Food allergies as a reason to homestead
Today I ate a cheap frozen lasagna from the store, I eat frozen food all of the time as it's affordable. Also it's easy. I'm disabled with a brain condition called Chiari Malformation. It had me in bed for a few years, shaking and sick. Some people have a Chiari crisis a few years, when the skull finally fuses around age 30. I had no idea the skull fused finally at that age, it was amazing to learn that! But - back to the lasagna. I finished it, and my sinuses filled. I had a horrible headache. I was thinking wow it must be grass or pollen in the air. Then it happened. I started coughing and sneezing, my throat slowly closed. I grabbed the benadryl that we always have on hand. Luckily that was enough to do the trick. My son has had food allergies since he was born. We are used to treating them. I have them occasionally too. Reading the package my husband discovered the likely culprit - soy.
Our food is manufactured and made with cheap ingredients. Why is soy used so frequently in products? Soy is versatile and can be used in almost everything and is inexpensive to grow, thus cheap for the manufacturers to use in food products.
The food allergy situation in our family makes me uncomfortable. For example my son is allergic to nearly all foods. He does have reactions nearly daily and it's extremely hard to keep him away from a potential allergen. If we tried he would have nothing to eat. He shows a response to EVERY food he is tested for. The main allergens being anything soy or bean related. My husband and I have decided that we can't have him going to school, so we homeschool.
And also based on this decision I have decided to homestead and grow most of our food at home on our third of an acre. Being disabled is difficult, my husband has to stay at home with me and the kids. We are always home. We live hand to mouth on one disability check, which has currently been revoked for a year due to purchase of a foreclosed property - after selling our previous home - we moved for access to better medical care - and the fact that we can not currently live in it yet due to repairs... It's a mess of a situation, but I have to be honest about it. You aren't supposed to do that... even though we were told it would be fine by the SSI office... ALWAYS verify this with several people. Lesson learned. We have always tried to do what is right, and never spend frivolously if we can help it. So here I am, starting to homestead and trying to start this blog... in honesty.
I know very well what people think about disability, I know that some people won't understand our situation in life. I think until you've been somewhere you couldn't understand. I am personally slowly recovering from the Chiari crisis, but I will never be normal, I will always have a disability and may need surgery in the future on my skull.
Homesteading would allow us to know exactly what is in our food, it would allow me to make a small income for our family. This is poverty in america. We are relatively comfortable, but ask help from family for bills... never go anywhere. Use credit a bit too much. We need to fix that and fast. It could be worse and I am grateful that it's not every single day of my life. I hope that steemit can help us get on the right track as well. When I saw it for the first time I was interested... I can write for days :-)
So hello! I am using this blog as a way to communicate my plans for our future suburban homestead, and give you tips and tricks to how to buy a foreclosure like we did and repair it.
Until next time
