OUR HISTORY

          I grew up in Oregon, Ohio on ten acres. We had many pets and animals growing up. Sometimes I think it drove my parents crazy when I would bring home a stray dog and ask to keep them.  My dad farmed and served in the army. My mom was involved in the community. I went to school at hocking college. Then I moved to Canal Fulton, Ohio in 2001. There I was a volunteer firefighter and a dispatcher for multiple areas. My husband, who I met online, grew up in Barberton, Ohio and was living there when we met. He is a Eagle Scout, served in the Marines for 7 years and is a Deputy Sheriff.  His dad is a realtor. His mom is a retired social worker. We had a long time vet in the family so we get great advice and our dogs get the best care possible.

 
            We both love the outdoors whether it is working, playing, or just relaxing. We have two children. Our oldest is our daughter Jessica and her younger brother Owen.  We both want to strive for the self-sufficient lifestyle. We love growing our own food in a garden from seed. We believe it’s a great way to teach our 2 kids about responsibility and hard work. They really enjoy helping plant water and eating the veggies right out of the garden. In fact it is rare that we ever have any cherry tomatoes make it into the house. They eat them as fast as we pick them off the plants. They help to collect eggs from the chickens and make sure they have water and food.
              After dating for just over a year and getting engaged in 2005, we decided to move out of the city to the country for the peace and quiet. I had grown up on 10 acres and living in a small town wanted to get back to the country. My husband had always lived in a small town but wanted to get out and away. In the spring of 2006 we had found our property to build our new home on. And by the fall of 2006, just one week before our wedding, we moved into our new home on 6 acres. It was a nice home set 800 feet back off the road with a two car garage. The following spring we were able to buy the land next door giving us almost 12 acres total. Almost immediately, we started thing of what we could do with it. That’s when we discovered alpacas. We started looking and talking to different farms about them and by December of 2007 we have erected a barn and bought our first livestock. They were a breeding pair of alpacas that became three before we could even pick them up and bring them to our farm. Foggy Valley Farm was born.  For the next five years we raised alpacas, having as many as 24 at one time. We had chickens, two Great Pyrenees guard dogs two inside dogs, 20 plus chickens, and 3 cats. In the spring of 2010 we started using essential oils around the house to get rid of all the chemicals in our home before our daughter was born.

             In the spring of 2013 we sold our farm for personal reasons and moved into a smaller home with less land. It’s part of an old dairy farm with a huge bank barn for livestock and storage. It was closer to shopping and along a main road. After getting settled in we started thinking again of what we could do from the property to give some purpose to our new property. We decided that we would get dogs to raise. After all how hard could that be? But the real question was what breed. I wanted a smaller breed or Rottweiler’s. But the Rottweiler’s would require us to have additional concerns as we would be camping and we taking our dogs would seriously limit the campgrounds we could stay at. We wanted something that was socially acceptable wherever we went. My husband wanted a larger dog, as he doesn’t care for ankle bitters. We finally decided on Labradors. The search than began for a quality lab. We knew that if we were going to raise any animal that it would have to be a quality animal that we could stand behind. We have gone the cheap route and had to put down not one but two, one Rottweiler and one Rottweiler mastiff mix, health reasons way too soon. They will be greatly missed family protectors. See our in memory page for pictures of all our loved ones that have past.  In about a year, we had gone from two cats to having two cats and five Labradors.  In 2014 we were introduced to doTERRA essential oils and they have changed our lives. We have now achieved our goal of getting chemicals out of our home. And don't get me started on how our medicine cabinet changed.  And Hidden Joys Homestead was born. 

            In the spring of 2017, we again sold our home to pursue our dreams and build our homestead. We are now on a wooded lot our family loves. We no longer us OTC medications and are proud that we only have on prescription (that has been lowered in dose) in our home. We absolutely love what we are doing and look forward to educating helping many people get started with doTERRA essential oils and get more quality     into their forever homes. 

​             Now, we strive harder then in whatever we do to make sure we are doing it the best we can.  We pour our hearts and energy into everything we do. And we will continue to do things right and give the best essential oils, educations, products, service and quality animals we can to each and every one of our clients. Without you, we wouldn’t have any reason to give quality products, service and animals.

    Thanks to all that have and will support us!!!