Homesteading
I moved to to a 7 acre farm about 10 years ago so that I could know exactly what went on behind the food that I was eating. Previously, I was living in the city of Vancouver BC and I had woken up to the horrors going on behind our food supply. It was becoming increasingly expensive to live in the city because I was seeking small farm raised foods, backyard eggs, organic produce, etc. Basically, most of my income was going towards food! I started a garden in the backyard, a city garden, and that is where I began to learn about the abundance that nature offered and I realized that I could grow it myself for less, it began to make less and less sense to buy my vegetables from someone else when I could grow them myself.
Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding from Pexels
A couple of years later, we decided to leave the city and move to the Okanagan (Okanagan was the fruit capital of BC, now it is the wine capital) in search of land to grow and raise food – or what we considered to be food at that time. Leaving the city was one of the best decisions that I could have made, not a day goes by that I am not grateful for leaving the city for many reasons. Like I said, I wanted to know exactly where my food was coming from, and what went on behind that food becoming my food! We set up a greenhouse, planted fruit trees and stocked the farm with animals such as pigs, goats, cows, chickens, rabbits, sheep, etc.
I was 35 at that time and had been suffering with various health issues such as insomnia, acne, body pain, frequent headaches/migraines, bouts of depression, and a whole long list of other issues. Through my research at that time, I figured that if all of my meat was organic, grass fed and raised on the land, then it would be healthy for me to eat. I figured that if I had raw milk, that raw milk could be healing and to bring balance into my life. I thought that if the eggs that I consumed came from my chickens ( that were loved ) and fed organic grains and our organic kitchen scraps that my health would return. At that time, I didn’t fully realize the impact that diet has on our overall health, however, I did realize that the quality of our food made a difference in our overall health. I was excited to enter into the world of farming and homesteading – boy was I in for a major eye opener.
Now knowing what goes on behind bringing milk, eggs and meat to the table, I can say that it is not all sunshine and rainbows. Slaughter is very difficult, you actually have to murder the animal that you spent time feeding and watching grow. There is nothing humane about murder because the animals want to live and they can sense death coming no matter how stealth you think you are. I could almost bet that if each person who ate meat had to kill the animal themselves, they would become (at the very least) vegetarian overnight. Nature does send us clear messages, and the messages that I began to receive were that I did not want to be around the murder, or to take part in the murder of the animals. The hardship doesn’t end after the murder, then the animal must be skinned, gutted, cleaned, etc. which is an absolute disgusting job. Killing animals is messy, it stinks and if we were meant to eat dead animals by design, we would revel in the thought of killing and gutting. If we were meant to eat dead animal flesh by nature, we would salivate while cutting up the dead, raw flesh of the animals and we would want to eat them raw after the kill. That was never the case. And then there is the clean up and preservation of the dead animals. How unnatural does it have to get before we get it? After killing the animal, we must cure the meat – this is a method of preservation which involves a lot of salt & time to stop the decomposition process, to stop the bacteria so that we do not harm our health.
We soon discovered that we needed additional freezers, resources and electricity. The whole process that begins with a live animal to bringing it to the plate is such a huge undertaking, it’s so messy and unnatural – yet this only becomes apparent when you do it yourself. Most people in today’s world have no clue what goes in behind the meats that they eat. People of today are so disconnected from that which they choose to eat. Heading down to the local grocery store to pick up a plastic wrapped package of dead animal parts is the very definition of ignorance in my opinion.
Then there was the milking of our Jersey. I can see why the dairy industry must cook (pasteurize) the milk for human consumption, it’s not easy to handle raw milk, it spoils very quickly because it is meant for the calf to drink. Milking a cow is one of the most unnatural acts for a human, there is nothing normal about it. In factory farms, they often separate the mom and baby early on and that is final. On our farm, we left the mom with her baby in the field, but each morning, and evening, we had to separate them while we took Mercedes for milking at the barn. Separating the mom & baby is quite heartbreaking, and should be another clue that a cows milk is not meant for us to take. We would lead Mercedes to another milking area (leaving her baby crying in the field waiting for her return), wash her dirty udders and begin the milking process by hand. It is not a normal thing to do, the cow tolerates it, but if you take a step back, and truly think about what is going on in that moment, it becomes obvious that it’s just not meant to happen, we push the boundaries of nature so that we can take what we want. I can almost guarantee that if people had to milk the cows themselves, they would quickly loose the desire to drink mucus forming milk, eat cheese, yogurts and all dairy products. Have you ever made your own cheese? Aged it to “perfection”? Have you ever made yogurt? The process is putrefactive, it stinks! Why do we humans think that eating foods in a state of decomposition, or moldy food is somehow healthy? Why do we seek to eat these fungal foods? Seeing the moldy cheese just hanging there never looked appetizing – even though I ended up eating it.
Collecting the eggs from the chickens was another undertaking and minor stress in itself. I didn’t enjoy collecting the eggs when there were any hens in the coop because they get quite protective, they will peck at your hand if you reach out to collect the eggs that she is sitting on. Chicken coops get quite dirty and smelly fast. The coops must be cleaned often, fresh hay must always be on hand and the smell of ammonia can become quite strong if you do not stay on top of keeping the coop clean. The one thing that always grossed me out was that some of the eggs would get chicken poop all over them. It is our instinct to wash those eggs, however, eggs are porous so it’s best to wait for the poop to dry so that we can scrape it off to avoid egg contamination. Eggs are great for raccoons food, however, they are not health promoting for human health, in fact, they are quite acidic and constipating. I used to make this raw milk shake combined with raw eggs & raw honey as a “health” drink for lunch. I was trying to regain my health and at that time I had thought that this was a very healthy shake – even though it wasn’t very appetizing – and I had to get used to it in order to enjoy it.
There are specific steps that we must take with animal meats and products to ensure that they do not poison us further! Have you ever taken a Food Safe Course? The whole course teaches you how to not fall victim to the foods that you want to consume. The whole course is geared around safe cooking and preservation techniques because if we do not take these special steps, our food will make us sick! And yet we continue to consume these foods as if it were somehow normal. Like I said, nature sends us humans clear messages, it is us that chooses not to listen. After sometime, I had no choice but to listen to my inner instincts , they kept nagging me, revealing that this lifestyle was highly unnatural, heartbreaking and not normal – even though farming and eating animal products has been normalized over the generations. I now know that if the majority believes something, or if the majority is doing something, it’s best to examine the other side of things because the majority is not always correct.
My health issues were not improving, even though I had what people of today consider the best possible foods. I had the grass fed beef/chicken/pork, I had the raw milk & milk products made on our small scale farm, I had eggs from chickens that were allowed to roam freely. In the evening, once dinner was made, I would look at my plate and feel good that everything I was eating had come from our farm. That was the goal, and we had achieved that goal, so why wasn’t I feeling really good health-wise? With all the fresh air, exercise, and “healthy foods”, why wasn’t I feeling amazing at that point? Ill tell you why, It’s because we were not on the right track – we were not putting our energy and time into the health promoting foods, we were putting most of that time and energy into the foods that build health / disease issues overtime, we just didn’t know that yet.
We gardened, we grew ground crops and set up a 90ft greenhouse. We would attend farmers markets to sell our vegetables and greens but most of our attention and time was taken up on the animal side of things because there is so much more that must be done in order to bring those foods to the table. What I realized looking back is that I had all these healthy fruits and vegetables, yet a lot of my focus was on the eggs, milks and cheese because those were the products people really wanted, and those were the products that required the most energy. Looking back, it amazes me with just how much time and energy must be put towards animal agriculture and for what?
When it comes to animal farming, and producing your own foods from the animals, you must realize that you are tied to your farm. There is no leaving for the weekend, you must be there at every moment because a lot can go wrong, and believe me, it does. Animals dig, chew, escape. Predators are waiting for their opportunities. Fences get broken, all sorts of issues arise. Looking back, I can now see that when you are not living a natural path, many issues / problems will present themselves as messages. When we start living our lives more in line with our bodies natural requirements, things begin to fall into place, everything improves, let me explain further.
So here we are, we are living the dream with a farm in full operation. We are working day and night to keep things running smoothly, but hey, we have our meat, our eggs and our cheese right? My health issues were not improving, in fact they were increasingly becoming worse. I had this one incident where I was sitting on my couch, I had just eaten my daily raw yogurt for lunch with raisins & berries. I went to get up from the couch and I couldn’t. I couldn’t get up, it’s like my body seized and it forgot how to walk. When I finally managed to stand up, I could hardly walk. I shuffled so slowly around the house in pain, walking was suddenly a difficult task. This went on for days. A friend of mine referred me to a chiropractor who after a few sessions, helped me to regain function of my legs, yet knowing what I know today, that was a quick / temporary fix, it did not heal the underlying root cause as to why my body decided to seize. My headaches / migraines were still taking a toll daily on my health, and I always had some sort of symptom that was bothering me. In the back of my head, I had just thought that it was normal to deal with health issues past 30, maybe because every person I knew was dealing with some sort of health issue as well. I relied on Tylenol and Advil.
Fortunately, new information began to present itself. You see, It had never crossed my mind to eliminate animal products from my diet because I had never really heard of anyone doing it. I had believed at that time that my diet was the optimal diet for humans and that we were so fortunate to be living on a farm where we could make that happen, even though I didn’t enjoy many aspects of farming. I was attending a local seed exchange and there was a lady there who changed my life. She recommended a book titled “The PH Miracle” By Dr. Young. As I began reading this book, a whole new world of possibilities began to present itself. I learned that meat was acid forming, putrefactive, and difficult to digest. I learned that dairy was highly mucus forming and that eggs were not nutritious for humans. I was learning about the power of vegetables and leafy greens. Dr. Young’s focus was on the vegetables and leafy greens & plant fats. This was the book (that while I may not agree with all his concepts today) that pulled me out of the mindset that dead animals and their products were healthy. Here I was, living on a 7 acre organic farm, full of animals that I was beginning to look at differently. I decided to eliminate animal products from my diet overnight, and I did. I did cry over my last plate of scrambled eggs because they were my favorite food, yet I knew I desired to be healthy more than anything in the world, so letting go was part of the process because I was tired of living in pain.
We found homes for all of our animals. Some we gave away to homes where we knew they wouldn’t be eaten. We gave our neighbour freezers full of meat because we didn’t feel right selling it anymore. We sold our chickens and decided that it was time to move on. We had woken up to other aspects in life other than just diet – such as the fraudulent banking system, the mortgage frauds, and the current ruling system at large that often came knocking at our door. We had a nasty neighbour who didn’t take kindly to living next door to a farm. Mr. Dave. S., he was also a major catalyst in our awakening. Mr. Dave would call the RDOS to complain on the daily, he wrote letters and called every government agency that he could think of to make our lives difficult. He even called the mosquito control board about our little pond. This man was very miserable and took the time to make sure we were miserable as well. As difficult as that was, It pushed me to learn about law and how to defend myself against evil. There was so much that I was waking up to from health, to the way the world was truly operating. Most people do not see the these aspects because they do not have to, they go to work and they come home and they pay their bills – yet there is another side, an insidious side to the system that is only seen through experience.
Back to the topic of this post! Eliminating animal products and meat from my diet was the best decision that I could have made.
My health began to slowly improve and I began feeling better. Everything became easier, and I had more time to pursue hobbies that I never had time for when animal farming. I remember using hours of my time scrubbing the grease and the meat stuff from the dinner plates and pans, after eliminating those foods from the diet, I also eliminated all the scrubbing of dishes! My dishes now rinse clean without the need for soap, what amazes me is the creation of products to compensate for our failing health and our poor dietary choices. When we live in accordance to the way we were designed, everything becomes easier.
We decided to leave the farm, and we did so quite quickly, we were tired of our nasty neighbour, tired of fighting the intruding government agencies -and what was the point of having all that massive mortgage & acreage to care for? We bought a trailer and moved onto a friends organic fruit orchard where we became caretakers of the land. There we managed the fruit trees and gardened. It was there where I made my next big discovery that took my health to the next level. I discovered, among a friends items, a book titled “RATIONAL FASTING” by ARNOLD EHRET. This book changed my life and I still recommend it today if you wish to gain a full understanding of our true dietary needs.
I have a previous blog about how beneficial Fasting is for Health Click on the Links Below:
This post is already long enough, I think I will continue this story in another blog post within the week. In the next post I will share the information that I learned in Arnold Ehrets book, and what it took for me to regain my health. It wasn’t always easy, I went through some really tough times during the healing process – yet it is one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made in my lifetime so far.
Health is everything.
Without health, every aspect of our lives is a diminished version of its true potential. Health should be our first priority because it sets the foundation for everything that comes thereafter. Sometimes we must take a step back in order to see that which is right in front of us. When I was living among the animals on the farm, producing our own products, I did not see how unnatural it truly was until I took a step back and began living in a different way altogether.
Thank you for reading this far if you haven’t checked out my youtube channel please do so and subscribe!! I have made a Video in regards to this post:
We don’t have to work ourselves to the bone to be healthy, we just have to grow some fruit tree’s and garden! We don’t have to witness death, blood, pain, hardship and animal exploitation for food, that is not food, that is simply bad karma – no matter if you do it yourself, or if you pay someone else to do it for you. Health is true wealth, health is true freedom and the only ones who realize this are usually the ones who loose it along the way and suffer. Without health, life is not all that it can be.
Happy healing everyone, take the time to heal, it is worth it.
Mariah
