Here at the Frost Farm our lives are always full of new adventures! We bought this four acre farm one year ago. It's a century farm, built in 1904-5 and was originally part of a much larger acreage. We are fortunate to still be surrounded by hundreds of acres of farm land, though we do not own it. The forty acres behind our home is organically farmed, lending to the ever-increasing privileges of living here. The home is two stories and totals 4200 square feet if you count the attic. The attic is a free-span attic and has 15 foot ceilings. We have studded in two bedrooms and a family room upstairs, but the lack of insulation leaves it unusable during the cold months. We are so excited to be here and develop this place into our dream farm.
I'm starting this blog as a way to document the things that we think and do, mostly for the sake of our children and grandchildren, but also for others that may desire the same lifestyle that we do. So, if you are reading this blog, I hope that you find it helpful, amusing, and uplifting.
My husband is 49 years old and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease two years ago. When we got the news it seemed surreal and it wasn't until it began to move through his body at a fast rate that we gave it much thought. (Probably me more than him because I'm not the one with the tremors). In two years the disease moved from one finger to the whole left side of his body and one month ago tremors started in the right hand. He takes medication and sees the neurologist regularly but there is nothing more that they can do. Without boring you with the details, we are faced with a very real, disabling future. Without intervention of some kind the doctors have given him 6 years until complete disability.
But we have hope! We have hope in Jesus Christ and the promise of a good life here on earth. We cling to the promise that He will not allow more sorrow or struggle in our lives than we can handle and that everything we commit to Him will be made perfect in His timing. We continue to pray for healing, but also trust God's divine wisdom and we fear not.
With the New Year comes a sense of new beginnings and we decided to make some changes in our lifestyle to bring about health and vitality for the remaining years that God has for us. Owen decided that he wanted to be fit by fifty. His birthday is in May. That gives us 5 months to turn our world around. I will use this blog to record our progress, and share the ideas and thoughts that we have regarding what we are doing.
Owen is 5'10'', he weighs 204 pounds. The widest part of his stomach measures at 41 inches. He has to use a CPAP machine at night to keep from suffocating. He has chronic nasal and sinus issues and is allergic to grasses, dust and some animals. He has skin conditions and failing eyesight and hearing loss. Seems like a pretty long list for such a young guy. We are going to change our diet, add daily exercise and massage therapy in an effort to decrease or eliminate all the issues listed above.
How do we plan to do this? After much thought and prayer I am putting us on a whole foods diet. The idea to this eating lifestyle is to eat only things that occur naturally and to keep all foods in their simplest forms. I believe that God knew what he was doing when He designed this earth as a place to sustain us. It's only when we take things into our own hands that we suffer the consequences. That's a no brainer. More on that later.
I plan to post our activity on a daily basis and I'm sure that I will develop many threads of adventure that move in and out of my posts. One of the hardest things about starting this blog was knowing where to start from and what adventure to tell first, so we'll start with today and move on from there.
Today was the first day of our new lifestyle. Owen spent that day in the mountains cutting wood and I spent the afternoon reading cookbooks. I dug out a dusty one that read "Wholesome Sugar-free Cooking" by Ray and Malinda Yutzy. I'm not sure where I got it, but I felt kindred to their philosophies and have decided to use their cookbook as a resource for new recipes. This cookbook uses maple syrup (the real stuff), honey and molasses as the sugar sources for their recipes.
It was important to me to use material and recipes that mirror my own funky way of thinking. If I'm going to spend time with an author I'd better feel a kindred spirit or I waste too much time mentally sorting through our differences. I'm a critical thinker and passionate about my beliefs, so I find it hard not to spend time defending my platform, even to the writer of a cookbook. Too much mental noise! lol But I think Ray and Malinda and I will get along just fine ;)
I picked the whole foods lifestyle because Parkinson's is a disease caused by too much toxins. It's degenerative. It's a disease of the body killing itself. So, it would make sense to start with detoxing the body. I know there are a lot of detox remedies, but we will choose the gentle approach and just make a vector change; believing that the body will do what it was designed to do; heal itself instead of kill itself. Are we too late? I don't believe so, but time will tell.
We had tuna sandwiches with apple cut up in it on whole wheat bread, organic bananas, and wild-game jerky for lunch. We followed it with pork stew for dinner. The pork was raised here on our farm and the stew had organic carrots, organic potatoes and organic onion and spices. We made biscuits with white flour just to use it up, but white flour will disappear from our home for good. We put butter and raw honey on the biscuits and they were yummy.
I read this evening about the value of partially germinated grains for bread. This is the process of sprouting the grain slightly before using it for flour. I'm soaking my grain in jars and will rinse and dry it in the morning. When it's completely dry I will grind it and make it into a loaf of bread. I'm excited to try this.
Owen was making cheese while I have been blogging and it's fabulous. He made it from raw milk that he took from our Jersey cow "Clabber" this evening. Healthy eating? Must have a cow or access to whole, raw, cow or goat milk. Back to nature baby!!
We have both a cow and goats. I have a sensitivity to cow milk so I milk my goats and make cheese, butter, etc. from goat as well as cow dairy. Owen milks and cares for the cow. You can find a good dairy cow at a dairy auction. We prefer Jerseys. It's best to get them "fresh"; that means they are producing milk; so the cow is used to being handled and will act nice for you. If cows scare you, goats are a great choice. They are small and easy to handle and milk. I prefer the Alpine or LaMancha breeds over the Nubian. I've owned all with my favorite being the Alpine.
We have four daughters, ages 13-18 and they are a bit skeptical of mom and dad's new plan, but they are gracious and I hope to show them what good food choices can do.
Until next time...
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