Change Takes Courage & Willpower

Hello Friends of Lake View Organic Farm! I know, I know. I've been absent the last few weeks and have left you all without the Farm News. I just needed a little break from routine for a bit. I felt the urge to take some time to manage me, check in with myself and get realigned after a busy Spring, Summer and Fall. All is good. In fact, all is great!

William finished the row crop harvest a couple of days ago. Next he'll bale up some of the corn stalks for bedding and plant rye where all the sunflowers stood this year. With 56 days of no measurable rain until last week, the hay harvest slowed then stopped as grass and alfalfa like a little moisture for good growth. Despite the fact that drought stopped the hay harvest, Farmer managed to get three good crops in the barn. That organic hay with the summer of rain we had is just beautiful.

Our sunflower harvest for this year, however, was dismal. Unlike hay, sunflowers don't like quite so much moisture. They were poorly developed and rather sparse due to weed pressure. The weeds LOVED the rain and William couldn't cultivate when he needed to this year...there is always a story or two like this on the farm...Too much rain, not enough rain, cold Spring, warm Spring...it is very cyclical.

I've Left Social Media

Some of you may have noticed that Sarah Flossy Brenner and Lake View Organic Farm have disappeared from social media. After many years of pondering my relationship with Facebook and Instagram, I made the bold decision to leave it once and for all. Many months ago I turned off all notifications because I recognized elevated stress levels when I would hear a ping or notice a banner flash across the face of my phone. After a few weeks of that I decided to delete the apps on my phone altogether. I figured if I wanted to see something, I'd force myself to open the pages from my computer. It got to the point where I just thought, Why? Is this really doing me (or any of us, for that matter) any good? When I would scroll through Facebook or Instagram all I'd see were adds or postings from people I don't even know (I never caught the Instagram bug for that reason. I'm not a hashtag follower of concepts it turns out.), and I'd get irritated that I'd just wasted time mindlessly scrolling and even more irritated when I'd find myself upset that somebody else in the world sells Farm Mustard! It's just not healthy. Once I realized how unhealthy it was for me, I knew I needed to make the bold decision to get it out of my life. This is, after all, my year of living with true and honest values and with the integrity that makes me me.

In addition to ditching social media, I took back time for my daily walks and have been focusing on filling my belly with highly nutritious food. Ever since I got my pacemaker, I've been plagued with high blood pressure. When the doctors suggested I lower it with medication, I did what many of us do, got the prescription filled and dutifully took a pill every day for a month. Then, I decided to try DIET and EXERCISE to lower the blood pressure. The problem is, I wasn't always feeling like walking in those early days, so I quit the medication and lived with off and on high blood pressure instead. A month ago, I decided it was time to see if my DIET and EXERCISE idea couldn't actually work.

I made a spread sheet, color-coded the blood pressures in green, yellow and red. Recorded what I ate, recorded if I was intermittent fasting, recorded my daily steps, recorded how I felt...and hello! What an organized color-coded spreadsheet can demonstrate! Within two days of a four-mile walk and super nutritious meals my red high blood pressure disappeared and the page started to segue into only yellow and green! By the second week, the blood pressure readings were all green meaning normal healthy levels! I cut out sugar, processed food, refined flour (except for a few treats here and there - Thanks William), and I've been walking EVERY DAY four to six miles. I feel great again and life is good. No more high blood pressure. No more feeling guilty about what I eat. Dang, that feels great!

What bothers me about all this, is the understanding that it does take courage to go against the grain of social fabric whether it be ditching social media or eating only foods that are nutritious and healing for the body. Sadly, we don't live in a society where healthy and good are the norm. I'd love to see that change.

Farm Store News

The Farm Store is chocked full of Fall Goodness! We have new soups, taco sauces, sunflower birdseed and of course, treats! We don't anticipate closing anytime too soon. As long as it's not knee deep and bitter cold, we'll be open.

I'm not on social media, but Lake View Organic Farm, the business, still has a Google presence and website. If you don't already receive my weekly Farm News in your email or on the Wix Spaces App, you can sign up here to receive my letters.

Thanks to you our farm has developed a strong following, and I know that word of mouth has brought us more happy customers than any of our social media adverts - THANK YOU!

May you live with the courage you need to live your best life!

Sending love from the farm,

Sarah