Share-Life Farm Blog, August 2025

August 31, 2025

I mentioned my wife’s environmental illness could have started in childhood. She grew up in what at one time was known as the Apple capital of Missouri Waverly, Missouri. Her grandfather at one time was part owner in an apple and peach Orchard. He had an apple shed in the Orchard and the kids used to work and play in there With trees all around. It was a different time back then all the tractors were open station tractors, and they sprayed the orchard without thinking about who is in the area because they didn’t realize how toxic the sprays might be so she was exposed to some of these chemicals at an early age. She also showed cattle at the fairs and they used a lot of fly spray and soap and stuff getting the cattle ready for show. We will talk about further exposures in her teens and early 20 years next time.

I am also going to start to journal our activities to hopefully give you some idea of dealing with this illness and maybe give help to someone else that might see it and read it. It has been an interesting three weeks here on the farm as Rosie was outside when the neighbor sprayed the field across the road with fungicide She was in one of our hoop houses picking for Market when the planes flew over usually when they fly over , if she’s in the hoop house, she’s safe, but because the plane was flying so low this time and actually spraying cross the roa in d it caused a severe reaction she completely went Paralyzed. We ended up putting her in the tractor loader bucket to get her to the house and drag her in the house on a rug to get her in then I had to get all her clothes off, and it still took a while for her to be able to function. This incident has caused her to be more sensitive to fungicides again and the next week they sprayed the beans across the road with a ground unit, but it still has kept us out of the house next to the road since.

Now our first edition of Jim‘s gems. Some observations that I hope will make you think. I told some of my friends as I was telling them I was starting up the blog that I was going to tell them how to stop cancer well here it is . The chiropractor that we go to is a little bit of a history buff and does a lot of research and we have some interesting conversations. A few months ago he mentioned that years ago in medical schools as the medical schools were teaching new medical students about diseases they brought up cancer. This was probably in the 30s, but they showed them what it was and said this is cancer, but don’t be worried about it because you will not see more than one or two cases in the entire life of your practice. Now they got me thinking well if we want to stop cancer then all we need to do is go back to the economic system we had in the 30s where all the food we raised was organic. There were no cell phones. There were no cell phone towers There were no satellites in our atmosphere so if we just get rid of all of that, there was limited, indoor plumbing all landline phones all we need to do is go back to the time of the 30s and we can probably find cancer decreasing. Also it was before a lot of people were vaccinated. Now if you’re not willing to go back to that system, then we have to maybe accept the fact that we’re killing ourselves by degrees and while research looks for a cure for cancer the average American or anyone else concerned about that I would be doing all I could to keep my immune system built up to be able to fight off the cancer invasion we’re seeing. I would be encouraging grocery stores to promote organic food. I would search out organic farmers in the local farmers market. Whatever I could to get the healthiest food I could in my body to keep my immune system going.

Until next time this is your friend in farming, bringing you food with integrity

Share Life Farm Blog, July 2025

As I stated in my first blog, I have a twofold purpose: to tell our story and to ask some thought-provoking questions—so here goes.

For the past 46 years, my wife has suffered from an illness we refer to as environmental illness. Originally, it was called the 20th Century Illness because it didn’t exist in the century before. You might also call it a man-made illness—it’s brought on by changes we’ve made to our environment, so the name environmental illness fits.

People with this illness become hypersensitive to nearly everything around them. It’s very hard for them to function normally. Dr. William Ray of the Environmental Health Center in Dallas, Texas, explained to me that the illness can develop in one of two ways: either through long-term, low-level exposure to various chemicals and pollutants, or through a massive, one-time exposure. In my wife’s case, we believe it was the former—long-term, low-level exposure.

We’ll talk more about her illness in the next blog, and how it may even trace back to her childhood.

On another topic, I recently heard that Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs has a personal chef. I’ve always said a good chef can make a piece of cardboard taste good—but at the end of the day, you’re still eating cardboard.

If athletes and celebrities are really concerned about their health, maybe instead of hiring personal chefs, they should be hiring personal farmers. I also heard that the Chiefs brought on a team nutritionist, which is a great step. But maybe they should also consider the services of a team farmer to really benefit their players.

In today’s world, I believe it’s more important than ever to know where your food comes from.

On the homefront:

My family was here the last two weeks of June, and we were so proud of how everything looked. Then we got some rain that kept us out of the field, and now—less than a month later—it looks like a jungle out there. Sure wish we could figure out how to get the crops to grow as well as the weeds do.

Until next time, I’m your friend in farming—bringing you food with integrity.