Who is Boots N Lace?
Well, I am a nobody too. I just happen to love farming. Currently I run a small farm in E. TN on only 5 acres, alone, single, and 40. I have 3 hired hands (1 full time, 2 part time). It takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but most importantly a well developed sole income. Let me back up a bit so you can see how this got started….
I was born in the great ULTRA RED state of Montana (so red, the Blues don’t even bother campaigning there till Obama. lol) and raised on a small ranch there by my Mennonite parents. I was one of the first Homeschooled kids in the country. We had to hide in the house till we saw the school bus go by at 4p before we could go play outside, for fear our neighbors would call the law and put our dad in jail. Normal chores from the time I was 9 started at 6am: picking Buttercups to burn from the cattle field, bucking hay and putting it up for the season, flood irrigation, changing sprinkler pipes, gardening, canning, drying, flower garden weeding, cattle wrangling, knitting, sewing, horse back riding and training, dog training, hosting parties with friends, going to the livestock sales, bottle feeding, chopping wood, getting wood from the Rocky Mountains (we always stayed 2 years ahead in our supply), and probably more that I just can’t think of right now. :) My dad believed there was no such thing as men’s work and had me digging ditch right there next to him and my brother should the need arise. He taught me how to change a tire on the car, check and change the oil, and drive a stick shift.
When I left home at 18, I joined a missionary ship with Operation Mobilization for 2 years called the MV Doulos. This has nothing to do with homesteading, but briefly: I lived with 36 different nationalities on board the ship, saw 27 countries, and had the best time of my life there. Seeing the ways that people survive everywhere made me want to come back to the US and get my nursing degree.
Unfortunately, back then, a well-educated female was where my conservative parents drew the line. So, I followed my dreams. Finished my Assoc Degree in Science, got my LPN, and practiced in mental health for 8 years, EP Cardiac for 2. All the while, dreaming of moving back to the farm. A bad marriage ended, I knew then that you can only live once! I went into my farming plan with gusto, but also chose to not follow the normal routes you would see in most homesteads.
I knew that to survive and keep the animals fed, I needed to have ONE SOLID sole income. What did I know best? Dogs! I had been playing around as a hobby breeder for 8 years raising Dachshunds and my dad and grandfather trained their own bird dogs. So I decided to tell my puppy customers to bring their dogs to me for their boarding needs. And that is how Puppy Luv Farms, LLC was born, 10 yrs ago now. This then led to getting a certification as a dog trainer, as I quickly realized, most folks have no idea how to train a bird much less their dog!
Here at PLF, we board, train, dog bakery, and daycare behavioral dogs the Pack way, using Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer’s teachings. The dogs are the primary income to this farm, but also now have 5 dairy goats, 1 meat goat, 2 mini cows for meat and milk, 2 well trained LGDs, and 55 chickens and counting (where does that stop?). Having now trained over 1000 dogs, I am proud to report my farm is everything that I dreamed for and am now just working to maintain. Customer base is over 1000 now and counting and include people like Animal Control officers and their personal dogs, Sheriff officers personal dogs, and many prominent business men. Elaine Hendrix visited with her dog Ellie (stars in Parent Trap as the girl friend) more than once.
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