Welcome to our life story at Turning Ranch.  Our family consists of Papa Ted (aka Web page designer), Mama Sherri (who writes the blogs), and our three boys (who inspire most of the blogs) James, Jonathan and Joshua.

What is Turning Ranch?  Turning Ranch is the start of the realization of a vision that God gave Ted several years ago.  We wanted a place where our boys could experience a rich learning environment surrounded by the best Teacher of all, God & His creation.  We wanted a place where we could raise the best nutrient-dense foods possible to improve our health and our future generations health.  And we wanted our own land to be stewards of the earth God has given.  Our goal is to provide as much of our own food as possible, then as God blesses us with abundance, to be able to make those foods available to others.

Why the name, "Turning Ranch"?  The name comes from a Bible verse in Proverbs 13:14, which says, "The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death."  (NIV)  We were in our land search at the time we came across this verse in devotional reading.  It was also being impressed upon us that the "latest and greatest" knowledge isn't always the best; in fact, most of the best knowledge and advice comes from "wise" people.  Our society doesn't value wisdom, nor of allowing yourself to be taught by people who know more than you do.  In our search for improved health, we have found that "wise" people knew what to eat to maintain physical superior health.  We don't have contact with those people anymore, but do have the writings and findings of a man named Dr. Weston A. Price who wrote about his findings in a book, "Physical and Nutritional Degeneration".  During his travels he found native people all over the world who had maintained excellent physical and mental health, strictly due to their diet.  Once they came in contact with processed foods such as white flour and white sugar, their health deteriated and they subcumbed to the same degenerative diseases that we have today.  The wisdom of the wise gave them physical life; it turned them away from the snares of diseases (death).   We see our society not enjoying the fountain of life of good physical health that God meant for us and we're headed straight to a snare of death.  As we listen to the teachings of the wise, we hope to be able to share that with others through education and by providing the foods that will give us life.

How & why did we start Turning Ranch?  Our search for improved health through diet started with our oldest son, who is on the Autism Spectrum (ranges all the way from ADHD to the most severe autistic people).  In working through his diet, we started out using the Feingold Diet, moved to organic foods, then to Weston A. Price (WAPF) nutrient-dense foods and now the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet.  What started as a search for answers for our son became answers for ourselves as well.  We all started enjoying better health.  But as anyone who has done these types of diets knows it is very expensive.  Since we do not believe in a "cafeteria" style of eating in our home, we all pretty much eat the same way.  The cost of eating this way goes even higher.  Then we started pushing the boundaries of what our food suppliers could do...we wanted even more nutritious food than even they could provide.  It became very evident that the only way we could provide for our 3 growing young boys with the foods we knew they needed was to grow it ourselves.  Ted was also learning through organizations such as AcresUSA, that the health of the food/animal can only be as good as the soil/food it's grown in.  He came back from his first Acres conference convinced that we must have our own land if we are to have control of our food.  Improving our own health can only go so far, but we can have an even greater impact on our sons' health, and an even greater impact on their children's health.  It takes 3 generations to reverse the impact of our SAD (Standard American Diet) diet.  We will not reap the full benefits of what we are doing; but we are doing this for our future generations lives.  Lord willing, they will not be entangled in the snares of death and be able to live a full and productive life that God intends.