We have been dooped! Your health is in YOUR HANDS!
This is such a great documentary about the truth of Weight Loss and Optimal Health! You can watch it in its entirety online at www.FoodForChange.tv. Deadline is March 31st, 2012.
Here’s the Trailer >>
It is so refreshing to hear the truth.
From Our Family To Yours,
Kevin and Amy Jo
Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!
This is such a sweet time of year! Grandma and Grandpa have been at our house all week spoiling us rotten. We all went to the Nutcracker Ballet and hunted for the perfect Christmas tree. We hung the stockings above the fireplace and put our Nativity scene out for display. The lights went on the fence outside and the cookie baking has begun!
This past year has been an amazing time in our life. The Lord has been good to us and has taught us a lot. We are humbled by his grace, mercy and provision.
Kevin just finished putting in a wood stove insert into our fireplace. After 9 years of using oil heat, this is such a huge blessing! The house seems so cozy now with the crackling of the fire and the kids taking turns bringing in wood.
The farm is busy as usual. We had a full garden this year, with lot of raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, zuccini, kale, butternut squash and various herbs. We planted 
some fruit trees and also added a fig and almond tree! What fun it will be in a few years! For the first time in 9 years, we actually got a walnut crop off of our tree (the squirrel population has really dropped around here). We have bags of walnuts hanging from the ceiling in our living room at the moment!
We raised 27 meat chickens this past spring and learned how to process them ourselves. This was quite the experience with Kevin cutting himself pretty good on chicken #2! Over the next few weeks, we eventually got them all processed and in the freezer. What a delight to go out and get a 8# organic chicken out of the freezer to cook up for a meal! My bone broth has never been so good! The kids also raised laying hen chicks.
We started our dairy goat herd this summer by purchasing 2 baby kids and an adult doe. Brooke and Foxy are Saanens and Brown Sugar is a Nubian. 
What fun they have been! Kevin and the kids built me a milking stand, feeder and a “playground” for the babies. Our next project is to get a completed fence around all of the blackberries so they can feast them away! It’s been so satisfying to get our own organic raw goat’s milk too!
I taught beginner riding lessons again and thoroughly enjoyed the kids that God brought me! It’s so fun to see the smiles and laughter of kids learning all about horses and how to ride them. Blitz just loves all of the attention he gets and even got ridden by a couple of students. Sequoia is 21 years old now, and is a super lesson horse. She is gentle but can be a 
bit testy…which is really good for the kids. She taught several students how to canter this year, including Baylee and Bryce.
The kids are growing fast. Baylee is 8 and enjoys climbing trees, roller blading and loves to draw and paint! Bryce is 6 and enjoyed BMX racing last summer. He loves picking on his sisters and reading books. He helped Dad “pull out the guts” when we were processing meat chickens…I think partly to gross out his sisters…. Breanna is 5 now and refers to herself as the “little Mom”. She loved taking a ballet, tap, gymnastics class this fall. They just did their Christmas program at a local retirement center. It was super cute and she did a great job! Brielle turned 2 in August and is a little sweetheart (in between her stubborn streaks). She is in the midst of potty training and loves to wear “unnerwear”. She loves tapping around the house with Breanna singing songs. We are full-time homeschooling now and the kids are just thriving with their learning! All of the kids have been involved with a local Classical Conversations community, which has been a real blessing. It’s amazing how much they (and myself) are learning!
The kids have also been learning about how to pray and this past summer started asking God for a “playground” in the backyard. So far, we’ve aquired a trampoline and a swingset. The slide and yellow monkey bars are still on the prayer list! We were also blessed with a mini piano from a neighbor, so the kids and I have 
been taking Free Piano Lessons online and have learned a lot so far!
Kevin keeps busy working our businesses. He is truly a man passionate about natural health and healing and continues to work with our Mannatech and OW Company customers. When he’s not on the phone, he’s usually in the garden or repairing something in the shop. It’s nice to be married to a handyman!
Looking upon this past year, we are Thankful and Blessed to be in God’s hands. He is good and is forever by our side through every circumstance. We are so grateful for our family and friends and pray that you and your families are well and encouraged this Christmas season.
Please let us know how you are doing! Give us a call or make a comment below >>
May the Lord bless thee, and keep thee.
May His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee,
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Numbers 6:24-26
Merry Christmas!!
Kevin, Amy Jo, Baylee, Bryce, Breanna, Brielle
Tara Lynn (Bordercollie), Blitz and Sequoia (Haflingers), Tiger & Stripes (cats), Foxy, Brooke & Brown Sugar (goats), and the chickens.
With the beautiful sunny weather and the sun going down at a later hour, life on the farm gets busier for us! Between keeping the grass and weeds cut, the garden planted and tended to, summer home schooling and teaching horse lessons…we are Raising Chickens!
Being aware of how commercial chickens are raised in our country, we are always pretty picky with what we buy. Watch Food Inc. and you will know what we mean! It’s good to buy organic, free-range chicken…but It can also be EXPENSIVE! We will often times purchase the whole chicken (to cut the cost) and then cut it up ourselves or just cook it whole in the crock pot. I am always amazed at how small the chicken is at 4-5 lbs and $4.00+/lb.! Thus…the motivation to raise our own meat chickens!
A few years ago, we raised 20+ Cornish X birds. The gratifying feeling that we had home-grown chicken in our freezer was great! They were also 7-8lb. birds and lasted us almost a year! So we bit the bullet and purchased 30 Cornish X chicks in April. We built a separate “hen house” for them with their own free-range area and began the journey.
Starting out in brooders with a heated area (because it was cold back then!), the chicks grew out of their fuzzies and into their feathers pretty quickly. We lost 3 chicks, a 10% loss, which isn’t bad. The kids had fun feeding and caring for them! In 10 weeks time, these chicks grew into nice big, meat birds. The Cornish X birds are bred for this. It doesn’t seem quite right that they can grow so fast and eat so much feed! At least we have a say in what they eat, how they live and give them a good growing environment. Unlike, being raised in large chicken houses where they are pumped with antibiotics and don’t even see the sun….sad.
Now, last time, we put all of our adult meat birds into dog crates and took them to the “chicken pluckers” to get processed. This was pretty slick. We dropped them off, they did all of the dirty work and we picked up nicely packaged whole chickens already frozen in freezer bags. This year, we decided that we need to know how to butcher a chicken…
Well, that story is best kept for our next post… he,he
Below are some photos of the 1st part of our meat chicken journey >>
Stay Tuned!
From Our Family To Yours,
Kevin and Amy Jo
It’s been a month now since Japan was hit by a devastating Tsunami and the Fukushima Nuclear Plant began to break down. Japan continues to get hit by earthquakes and the nuclear plant is now in complete meltdown.
What does this mean for us?
Here are our other posts on this subject, if you missed them >>
Radioactive Exposure: What To Do?
Radioactive Exposure: Iodine, Herbs and Common Sense
It’s concerning how the main media is saying that there is no radiation problem and that the U.S. is experiencing nothing greater than normal background radiation. It seems that, once again, it’s up to us to be properly informed.
I think I’ve always loved English Muffins! There is nothing like them all toasted warm and lathered with butter! Or better yet topped with almond butter and honey…or homemade strawberry jam…or or or…
This is another sourdough recipe that has made it’s way into my weekly baking schedule!
Sourdough English Muffins:
1/2 Cup Sourdough Starter
1 Cup Milk/Water
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour (maybe more)
1 Tbsp. Honey
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda (aluminum-free)
(Optional) Add-ins like sesame seeds, dried fruit and/or chopped nuts
