An introduction to elevan and Honaker Farm.
January 2012
Hi there, my name is Emily. My member name is simply my first initial followed by my last name and would be pronounced E-LAH-VAN.
I have been married to my wonderful husband a little over 14 years. We aren't able to have children but 4 1/2 years ago circumstances led my parents to take guardianship of one of my nephews and his half brother. 3 years ago my Dad was diagnosed with leukemia and my parents asked us to step in and take care of the boys. The oldest boy doesn't know who his father is and asked to call my husband (Clint) Dad...no one had a problem so we said ok, a little while later he started calling me Mom and then in about 6 months his younger brother (my nephew) followed suit. My Dad died after a year long battle with leukemia and we were asked to continue to help care for the boys. So for the past 3 years I've consider these 2 the children of my heart and they call us Mom and Dad. They are - my boys
I spent the first half of my working life in retail management. Then I got a call from a national insurance company wanting me to be an agent for them. I liked what they stood for and joined their company. Rather quickly I realized that sales wasn't what I liked about the company...it was the back end type of stuff. I spent some of my free time mentoring other agents and it caught some attention higher up. In pretty short order I was made a regional trainer for them. Then the opportunity arose for me to move into the executive assistant position that would still allow me to train the management on the technological side of the company so I took the position. After 18 months as an executive assistant I realized that my boss was not the type of person that I wanted to work for or with. And with my husband's blessing I quit.
That was 15 months ago. Which was around the one year anniversary of my Dad's death. So I guess in a way adding more livestock to the farm was a therapy for me. We had previously had 3 goats and 2 horses. (I also grew up with different livestock and both sets of grandparents had livestock.) But in the past 15 months I've added so much more. I love animals. I'm excited about providing food for my family that I know exactly what goes into it and how it's lived. Currently we reside on a 5 acre farm situated in Central Ohio.
I am currently in the process of writing some children's first readers. Along with a goat record keeping book and a diabetic dog daily log book, I have a cookbook published as an e-book and a print edition. I simply love to cook and experiment and have often been asked to share my recipes. The problem has always been that I shoot from the hip when cooking so I’ve decided to make a conscious effort to write down what I’m doing so that I can share it through a cookbook. The children’s first readers come by inspiration given to me from my boys and my 3 other nephews. 5 boys under the age of 10 provide quite a bit of inspiration.
We breed our goats with the goal of having a multipurpose herd. We do not show our animals.
Our llama is a guard for the goats and a spoiler of the goat kids.
Our chickens are pets, meat and egg producers.
Guineas for pest control, meat and eggs.
Turkeys for meat. (waiting for Spring to get some more)
Quail for meat and eggs. (waiting for Spring to get some more)
We are growing out our first beef steer. Grass fed only!
Our horses and potbellied pigs are field eye candy only.
Check out my adventures on the sister site www.BackyardHerds.com : Honaker Farm Journal
.
January 2012
Hi there, my name is Emily. My member name is simply my first initial followed by my last name and would be pronounced E-LAH-VAN.
I have been married to my wonderful husband a little over 14 years. We aren't able to have children but 4 1/2 years ago circumstances led my parents to take guardianship of one of my nephews and his half brother. 3 years ago my Dad was diagnosed with leukemia and my parents asked us to step in and take care of the boys. The oldest boy doesn't know who his father is and asked to call my husband (Clint) Dad...no one had a problem so we said ok, a little while later he started calling me Mom and then in about 6 months his younger brother (my nephew) followed suit. My Dad died after a year long battle with leukemia and we were asked to continue to help care for the boys. So for the past 3 years I've consider these 2 the children of my heart and they call us Mom and Dad. They are - my boys
I spent the first half of my working life in retail management. Then I got a call from a national insurance company wanting me to be an agent for them. I liked what they stood for and joined their company. Rather quickly I realized that sales wasn't what I liked about the company...it was the back end type of stuff. I spent some of my free time mentoring other agents and it caught some attention higher up. In pretty short order I was made a regional trainer for them. Then the opportunity arose for me to move into the executive assistant position that would still allow me to train the management on the technological side of the company so I took the position. After 18 months as an executive assistant I realized that my boss was not the type of person that I wanted to work for or with. And with my husband's blessing I quit.
That was 15 months ago. Which was around the one year anniversary of my Dad's death. So I guess in a way adding more livestock to the farm was a therapy for me. We had previously had 3 goats and 2 horses. (I also grew up with different livestock and both sets of grandparents had livestock.) But in the past 15 months I've added so much more. I love animals. I'm excited about providing food for my family that I know exactly what goes into it and how it's lived. Currently we reside on a 5 acre farm situated in Central Ohio.
I am currently in the process of writing some children's first readers. Along with a goat record keeping book and a diabetic dog daily log book, I have a cookbook published as an e-book and a print edition. I simply love to cook and experiment and have often been asked to share my recipes. The problem has always been that I shoot from the hip when cooking so I’ve decided to make a conscious effort to write down what I’m doing so that I can share it through a cookbook. The children’s first readers come by inspiration given to me from my boys and my 3 other nephews. 5 boys under the age of 10 provide quite a bit of inspiration.
We breed our goats with the goal of having a multipurpose herd. We do not show our animals.
Our llama is a guard for the goats and a spoiler of the goat kids.
Our chickens are pets, meat and egg producers.
Guineas for pest control, meat and eggs.
Turkeys for meat. (waiting for Spring to get some more)
Quail for meat and eggs. (waiting for Spring to get some more)
We are growing out our first beef steer. Grass fed only!
Our horses and potbellied pigs are field eye candy only.
Check out my adventures on the sister site www.BackyardHerds.com : Honaker Farm Journal
.
