The Grazing Life, 4305 Dryden Road, Dryden, MI (2026)

02/10/2026

This is not a good day friends! Out of no where, water started coming through the brand new ceiling and beam in our kitchen. I panic called the builder, who rushed over as soon as he could to help figure this out. We thought maybe the roof line was leaking or where they had to fix something outside, as there’s no plumbing where the leaking was.

It turns out it’s much worse than any of that. None of which is any fault of our current builder. It’s just a really bad coincidence that water is coming into the kitchen ceiling where they did work.

It turns out that the attic ceiling and end walls are mostly frozen or sopping wet due to other issues that have been compounding over time. Essentially there’s little ventilation happening up there and due to the warm up today, a bunch of ice thawed and ran down the wall into the kitchen ceiling. Most of the insulation is soaked as well. And of course, visible mold in many places.

More mold, more damage, more money. None of it covered by insurance. Silver lining….i don’t know yet. Feels like a curse to be honest. I guess there really will be zero places for mold after this. Likely the whole roof, OSB under the roof, and insulation will need to be replaced and any moldy rafters treated before putting it back together.

If you need me, I’ll be replaying Annie Lenox while swimming at the bottom of a bottle of red wine. 🫠

02/03/2026

I’ve begun my new adventure into gluten free baking from scratch. Mostly breads is my goal.

Since leaving regular sourdough behind when we found out our daughter had celiac, I honestly had zero interest to attempt gf baking. This was 7 years ago, really before it became popular, or even established. It seemed so daunting and we had enough on our plate navigating celiac disease alone. I also think deep down, I was a little miffed that I had to once again change so much in my life for someone else. Not a thing I’m proud to say out loud. But grief is what you get when you go through something life changing and anger is part of that process. I have been at peace with this for a long time, but the beginning was really hard.

But now with years of experience under our belts with celiac, and finally a full, beautiful, and super efficient and functional kitchen, it’s time to return to baking.

I’m only starting with yeasted recipes because baking is hard in general, but sourdough is another level. Then add the gf aspect and it’s just a lot more than I’m ready to take on. I want the confidence of making yeasted breads first, and then I plan to start with sourdough.

I made bagels and Naan this week, both from The bagels were ugly and a little under cooked, but somehow still the best tasting gf thing I’ve ever had. The Naan didn’t work out perfectly but still good enough for us. I’ve learned some tricks about the psyllium husk gel you need and feel confident with some tweaks in my process that these recipes will likely be regulars in the kitchen.

It’s so important to remember that most people that are great at something now, were not great at it in the beginning. Trying new things has never been a scary thing for me. It’s scarier to not try and regret it later for me. So here I am, taking on yet another hobby and I think I’ll get the hang of it pretty quick.

Up next is pizza dough, which will likely be Saturday.

01/29/2026

Ya know what we actually use this the most for? Saving bags of bones in 😂

Rob said he was not going to be thrilled with running downstairs to get the bone bags out every meal we had bones to save. Which is often because that’s the base of any good broth.

He had very few requests in this renovation, so I made his dream of getting an under counter freezer a reality.

Again, this is one of those unnecessary but really nice upgrade options that a lot of people can’t afford to use cabinet space up with, but also in the budget. This model in particular is out there but due to the size space we wanted, it was our only option. It’s made by subzero. I don’t have links, but it’s the 5.1 Cu ft Panel Ready Freezer Drawer WITHOUT an ice maker. If you noticed in the video, the panels on ours were made wrong and we’re waiting for the proper size to arrive.

We used to keep freezers in our attached garage, right off this kitchen. But we turned that into the ultimate homestead mudroom and threw that convenient option out the window.

We’re loving this set up so far.

01/28/2026

I'll also add, that I think all eggs are a super food. Even the ones that come from chickens raised in barns and fed GMO feed. That is not what we want to see happening, for many reasons, but they are still loaded with powerful nutrients you can't easily get anywhere else.

However, if you can source locally, from hens that are getting outside and eating a natural grain ration, it will always be ideal.

Have you tried our eggs? I'd like to say you should, but currently we are very low and any eggs we do get we eat or go to our OG egg subscribers.

Sign up for our newsletter to know when more will be available. www.thegrazinglife.com

01/27/2026

Well hello Facebook! I've figured out how to log back in, which is exciting as I've been locked out for about 6 months. 🙈

I'm working to connect my new Grazing Life Farm Store page over on Instagram to this page, but am not having great luck. I made a second page to focus on our farm and local offerings. Many of my Instagram followers are not local and could care less if we're running out of boneless skinless chicken breasts.

I very much prefer Instagram, but need to put an effort into this here old Facebook thing as it's better for local connections. All this to say, if I can't get this page to connect to the new farm store page, then I will be making yet another FB page for those that are looking for more info to purchase products or come to events. Worst case scenario, I will have to post directly into FB rather than share via Instagram. Sounds lame, but here we are.

Stay tuned. Could take me a while as just logging in here was enough to make me want another cup of coffee or go back to bed. Here's a random picture for attention of me with one of our first cows, Pepper, to enjoy on this frigid winter day. Can't wait to see the grass again.

***I should add, anyone that's messaged me here in the past year, my apologies. I just looked through all of them and have no idea what the story messages referred to as they disappear and I can't tell what you were yammering on about. But thank you for engaging with us. Hopefully I get my p**p in a group.

01/16/2026

Concerning the current Food Freedom Bills in the state of Michigan.

Decided to put my little stream of stories into a post so you could share. Some of the images are slightly cut off but I don’t have time to re-type out everything to fit. But it’s good enough.

I also am saving all of the food freedom bill stuff into a highlight with that name. All of these are in there too, along with other stories from the days events at the hearing.

If any of this resonates with you, please share, as getting the word around, and positive support to grow, will be important in the days to come. This is not just about raw milk, this is about food freedom.

Consumers should have the right to make their own decisions, and farmers should have the right to produce the goods that they want WITHOUT burdensome red-tape, costs, or feeling like a black market business.

10/07/2025

Day one of renodemo is in the books. And our first day enjoying all the temporary “upgrades”.

Grateful I have the weirdest mudroom(s) ever and could patch together a place to cook and dine. My original plan was to tough it out, outside. But that was in July. The project got pushed back and it would be pretty chilly most nights at dinner time.

I only see one potential issue that we missed in calculating this whole thing. It’s a vent, in a wall that we didn’t consider, and I’m hopeful there’s a relatively inexpensive solution 😬🫠

Tomorrow should be the last day of demo, for now. The living room floor is also getting replaced, but they accepted my request to leave that floor demo until right before the. We flooring needed to go in. Which buys us 3 or so more weeks with a living room.

I guess this is now my homestead kitchen renovation diary. Will be fun to look back on this. Sorry not sorry. ❤️

10/06/2025

Merry Demo Eve!

We are about to embark on the final stage of a 5 year project that actually began in theory 8 years ago.

We had mold remediation done in this kitchen in July of 2023. Instead of putting it back together, we decided to wait and save up for a big remodel. One we had drawn plans up for years earlier.

I have remodel jitters. So much thought and work has gone into this. Facing the reality of my choices will come sooner than later now. I’m excited, but anxious that I made all the right ones. Time will tell.

For now, we’re ready to say goodnight to the past and good morning to the future. I’m especially looking forward to knew flooring that is cohesive throughout the lower level.

Crazy homestead kitchen, here we come.

09/10/2025

Welcome to the farm Chloe (pretty sure that’s gonna be her name😂)

She’s another pure bred Anatolian Shepherd, like Max, and she travelled all the way from the UP yesterday to be with us. Arrived at 9:30pm.

She will live outside with the animals and will be trained to fulfill her breed destiny as an LGD, Livestock Guardian Dog.

So far she is very chill, but really likes to follow us around. The breeder called her personality “in your pocket”, which is exactly what we want after having Max, the most intense dog ever.😂 So far I’d say she is very much in our pocket. Shes met all the cows, Max, Ruby, the chickens, and Cheenie We**ie Weenersten (our feral turned fat princess house cat). Chloe did not seem impressed with the cat, and also didn’t seem to care about the chickens. A trait we were excited about with this litter of pups and why we jumped on the chance to have her.

Fun fact, the kids have no idea we got her, or that we were even planning to get a puppy. A fun surprise for when they get home from school today. 😍

Get ready for puppy spam. This cute phase doesn’t last long.😂

09/01/2025

Back in May, we had a bull arrive to do some important work on our heifers. Cupcake, our very first calf born on the farm lost her first baby a few months after being bred by AI. Instead of trying that again, because heifers can struggle to settle their first time with AI, I borrowed a bull from a local friend. Nathaniel saw them getting busy, so we knew things were looking good for her. Essentially, she was headed to freezer camp if she didn’t settle with a bull.

Since Cass the bull was here, we decided to also put Fawn in with him to avoid having to track her heat amongst so many lady cows. It can get confusing. No joke, the minute she was put in the paddock with him, he did his business. Felt pretty good about that.

Cass was only with them for one heat cycle each. We put them back out on pasture and loosely paid attention to see if they came back into heat. I didn’t see any action, but our third heifer Sugar wasn’t bred (too young) and had some cycles. Which made me wonder if it was her or the other two.

Finally got around to preg checking them both (because life), and the results are in. Swipe to see who took and who didn’t. Also swipe to the end to see the action I just happened to catch on video the moment it happened between Cass and Fawn.

Excited to be done with the preg checking task, as I’m new and don’t have the proper equipment to immobilize them for blood draw. We made it work, and you can see the shenanigans in my stories from today.

07/28/2025

Not gonna lie, it’s been a rough 10 days around here.

Two days ago, Calvin literally slipped and fell in the grass and broke his collar bone. Thankfully it’s not shattered so simply wearing a sling should do the trick. Extremely upset he can’t ride his four-wheeler for close to a month.

2 Fridays ago, I ate 💩 on a dock trying to help my friend dock her boat. Totally missed (sober I may add) and “shishkabobbed” my body onto a metal piling while whacking my leg somehow on the side of the dock. I have a doctors appointment on Thursday as it seems there may be something more serious than just bruises on my foot.

The next day, Rob was cutting up part of the old oak tree that fell and a hunk of wood shot out and hit his shin, leaving a nasty bump. I thought for sure he chipped the bone.

Then a few days after that he broke out with a nasty poison something rash. Likely oak or sumac as it’s far nastier looking to me than what ivy does.

I’m trying hard to rest my foot most of the day by having it elevated. It’s tough to just sit around when there’s so much to do. I hate being a burden. I also hate when the house gets insanely messy and that only happens when I’m not on top of the kids. Now that Calvin is also a beach bum like me, everything is starting to spiral. Not great timing when we’re about to do a major renovation on our kitchen, I may add.

Alas, this is some new fun challenge conjured up to put me to some test. I think I have “test” burnout. 😂 like, even if there’s some lesson here, a really good one, I’ll be quietly disassociating so hard I’ll miss it and then not care, for my sanities sake 🙃😂

Anywho, that’s what’s happening over here. Let’s hope we’re all set on injuries for a bit.

The Grazing Life

02/10/2026

02/03/2026

01/29/2026

01/28/2026

01/27/2026

01/16/2026

10/07/2025

10/06/2025

09/10/2025

09/01/2025

07/28/2025

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