Extraordinary Health Magazine Extraordinary Health Vol 25 | Page 35

Simply put, our mission is to exemplify the
foundation required for a self-sustaining society
built upon the “stewardship” of nature
structure. They could be plants that add nitrogen, plants that
have deep roots or mats of roots that create soil stability
for slopes, or even plants whose roots loosen compacted soil,
allowing water to soak in the landscape and allowing you
to work the soil easily.
In short, everything is multipurpose. You see? There is much
more to gardening than meets the eye.
Even water has its ups and downs—literally. We have preserved
water in some cases, and lost it monumentally in others, but our
goal is to find a way to not need to irrigate our fields in any way.
So far, we are succeeding, but we have a lot to learn and only
time will tell if this will work over the long haul.
While we were scrambling to get our garden going and
chicken coop built, we were at the mercy of an exceptionally
rainy and steamy summer. You know Mother Nature—she is
going to do what she does, so you just have to work around her!
Speaking of working around . . . we also had to work around
our job responsibilities and commitments as well as family
obligations. We knew that going into this, but some times
we sure wished there were more hours in the day!
And then, every so often, there are setbacks because, well, life
just happens and being human gets the best of us. For example,
we lost some precious time with a window of good weather
due to Jason being very ill for five days from—of all things—
a bad case of food poisoning. Can you believe it? When it rains,