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It has been a while since I have updated on the home build. The house is now framed and what a huge undertaking it was! We experienced many miracles to get all the materials we needed and acknowledge the hand of God in our lives! We are truly grateful for all that we have been able to do! We have been blessed with health and safety throughout this process and continue to pray for blessings.

One of the miracles we experienced was the ability to get LVLs at all. We drove to St. George to get them. The guy we bought them from said he felt like he should just help us out when he usually only sells full home packages. So we made a day of it and picked up our big headers that help frame the doors, windows and bearing walls!

Framing in the basement bearing walls.

Another view of the basement.

Laying down the sub floor over the floor joists for the first floor. Floor joists were another item we couldn’t get. We found a friend of a friend who had enough 16″ floor joists for 8 homes just sitting on his property! He was going to build condos a few years ago and didn’t. He has now supplied multiple friends and family with much needed materials! Another great miracle!

My amazing son who is now qualified to work for a framer if he needed to! He is one strong intelligent young man!

Another view of the sub floor being laid over the floor joists.

This was our first wall we put up for the house! It felt so good to get it into place! Another miracle we experienced was a good friend who is a framer and general contractor. He happened to have some free time for a few weeks and helped us do all the really big things, including putting in our beautiful stairs! I am so impressed with people who frame houses. They are so strong and knowledgeable!

Another view of the first wall up!

Back of the house exterior wall in place. Yes that is a large opening for a big slider door.

Front of the house exterior wall up!

First floor exterior walls in place!

Moving onto interior walls on the first floor! Grateful for family who came to help!

Jack and Mom taking a quick break on the cool concrete floor in the basement under the stairs, trying to get out of the sun for a bit. We were so tired! We had worked so hard carrying heavy lumber to the house to put up walls and joists in place. We joke that this is the house that Jack built!

Exterior walls up and ready for trusses!

Another miracle came our way when I was on the search for trusses. I was in tears when I called every distributor in Utah for them only to tell me they weren’t giving out anymore bids or they couldn’t get them in until the end of the year! We prayed for a miracle and finally found someone who could sell them to us from Laramie Wyoming! The trip was long and hard on my husband’s truck, but we made it all in one piece and were so very grateful!

Trusses in place and on to sheeting the roof!

We did sub-contract out the roof and it was put on in less than a week! That was such a relief, especially after all the rain we got this past summer. We are now mostly dried in for the winter.

View from the back yard with roof going on.

View from the front with roof going on.

Windows and front door in place! Now it is really starting to feel like home!

View from the back yard. Love the big slider door and all the natural light it allows in!

At this point we are working on plumbing, electrical, sub-contracting HVAC and finishing up little areas of framing for the 4-way inspection. We hope to have it all ready for insulation and dry wall by the first of November. It is coming together slowly as we have done much of the work ourselves. We look forward to get moved in this winter! More updates to come!

 

 

I will be placing a bulk food storage order on August 10th 2021 at NOON. Orders must be in by then. It takes me many hours to put in all the orders to my distributors. Please note that the only wheat available is hard and soft white in 50# bags. Olive oil is NOT available this order. I switched to a different honey company, it is cheaper, closer and is alfalfa and wild flower raw honey. I will have a South Jordan and Spanish Fork site drop for the order when everything comes in. Check out my food storage tab to place your order. Please send in your orders as soon as you can. Let me know if you have any questions through my contact page. Thanks!

Hello Fellow Herb Friends!

I will be teaching a FREE class on Safe, Effective and Easy to Grow Herbs this Tuesday, July 13th at 7 PM at the Shade Home and Garden Center in Orem. 435 S Geneva Rd. I would love to see you there if you can make it!

 

Hello Friends!

I haven’t posted in a while because we have been so busy with the home build! I thought I would share some pictures with you on the progress of our big adventure! We are so grateful for this experience as difficult as it has been, it has been a wonderful learning experience and bonding time for our family! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Pictures above are from March when we finally got our permit back from the county to start building! Thank goodness my husband worked as a heavy equipment operator in the army so big machines are his favorite toys to play with!

Finished digging the trenches for the footings with a machine, but we still had to clean them out, make sure they were deep enough and string line everything to level it out. Cutting, bending and tying all the rebar together for footings was pretty hard work… little did we know what was to come. Many people use forms for the footings, but with the cost of lumbar we decided to pour directly into the ground. This took more concrete, but on a positive note we have bigger footings.

 

Pump truck was there are ready to pour! We were pretty nervous as this was going to be our first big permanent project of the build!

 

You can see my husband guiding the pump hose as we poured concrete to cover the rebar for the footings. We string lined everything and smoothed it out with a 2×4 and concrete tools. Thank goodness he has concrete experience as a landscaper!

We spent an entire Saturday bending, cutting and tying rebar into the footings. We were so grateful for family and friends who came to help! It was hard and were grateful to be done with the tedious work!

 

When we set out to build we thought we would sub contract out the footings and foundation, but the guy who was supposed to do it kept pushing us off by a few months. So what did my husband do? He decided to take on the most difficult and dirtiest job of building a house! Foundation day came and it was brutal! We found a guy who rents forms, so with family at our rescue again we worked and worked and worked to set up heavy forms, pin them together with ties, being careful not to miss one to prevent a blow out! We had never known exhaustion like we did that entire week. They picked them up, unloaded them, pulled them into the house, set them up and had to use the excavator to move some walls to get them square. I told him I was never going to do it again! Phew! Did I mention we were tired? Haha!

These are some of my older children. You can see how dirty the work was! They have been so awesome! Definitely grateful for good kids!

The day came when we poured the walls! Both my husband and I were pretty nervous! So much concrete, money, time and energy were on the line. Literal blood, sweat and tears went into all the work we did to prep. Our whole heart and soul was in it! We held our breath, praying for angels to bare up the walls as we continued to pour. One corner was saved just in time, thanks to watchful eyes from our concrete guys. One of my sons was excited to get the chance to smooth the tops as they poured. It really has been an amazing learning experience!

Inserting bolts and ties to tie into the framing while the concrete was still wet!

 

Finally! The forms were taken off the following day, returned to the renter and we were left with walls! It was a sight to behold! This was the first time it felt like we were really building a home! Did I mention I told my husband I wasn’t going to do it again! LOL!

Septic plumbing was next on the list. We were grateful to be able to fit a small excavator through the walk out basement door to dig the trenches and back fill. It was still a lot of work to smooth it out and prep for flat work. My son enjoyed playing with the jack hammer to break out some concrete to fit pipes. Glad it was him and not me!

The pump and concrete trucks finally arrived to pour the floor! We were one step closer to being less dirty! LOL! Thankfully my husband knows how to do flat work!

The sun starting to beat down on us and the concrete was setting up fast. They all worked so hard to get it just right!

We are so grateful for the people and resources in our lives to be able to build a home in probably the most difficult time in modern history! Haha! I laugh, but the truth is we have experienced a lot anxiety, hope and a determination to keep moving forward! It has been a test of our faith for sure! We are definitely grateful for the reassurances that we are on the right path. If you have it in your heart to add us to your prayers we sure would appreciate it! Our hope is to continue moving forward so we can provide a place of safety for our family, teach classes, improve our community and be a blessing to those in need. Thanks for sticking around this long! Hope to have lots more updates for you as we move into the next phase of the build!

 

I will be placing a bulk herb order from Star-West Botanicals on April 12th at noon.  This is includes everything they offer on their website. All orders are due by noon on the 12th.

Placing Your Order

The best way to order from Star-West is to go to their website and find the items you want. Some things aren’t always available and prices change, so by going there yourself that takes a lot of extra work out for me putting the orders together and contacting people multiple times. Send a list of items you want, including the size, through my contact page and I will get you the wholesale price plus 10% to cover tax and shipping. Items are subject to become unavailable without notice. Pick up will be in Spanish Fork. Please feel free to reach out through my contact page if you have any questions.

Fermentation and Bread Making Class April 10th at 11 AM. UPDATE : 3/25/21 CLASS IS FULL. Deadline to sign up is April 3rd.

Come and learn about the significance of the gut microbiome and how to care for it with the skill of preserving through fermentation of veggies, salsa, fruit and bread. The workshop is $15. You’ll get to taste lots of delicious fermented foods and take home your own sourdough starter.  Deadline to sign up is April 3rd.  Contact me for Venmo info.

Did you know that what you eat and how you live directly impacts your health and how you feel? For every cell we have in our body there are 10x more bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa that are all talking to our mitochondria, coordinating repair and growth. We are only 1% human… the rest of us is an ecosystem that works harmoniously with our body if we are treating them right. Those little critters are the control center of the body, regulating hormones, inflammation, brain chemistry and what we do or don’t absorb. We know that 70% of our immune system is in the gut, where health begins. Our gut health even impacts our brain activity because more gaba and serotonin are produced in the gut than the brain. For every 1 message our brain sends to our gut, our gut sends 9. These messages include the activation of our immune system, the growth of new brain cells and the adaptability of these new cells to learn. More science is finding that our gut microbiome is critical to whether or not we experience chronic illness and impacts the health of our future. Come and learn what foods trigger inflammation and which foods to eat more of. We will learn the simple skill of fermenting vegetables like kimchi and salsa, fruit chutneys and even fermented bread which lowers the gluten content significantly.

Contact me for more info. Seating maximum for this class is 15. No refunds available after the deadline. Cost goes to food purchased for the class. A light lunch will be served and you will take home your own sourdough starter. This class will go for 2 hours.

Hey friends! I will be placing a wholesale bulk herb order from Star-West Botanicals on Monday Jan 11th at NOON. No exceptions on deadline. You can order a few different ways to get the discount through me. You can submit your payment info to me on the phone and I can have it sent to you and you pay shipping under $250 OR I can order it and you pick up from me in Spanish Fork and not pay shipping because I am pretty sure we can hit the $250 mark together. Let me know if you have any questions. Here is the website.

Hi Friends! We are finally under contract and will be moving in the next week! I am selling my medicine herb kits for 15% off this week, 11/30 – 12/4/20. They are ready for pick up or shipping.  I will also have the tinctures available for $15 each if you want to purchase them individually until supplies last. Please see this post for a list of products in each kit.

Children’s Herbal Medicine Kit – on sale for $114.75

Female Moons Herbal Medicine Kit – on sale for $123.25

Immune Support Herbal Medicine Kit – on sale for $131.75

First Aid Herbal Medicine Kit – on sale for $212.50

Reach out through my contact page of you have any questions!

I will be placing a bulk food order on  August 10th at noon. The deadline for your order needs to be in by that time. No exceptions. Please read carefully through the food storage ordering tab, not all items are available. You do not need pay pal to pay online for your items. If there is no tab for a particular item or you are having trouble paying online please reach out to me through my contact page and I can help you make other arrangements.

I will be ordering herbs from Star-West Botanicals. The prices listed on my website have changed so please contact me for more info.

I am really excited to offer some new products!

Redmond Sea salt and clay products have been added to the list, including a natural toothpaste.

Gourmet Guittard chocolate has been added. Most come in 25# cartons.

Olive oil is unavailable.

I’m making a new batch of salve and need to make room for it. I am selling what I have left for 50% off. The items I have left are:

17 (4 oz) jars 12 Herb Skin Salve (used for all kinds of skin issues including bug bites and burns) – $10

3 (2 oz) jars 12 Herb Skin Salve (same as above) – $5

2 (1 oz) jars 12 Herb Skin Salve (same as above) – $2.50

3 (2 oz) jars Lesion and Sore Salve (used for herpes virus of all kinds) – $6 each

Please send me a message form my contact page if you are interested.