According to my outline, I am scheduled to do, Practice Forgiveness, for week 17 , but I believe I would be a hypocrite if I did this today. Yesterday we were bombarded with aerial sprayers and this morning I’m really struggling. Most of my kids were way out in the pasture when I saw the second airplane of the day spraying in the distance, and because I knew by the wind direction that chemicals were headed right in their direction, I quickly handed the baby off to my oldest daughter and ran out to the van in my socks and drove as close as I could to them. I yelled to get in the van, but all the kids figured it would take way longer to get over the barbed wire fence, so they did a quick tightening of the fence so the animals wouldn’t escape and ran back to the house.

Later in the day, I was enjoying a leisurely walk with my young children (we had just picked fresh vegetables from the garden quite a way from our house) and we were headed back to the house when I smelled chemicals. The wind direction had changed and now it was out of the east. I didn’t see anyone spraying (it’s impossible to see anything past the protective tree line to the east), but we ran for the house, as I yelled for everyone to get inside. We all worked diligently to close up the windows, and later we had to shut the bathroom door, because the exhaust fan must have been letting in the chemicals and our school room started to smell as well. I gave everyone some bladderwrack in hopes that it might help. I couldn’t help but hear this voice that I have heard from many people in this area. It goes something like this, “Well you know so and so was exposed to that chemical and everyone believes that’s why that person got cancer and died.” Sadly, this exposure to chemicals has happened to us multiple times over the years (especially at our old place). The more I have learned about proper nutrition and healing stories, the less I fear cancer, but I still don’t like our family being exposed to chemicals. After the air had cleared, I gave all the animals extra kelp for detox.

This morning I was out watering our fruit trees, and as I was approaching our bee hives, I was thinking about the natural beekeeper that I wrote about in yesterday’s blog post here (the one that never got compensated for his loss of $50,000 in hives). I had emailed him yesterday morning to be sure that I had my facts right and he shared that yesterday someone had sprayed soybeans that were in bloom again. Thankfully he got some video this time.

As I got closer to our hive, I noticed several dead/dying bees on the ground and on the bottom of the hive. All these emotions hit me and almost paralyzed me with anger. I can’t say for sure that the chemicals caused this loss of bees, but it sure makes me wonder. I collected some of the dead bees and I’m praying about what to do. I have dealt with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture and the EPA enough to know that it’s a circus show trying to get them to do anything about these problems. There’s way too much connection with the chemical companies to provide any real justice.

I write this post knowing that people may not want to support our business, since it’s possible that some of the chemical may have made its way onto our property, but I would rather lose business and be poor than to lie or not speak truth. I have given my word to be transparent in all we do, and I will trust the Lord to provide all of our needs. I am very picky about what we eat, and I still choose my own food over anyone else’s any day. We are doing everything in our power to protect our land and animals, and will continue to fight this battle. I’m just not sure what to do right now. I have been fasting and praying today and the Lord is good as always. He is softening and getting my heart right again, and I feel very led to share this story. Hopefully I can share Week 17, Practice Forgiveness, for better health with you next Tuesday. Be encouraged my friend even through the struggles, God is good and He will make things right. We can trust in that.