The Beginning Part 1

Becky Tamez
Dec 29, 2017
2 min read

I'm Becky. This is my first blog post EVER! I am super excited about it but also reluctant. Is it going to be good? Are people going to be interested in what I have to say or when Pete jumps on with his vlog, are they going to like those? Am I going to be funny enough? Can I implement everything I'm learning all at once so it is perfect? EEEHHHH Probably not!

Lots of questions, but if I don't start, it won't happen! And I AM SURE that this will only get better from here!

So let's start at the beginning.

Isle Acre Farms has been up and running now for 2 years. But this idea has been going on for longer than that. Our first daughter was born in 2010. We were super unhealthy people. We ate terrible, partied way too much, never went outside, and had desk jobs with no movement.

After our daughter was born prematurely, Pete watched an apocalyptic type show where the world as we know it ended and people had to survive. That was when his provider, protector instinct kicked in. He started watching documentaries on our food system, health, etc. and naturally, since we were sit-in-front-of-the-TV-for-hours kind of people, I started watching too. It is really crazy how bad our food system has gotten. Almost instantly, we started gardening and wanting to make changes in our lives.

We even went as far as to sell our house because we were going to buy land and build an earth bag house! (we sold the house but haven't bought the land or earth bag house just yet...this is still a goal of mine!)

Once we moved to Leander in 2013, we kicked it up a notch. Our house here has 40 trees in the back yard and somewhere around 30 in the front yard. A little too shaded to totally farm out the whole property. The only place that would suffice was the front yard. So here we go making this massive garden in the front yard of all places. Our neighbors LOVED it!! My 3 year old was teaching the neighbor kids all about vegetables and where they came from. They had no clue!! What a sense of community it brought, being so visible to everyone.

My mother-in-law lived with us as we moved in here. She loved to sit out on the front porch looking at the garden and watching the neighbors stroll by. She, unfortunately, had many medical problems and my husband and I were her main caretakers. In 2015, she took a turn for the worse. I then, had had our 2nd daughter and because she was so small, I couldn't take her into the ICU to visit with my mother-in-law. I felt helpless. Being one of the majority caretakers and then not being able to be involved, left me feeling lost.

I needed to be back to the earth.

I needed to be grounded.

Then...Pete sent me a video of an urban farmer...