Let’s see, where did I leave off last time?

Oh right, we fast forwarded 15 years, to having 2 young adults and one teenager left at home. So, the rest of the story seems pretty short from here, but I guess I left out how we got goats and started homesteading in various places.​

Seems like natural medicine often leads to homesteading, or at least is a natural progression. When our oldest was 8 we added raw goat’s milk to her diet since she was severely allergic to cow’s milk. It was one of the best things we ever did for her. We saw her health turn around tremendously and while people may question our choice, it was the only thing we changed that year, so we can’t help but feel it was medicinal for her.

Shortly after seeing such a difference goat milk had on her health and because she was interested in joining 4H, we ended up getting our first 2 goats. At the time, we had moved up to Estes Park and were living off grid in a cabin on family property, had the space to have goats and built our first barn out of pallets and free materials. We loved it up there and had an amazing community of people as well as enjoyed the simple living.

​We really were living simply and just enjoying every moment of it. Although, I did have a love-hate relationship with cooking over a wood cookstove and hauling water regularly. I definitely ended up having tremendous respect for our pioneer women, because while it wasn’t easy, I could always run to the grocery store and buy a rotisserie chicken if dinner didn’t work out! ​

​We ended up adding other animals like chickens and ducks-due to another allergy for our daughter, and lived up there until major flooding wiped out our road and made winter difficult to maneuver when hauling your own water up and down the mountainside with young children in tow.​

After spending that winter watching my parent’s home in Upstate NY while they were wintering in SoCal, we ended up making the decision for Tony to enter a new line of work, forensics engineering, and that moved us to Oklahoma where we ended up on acreage again and started a little larger herd of dairy goats, even ending up owning our own buck, which I said I would NEVER do!

​When we started having way too much milk, more than we could drink, turn into yogurt, cheese or sell, I started making soap. I made and sold soap, mostly to family and friends, for a couple of years and now that I have my own formulas and lots of testing, encouragement from the family behind me, I decided it was time to take the old blog and launch it fresh with a new venture. We have since made yet another move to Idaho, after a job offer with the Air Force opened up near my brother’s family and parents. That’s another story in itself, but for another time, if I end up sharing.

​If you made it this far, thanks. It has been fun to relive some of our journey here with you all. I look forward to getting to know you and hope you will stay around and give me that chance.