I don’t even like to think about those days, but I’m willing to share my story if it helps save even one person from the agony I endured. My late husband and I dreamed of having a farm. You know, a little piece of earth that we could pass along to the kids and they could always call home.
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station
The trouble is, we were flat broke. No, we were less than flat broke. Dave was working at a winding shop, he was learning to be a motor winder and he really enjoyed it. The trouble is it only paid $4.35 an hour, not much. Not only that but he was paying court-ordered child support of $125.00/mo, so basically he was working to support his children and I was supporting us.
Nevertheless, I knew that if we worked hard and saved our money we could still make it happen. On the weekends, we couldn’t really afford to do anything, so we would drive around the countryside and talk about our dreams. We wanted a big house and a yard for the kids to play in.
Motor Winding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53OA2pUeNq8
One day we found this house, sitting in the middle of a field, empty. It was pretty big, it had a barn that was made from real logs split in two. They were massive. We walked around the place. There were no doors, so we went inside, to have a look around. It was pretty bad — all 32 panes of glass were broken, there was no bathroom, no kitchen, the furnace was about 75 years old. We didn’t know if it would ever work.
We drove out a couple more times, located the owners and bought the place, with nothing down.
We were on top on the world, and Styrofoam.
We decided to move in right away, so we could start working on it right away. So, once it had doors and windows (HEAP did it all for free, including insulation. What a blessing.), we moved in. We took turns at night stoking the fire, we slept on Styrofoam mats in front of the wood burner. We ran an electrically cord from the barn to the house. For some strange reason there was power to the barn but not the house.
Our Farm
Tomatoes – still green.
The farm was located outside Toledo, Ohio on the edge of the safety zone for Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant, so we often had really loud sirens going off. I could see those towers like they were sitting right in my own backyard. The farm was surrounded by crops as far as the eye could see. Life was hard there. I was constantly boiling water on a little two burner stove for baths and cooking. A neighbor gave us a tub and we converted a closet into a bathroom. We didn’t care that there was a window in it. We just hung a curtain over it, or in our case a towel.
I’ll never forget our second Thanksgiving in the house. We had a bunch of people coming and it was our first big dinner in the house. Dave was supposed to have the hot water hooked up before then. He finally got it hooked up and installed as people were pulling in the driveway. It was a Happy Thanksgiving!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDfVBXcQiGY
Raising Animals
We planted a garden and raised a few pigs — 25 at the peak of things, 300 chickens each year, a couple ducks, a couple lambs, turkeys, pheasants, a goat and of course the dogs and cats. (We didn’t eat the dogs and cats, but everything else was fair game.) Things were good, or so we thought.
We had been there a few years without any trouble. The corn fields were a little trouble, because in the fall, when the fields were cut, the mice would come out of the woodwork. We had a good mouser which we bought in the house for just such occasions. I remember the first year they planted soybeans. I thought it was nice because we could actually see across the fields whereas the corn was too tall to see over, in the fall.
Then came the crop dusters, and half our garden died. We managed to save most of the tomatoes and broccoli but the corn: complete disaster. That night I broke out in hives, I was itching and my lips swelled, my face swelled, my hands swelled. I was taken to the hospital, put on Prednisone and sent home.
Prednisone – the worst drug on earth!
Prednisone: The Double-Edged Sword
I would break out a few days after I quit taking the Prednisone, which would mean another trip to the hospital. It was a vicious cycle. Then I had an allergic reaction to the Prednisone and that started my prescription days. I was taking so many medications I often didn’t even know what day it was.
I was sick every day after that. I ballooned up to 270 pounds from my normal weight of 135. I could hardly breath, and could barely walk. We didn’t even give a thought to the spray when we picked our vegetables. I think that was the year all my tomatoes were big, juicy, gorgeous and GREEN. We had to pick them or lose them, so we picked them.
I thought, “oh, good Lord we’re going to have fried green tomatoes until the cows come home.” Fortunately, that was not the case. I washed each tomato, adding about 1/2 teaspoon of bleach to a sink of water, rinsed and dried them well. Then I put them back in the basket. The tomatoes on the top, exposed to the air would turn red. We had fresh tomatoes until February that year.
Drastic Changes Were Needed
If I hadn’t made some drastic changes around that same time there is no doubt in my mind that I would be dead. I couldn’t walk, I could hard breath, I was so out of breath all the time. I could not live my life surrounded by soybeans. I’ll always wonder if the people we bought the house from knew there was a problem and sold the house anyways. I guess I’ll never know.
Dave had a heart attack, it was there we found out that the headaches he was having was due to aspartame. At that time, we was drinking three our four 2-liters a day. He would get terrible headaches.
I was taking Vioxx for my arthritis and had told my doctor about my heart palpitations before they discovered any problems. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, so I quit taking them. A year later they were pulled off the market, people were dying.
I took my health into my own hands, but it took me ten long years of suffering and pain to recover. Today, I live in the mountains and I no longer see the doctors. I care for myself and treat myself with food and things from nature. Do I live a healthy lifestyle? No, not on your life! But I know how to feel better when I hurt myself. I avoid GMO when I can and I’m just happy to live my life, surrounded by friends and family and the people I care about.
