Hello and welcome to the Providence Farmstead! We hope you can sit back and watch our family Farmstead grow.
We are a family in Southern Indiana hoping to raise our children right through bonding, teaching respectable values through Faith, and showing hands-on skills.
One way we incorporate all those things is through our love of food. Real food -that comes from hard work and love. By teaching our children where food comes from they obtain life- long skills. By cooking with home-grown ingredients, they are learning good nutrition. They learn the value of hard work along side of each other, as a family on our homestead, gleaning skills in self- sufficiency and team work.
But why a Farm?
In 2011, we sat down and asked ourselves, “What do we want out of life? Where do we see ourselves?” It was like asking what we wanted to be when we grew up!
You see, in 2007 we lost a child, Levi, (he was only 16 mo old) in a car accident. The only one who walked anyway physically unharmed was our daughter, Isabelle who was only 5 (she is 22, now) at the time. The repercussions from that event still hang on our lives each day.
Though, not a day goes by that we don’t miss him. Our hearts will never be healed.
In 2011, we finally got to a place where we could see a true light. And we decided to reevaluate our lives.
What we found out about ourselves in that time was that family was absolutely everything. Our children (we then had Gabriel, as well) were everything. I started homeschooling and concerning myself over what is put into the minds and bodies of my children. I started cooking nearly entirely from scratch. Wholesome, nutrient packed foods replaced processed quick meals.
We wanted a life where our children could always be near, if they chose to.
We had decided to homestead.
Over the years, our plans have changed- a lot. The constant has been our family providing for ourselves as much as we can, side by side, God as our Rock, as a family.
This small portion of land used to be part of a larger farm, a farm once owned by Matt’s Great Aunt and Uncle, Edwina and Arthur. Both amazingly dear, we miss them very much. Uncle Art was born and raised in Switzerland. He met Aunt Edwina in Evansville, IN. They were smitten and happily married, eventually moving to the Louisville area to start a dental lab.
In early December 2015, I listened to Aunt Edwina tell about the search for a place in the country. You have to remember in the 60’s, finding the perfect home was hard! There wasn’t internet to track down that ideal place. Often, after church on Sunday, and still dressed in their Sunday best, they would drive out to a couple of places. Aunt Edwina said Uncle Art would pull up and make her trek to the door to see if anyone was home. Nevermind gravel and mud in high heeled shoes!
Edwina told me that the day they pulled up to what would later be named Overland Farms, Art said it was the place! He just knew it was the one. And they hadn’t even gotten out of the car, yet. Originally about 90 acres, the farm came with a small herd of cattle. Aunt Edwina and Uncle Art knew nothing about cattle, but that didn’t stop them! They had found their home!
When we bought our farm in 2016, I thought I had the perfect name! This farm had always been dubbed “The Farm” by my husband and his family. I felt naming it Der Bauernhof (The Farm in German) paid homage to Uncle Art’s homeland, Switzerland, and heritage. What I found early on is that most people really struggle pronouncing it.
Then, one morning the answer came to me. See, we had to wait 5 and a half years for this land. We suffered heartbreaks when other places fell through. We became jaded, very nearly giving up. All that time, God knew what he was doing. He already laid the plans out for us. We only had to wait for the perfect moment to come.
Providence. I always explain as we share the story of getting our farm that we learned about God’s perfect timing. He knows, even if we do not. That can be tough to swallow sometimes. I know many people might laugh in my face for my faith. I stand strong because of it.
Providence.
That word was in my head when I woke up.
I just knew! And so, I changed our farm name…. Providence Farmstead.
