When people ask me what I do for work, my canned answer was that I’m a firefighter. I started my career in the fire service right out of high school as a volunteer firefighter. Then in 2014 I became a seasonal firefighter with Calfire. This was supposed to be a stepping stone, as I wanted to work for a city department. Well fast forward to 2019, I was still a seasonal, but I received a call for a permanent position, which I gladly accepted. My whole adult life had revolved around this career. I never wanted anything more than this job.
Both my wife’s and my family farmed walnuts for the last 20 years. I spent most of my childhood and high school years working on my grandpa’s orchard. In 2017 I started working for a friend of mine, during the almond and walnut harvest. This is in addition to my seasonal gig as a firefighter. These are long, 12-16 hour days non stop for about 2 months. At that time, I had to work both jobs. I was seasonal, which meant that I would be laid off every winter for 3+ months. I also had a growing family, 2 kids in diapers and my wife.
In 2019 I convinced my grandpa to tear out the walnuts and let me lease the ground, in order to plant almonds. In early 2020 we planted our first 5 acres. The next year we planted the next 15 acres. This year, 2023, we had our second harvest, and our first significant one. Working all these jobs, being a “real” farmer and a firefighter made me happy. I had everything I wanted, or so I thought.
During the pandemic Ashley and I saw just how vulnerable our little family and our country are. Like a lot of people we watched with disgust and shock as people fought for disinfectant, masks, food and toilet paper! Yes, toilet paper! How can we live without T.P.??
This is where our story starts to take its turn, and we started to steer our family in the right direction. We started to questioning everything we thought we knew. Are vaccines safe? Is our food safe? Is our drinking water safe? Is the media/ government telling us the truth? Can we survive if we cant buy groceries at the store during the next pandemic? Whats the best way to live for our family? Is God pleased by how we raise our animals, and the techniques used to grow our small garden?
To most of these questions we answered emphatically no! We could not survive long if the grocery stores shut down long term. So we decided to start to experiment with growing more veggies. Our food is not safe. Farmers (just like me) spray thousands of gallons of pesticides and herbicides on and around our food daily, all in the name of “good farming practices”. We have learned that these chemicals are leaching into our food and thence into our bodies. They are also leaching into our waterways and our aquafers, which again gets into our animals and our bodies. Studies have shown that these toxins are having negative effects on us and our children. Learning about this had a huge impact on Ashley and I. Our middle child, Liam had been struggling in school with focusing and learning. We had him evaluated and it was clear that he had some attention deficits, although he is very smart. When we looked at the symptoms of glyphosate exposure in children, he checked every box! That is what put us in hyperdrive for the organic food train.
So in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic, and amidst the inflation rise, we switched to a mostly organic diet. It was darned expensive!!So we did what any rational person would do, we doubled our chicken flock and expanded our garden. We then told my father in law that we would like to grow all of our food organically and without tilling the ground. He was hesitant but still supportive. He informed us that in order to do this we had to be the ones to keep up on pulling the weeds, as he wasn’t going to get down and break his back pulling them. Haha Oh! I guess I should add here that we share our garden with him and my wife’s grandparents on their property behind our house. Our goal was to be self sufficient enough to grow? Raise 50% of our food by 2025. I think we are almost there already so by 2025 I would like to be raising 75% of our own food, on our land ( including my inlaws) or in partnership with other families, like we are doing with our milk, meat chickens and turkeys.
We love this farming/ homestead lifestyles. We have met some lifelong friends along our journey. We have laughed, we have cried, we have been frustrated, and we have felt crazy. But for the first time in several years we feel content in our ½ acre of land that God has given us. We are learning and failing (a lot) but also winning along the way.
We started homeschooling the kids this year and even started talking/ praying of a day where I could possibly leave my dream job of firefighting and be home every day. We still farm our almonds traditionally, but are trying to figure out a way to go organic. We hope you will join us on this journey of family centered self reliance and learn right along side of us. I hope to inspire you to get your hands in the dirt and maybe start growing some of your own food!
Thank You
Zac Hyer
The Barefoot Farmstead
Thank you Zak for your service andfor your family’s bravery! I’m a cop of 26 years and husband 28. Since having cancer, I’ve been trying to be as healthy as I can afford (because it sure is expensive!) I no longer have faith in the medical system, our government, and our national readiness either. My mom and grandma, both nurses, prohibited our family from getting the jabs, and thankfully most of us listened. Unfortunately one of three who did get the shot, a young female, now has heart problems, so I although I used to get the recommended vaccinations... I will not any more.
May God bless you and your family on this journey. Take care and stay safe:)
What a great introduction! The next couple of years are going to be a fun ride sir! It will be great to see you guys grow and flourish.