About

Hi, I'm Wendy.

I have had this blog for over a year since 2013 now so I thought it was time to update my information to be a little more current.  So here is our profile as of December 1, 2014 January 13, 2017 January 28, 2019, March 15, 2023.  Wow.....that is a long time!!

My husband and I were both police officers in the third largest city in our state.  When we retired we moved as far away from the hustle and bustle as we could, landing in a small town of approximately 4000 people and buying a house on 12 acres.  This was quite a few years ago.  Shortly after we moved out here we decided that if we were going to live on all these acres in the country we may as well make the most of it.  We planted some fruit trees, lots of flower gardens, got a couple 3 dogs, joined a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) and ordered up our first baby chicks to become our laying hens.  We moved on to raising meat chickens, turkeys and pigs for meat. We try to raise and buy meat that is treated humanely and given room to roam, cared for without hormones or unnecessary antibiotics and our CSA is one of the only organic CSA's in the area (www.rcorganicfarms.com).  We have friends who raise beef, bees, goats, lambs, vegetables and fruit.  We are blessed to have hunters and fishermen (fisherpeople?) in our lives who provide us with additional goodies.  I started canning and freezing in an attempt to be as self sustainable as possible.  We did all this by studying websites, reading books, learning from friends and lots of trial and error.

In 2016, Frank retired from his second job as a Labor Rep for police, fire and government workers in Michigan.  We sold the homestead and downsized to a 5 acre parcel.  We add another dog, that's right....that makes 4!!.....and brought our laying hens with us.  We stayed in the same area so are still able to avail ourselves of all the same food sources.  We have decided that our hog raising days are over so we now buy those from the same farm from where we get our beef.  We planted 8 fruit trees last year and plan on adding a couple more this year.  I would also like to put in a strawberry patch and some raspberry bushes.  Oh, and Frank went back to work part time as a Labor Rep....they gave him an offer he couldn't refuse.  He is retiring again at the end of this month, March 2023.  Hopefully for good this time LOL.  

My husband, Frank, who is the greatest, and I have been married 21 22 25  nearly 27 32 years.  We each had 2 children from previous marriages who blended nicely giving us a lovely family of 2 girls and 2 boys all of who grew up into wonderful adults of whom we could not be prouder.  The only problem was that I began suffering empty nest syndrome.  We remedied this by taking in foreign exchange students and I recently retired as a local representative for World Heritage.

We were caregivers for my parents for many years.  Both have moved on to a better place.  Mom suffered from Alzheimers/Dementia and was the main reason I started blogging.  You can read about this experience in my Life with Mom section.  Mom passed away at the ripe old age of 95 in January of 2016.  She was followed by Frank's Mom, exactly 1 month and 1 day later.

We also became grandparents on September 19th, 2014!!  One of the things about taking in exchange students is that they become your "child". Tingting, who now is an American citizen and goes by the name, Jessica, came to us when she was 15.  We are very excited to share our granddaughter, Melody Elizabeth, with you.

The old empty nest syndrome struck again and in August of 2018 we became foster parents to a teenage daughter.  Marissa is in 9th grade and has decided she would like to live with us permanently. The adoption should be finalized in April of 2019.  She is now an adult and working on her goal of becoming a firefighter.

September of 2022, our first exchange student, Marina, moved back to Michigan with her husband and their 2 year old daughter, Mia.  You will see her referred to in the blog as Little Miss M.

I am nearly done rambling here......I enjoy scuba, travel, reading, games, hiking, entertaining and cooking, all of which I do as frequently as possible. Frank enjoys scuba, hiking, travel, is a firearms instructor who enjoys shooting and teaching others about guns and a private pilot with a Cessna 205 that carries up to six passengers.

We no longer have the plane as Frank had some medical problems that made it impossible for him to renew his license.  He is fine and we still love to travel but now we fly commercial or drive to our destinations.

We are looking forward to sharing "A Day in the Life" of our household with you.