Family

Share-Life Farm Blog, August 2025

brekhusr

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

The Share-Life blog is back!

brekhusr

Welcome to the first installment of what I hope to be a revival of a blog that I used to write almost 20 years ago. We used to go to my sister-in-laws on Sunday who was caring for my Mother-in-law and disabled brother in her home to give her a little moral support and a break if she needed run errands or something. Most of the time I was there supporting my wife and she had internet and we did not. I had a CSA member who offered to set up a website and maintain it for me, hence the blog was born as a way to keep my CSA members informed, as well as anyone else interested. When my Mother-in-law passed the Sunday trips stopped and so did my internet connection so the blog stopped. We just got fiber optic cable in our rural community thus reviving my opportunity to resume my posting. A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last 20 years and so I see the focus of my postings to be different. This first post may be a little long as I try to explain my motivation for even attempting this endeavor. The rest I am going to try to keep short and sweet that I hope will add something to your day when you read it.

The purpose I have for doing this is two fold. The first is to maybe ask questions about things around us that make you think. I don’t pretend to have all the answers so I’m not going to try to provide them, I am just going to ask the questions. I hope you’ll find my wacky way at looking at things entertaining if nothing else.

The second is tell our story as we have traveled down the road of life dealing with this rare illness. My Mother-in-law used to tell me I should write a book about all the crazy circumstances we have encountered. And since I’ll probably never get that done I thought this might be a suitable avenue. My purpose in telling our story is not to extricate sympathy for us because we have had a wonderful life, but rather to comfort others going some major trial or illness in their life. As a Christian I believe God had a purpose for allowing this illness into our lives, not just to make our lives “interesting” and I don’t want to miss that purpose. I know sometimes when we are going through a difficult time we sometimes feel as if we are all alone. I think it helps to hear of someone else’s trials even though different than our own and how they handled them. As a song I once heard said,” If I can lighten someone else’s life along the way then my living shall not be in vain.” I hope we can do just that and maybe bring a smile or two along the way.

Your friend in farming bringing you food with integrity.