How this business came about:

Twenty years ago I lived in the city and was a single mother of 3 small children. I managed an extremely busy restaurant and bar, worked 50-60 hours a week and tried to care for the 3 kids I was blessed with. Honestly looking back now it seems like one big blur juggling work, day care, and trying to maintain a single family home. To make a long story short I met my second husband and we've been married 15 years now. We were sick and tired of being sick and tired and decided to sell the house in the city, buy a house in the country and "live happily ever after". We found our house with 4 acres and boy did we think that was a LOT of land. We moved to the country in the spring of 1997.

My husband went to work as a foreman of a landscaping company and I worked with people with mental retardation. It was a very difficult job as the guys I worked with were both mentally handicapped but also had mental illness [schizophrenia]. It was very rewarding at times but also mentally exhausting and after a while I decided to get back into management. I took a position managing a new store that was opening up. I literally was working 16 hours a day getting the suppliers set up along with hiring and training employees, etc. The owner of the business turned out to be a real creep and started hitting on me. When I told him not only were his actions unwarranted but also illegal I was fired. The excuse was that he could not afford to pay me after giving me a $2.00 hour raise for doing such a great job! I NEVER had been fired from a job before. I was devastated!

After getting over the devastation I got pissed. Filed a sexual harassment complaint with the civil liberties commission and 3 other woman came forward and said he had done the same to them. It took a year but we won and he had to institute sexual harassment policies in the work place as well as attend sensitivity training and we all received a small monetary settlement. This experience made me decide that I was never going to work that hard for someone else again.

I decided that I liked animals better then most people and that I wanted to focus my energies raising some type of livestock. Well that 4 acres we thought was so much land turned out to be not much at all and raising beef cows or something similar on a large scale was out. I already have 2 horses and we had been raising our own cow, chickens, and turkeys for our own family's use. Somehow I ended up stumbling upon rabbits as a business venture and after researching it more discovered raw feeding. Well, raw feeding made sense to me as I had lost a Boxer to cancer a couple years back and now realize that a raw diet would have certainly made a difference.

Everything fell into place and the business just continually progressed from there.

Now I work 14 hour days but I do it for myself. If something is not done then I have my self to blame. This is by far the hardest job I've ever had. There are no days off EVER. Animals need to be fed and watered even on holidays and when I am sick. It is also the most rewarding. There is nothing like walking out to the barn in the morning to have the horses whinny at you and the goats baaing that they are happy to see you. The rabbits know my voice as well and come up for their morning hay. Butchering is the hard part. Yes it is very hard at times. The goats are especially hard as they are very personable but I tell myself that while they are here they have a good life and when it is their time it is done with respect and as humanely and quickly as possible. The same with the rabbits and chickens. I also try to use every part of the animal as I believe in not wasting anything, if possible. I guess my point is that if this "city girl" can do it anyone can. I wouldn't go back to the city for a million dollars!

In May of 2003 we moved from our 4 acre farmette and purchased a larger farm with more land just a couple miles from our previous home. The farm has been a challenge to say the least. The home is over 130 years old and needed major remodeling. The outbuildings as well as pastures were in total disarray. The house was pretty much not habitable when we purchased it. It has been 5+ years and we finally are almost done with remodeling the house. The first year here was the worst. We had snakes in our bedroom due to cracks in the foundation. Nothing like getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and stepping on a snake! My husband was worse then me and would not get out of bed till he put his boots on [LOL]. The foundation is now fixed and I am very pleased to say no more snakes.

We have 3 children, 2 daughters and a son. All of them are adults now and live on their own. My son, Travis and daughter, Lindsay help part time with the farm and business. My other daughter, Ashlee and her Fiancé, Josh lives about 1 1/2 hours from me. They blessed us on Oct 10, 2008 with my first Grandchild, Wyatt Stanley Luke.

Spring, 2005 my husband and I made the decision that he would not return to his landscape foreman position. The farm has required so much work and it just didn’t make sense for him to return to his full time job as we would have had to hire out other work that needed to be done here. It was a good decision even though at times money is very tight but we always seem to make ends meet.

We enjoy horseback riding and motorcycle riding in our spare time. Which is few and far between these days.