only a fraction of that. How blessed am I that home is my favorite place in all of the earth.
