From City Livin' to Country Life.

I come from a family of 8 siblings – noisy, opinionated, loyal to a fault – and I love them all. But there’s no doubt about it that I am known in my family as being the ‘health nut’.

Jesse and I didn’t start out this way but then some health issues kinda kickstarted that in us and since then, I’ve taken a keen interest in learning nutrition and the human body. The birth of our first daughter really accelerated that passion again and then when she was sick a lot around 18 months, I thought, “Something has got to change! We can’t be dealing with sickness all winter long!”

Interestingly enough, I do not enjoy cooking. Not the decision of what’s for dinner, not the executing of that plan, not the clean-up after – I just do not enjoy it. I’ve come to accept this about myself while at the same time always striving to learn more about nutrition and good eating. I cook for my family and it’s my worship to Jesus and I strive to serve them well.

Our style of cooking and eating is very whole foods based, also loosely based around eating what is local and in season to us (which can be a real challenge in the winter!). Sometimes friends have expressed surprise at the amount of food I make from scratch when I dislike cooking so much. The short answer: it has become very important to me.

When our daughter was 18 months old and sick a lot, I soon realized there are multiple avenues of supplements, essential oils, and treatments that we could wander down. I suppose we tried those all to some degree but really ended up focusing on nutrition. By that point we were raising a lot of our own meat and with that came bones to make bone broth. I learned how to make bone broth!

It has now become my single biggest go-to when any of us starts getting sick!

I could dive into all the nutrition and goodness of it all but many other people have already written many words about it. For me, my experience is enough to have convinced me!

This will be the third winter in a row that I plan to make lots of bone broth. We eat soup an average of once a week but there are so many other ways broth can be incorporated into your diet, including bone broth hot chocolate! So far, we have been sick an average of once a year and by sick I mean sniffles that lasted one day.

Now, we don’t have school-aged children or children in daycare so I realize that is a blessing that we have, since many germs can go through places like that. But for now, I guess I’m gonna stick with the tried and true that has worked for us!

I have a batch of bone broth simmering right now. There is a back story to it though. About once a year, usually in August or September, I really fall off the rails in my shopping purchases and things ‘fall’ into my cart that I wouldn’t normally purchase. It happened last week. Mama went shopping, she was hungry and feeling slightly frazzled and overwhelmed, and the cart was soon loaded. Less than a week later, we were all dealing with the sniffles and sore throats. Jesse, to his credit, didn’t say I told you so, while I’ve spent the last couple days doctoring us all again. I’m not saying that was all that contributed to our getting sick since there can definitely be other factors at play too. But I’m still gonna be making a lot of bone broth this winter! And I’m fine with being the ‘health nut’ in my family, too :)

Azure Highlands Homestead has a variety of beef, pork and chicken bones available for your own broth making!

Thanks for joining us. 

We're a family who said: "Goodbye City... Hello Country!"

Follow along as we embark upon a new adventure - Country Life. Read about our experiences (good and bad) as we transition from big-city life and endeavour to live our Dream Life in the Country. 

Like a lot of city folk, we grew more disenchanted with crowded, busy, fast-paced, big-city life. We had felt drawn to Country Life for years, having dreamt of wide open spaces, fresh air, and no people. 

They say, 'Strike when the iron is hot'...so we did. We sold our home in the city and bought the farm! 

They also say, 'Make hay while the sun shines'...which is something we're going to have to learn, along with a bunch of other things we don't yet know about!

OUR DREAM OF COUNTRY LIFE

A quiet, safe place to raise our kids. That's the dream of Country Life. 

We like people, but not that much. We wanted to be as close to the  middle of nowhere as you can and still have access to the 'amenities' of a (very) small town.

We want to grow our own food, hunt, and fish. We want space for our dogs and horses to roam. 

We want to live like our grandparents did: simple and self-sufficient. 

We also want a good wifi connection.

OUR REALITY OF COUNTRY LIFE

The wifi's a bit spotty, but the rest is pretty much as we'd planned. 

We live in a century home on an old organic hobby farm, outside a town with one stop light. 

There are deer and rabbit tracks all over our property and we have a pond stocked with trout. 

Our children and animals are healthy, happy, safe, and free to roam. 

We live in God's Country!

Sincerely, 

Mama & Papa Country

Big Brother & The Little Guy (Our Boys)

Dyson & Molly (Our Dogs)

Reign, Cedar, Tobi, Bronson & King (Our Horses)

Gordon, Yvonne & Surprise Baby Digsby (Our Goats)