I grew up on a small, diverse family farm in Iowa. At the time I wanted to be a cool city kid rather than a hick farm kid. But my life since has meant using and appreciating those sound lifestyle principles I grew up with - cooking from scratch, a garden as a significant source of my food, living simply and satisfyingly without a lot of stuff, doing it yourself from making and mending my clothes, to putting up my own food, working hard and being honest. I live on a "homestead" - WishSong Farm - of 40 acres of hilly, wooded and flood plain terrain with my husband, cats, dogs, rabbits and a goat. I am an herbalist, an aromatherapist, a gardener, a cook, a naturalist, a liberal conservative or conservative liberal, a thinker, doer and dreamer.
