This Is Me

Who are the people behind CN Green Mini Farm, have you ever wondered or wished I would shine more light on ourselves and efforts. If so the Blog tab here is most likely for you!

My names is Casandra Greenwall, I grew up on a working dairy/beef farm outside the small town of Millet, AB, Canada. I honestly, do not think anything can match farm living experiences for children and adults. It was a wonderfully enticing and enhancing childhood.

I met my husband when I was 18 and we decided pretty fast that we would be together forever and wanted to start a family. At this time, we were still trying to find our place in the world and we jumped around quite a bit for a few years within our province of AB. We finally settled back into an area that was close to where we had both grown up, we had 2 young daughters at this time and were happy to get them back to the country! However, my health or more so healing journey was gearing up to sideswipe the life we thought we would live. Our lives were turned upside-down when I started to feel very ill. I was lethargic, certain foods were starting to upset me greatly, I was in constant pain, and I was dropping. I believed that western medicine would sort this out for me, I booked appointment after appointment, seeing my doctor regularly, going for test after test. I was often told it was in my head or it was from being a new young mom, having kids too close together, the list of 'reasons' was long but never the root and never a solution. Finally, after months of being ill it was discovered that I had what was branded as Hereditary Liver Failure. This is what started my healing journey. I had dropped 37 pounds in the short course of about 6 weeks, the last week being very significant in that weight loss. I was a small woman to begin with, with an 'under-weight' BMI that had followed me through my whole life. So this weight loss dropped me well under the healthy level of weight, I was literally skin and bones. It was to the point that I was unable to keep down much of anything for food and very little water. I honestly, thought I was going to die waiting for the western-medical community to help me... to save me! As I mentioned, we had our 2 young daughters during this and my husband worked long hours. I feared every night as I laid down to sleep that I would not awaken to those precious faces in the morning. That with their father gone to work and a mother that might not open her eyes again, that they would be scared, hungry, and suffer through the day until my husband was home from work. Our family, of course, seen this downfall in health spiraling out of control fast. My father approached me about trying a different route, there was a well-known Live Blood Analysis man in our area and he asked if he booked me an appointment if I would go? He offered to drive me (I was so lethargic, it was to the point where I could just fall asleep standing up, not the safest person to be driving), and to watch the girls for me during the appointment. I will never forget my first conversation with that beyond kind, caring, and determined man. We will call him Mr. B. After he live-viewed my blood and also viewed samples of dried blood, he told me he wasn't sure that he could help me, that my condition was very severe. My heart literally sank in that moment, my last shot at life slipping through my fingers. Thoughts of my husband and my daughters flashing through my mind. My hopes and dreams for the life my husband I would create together, my right to watch my daughters grow up. All my hopes and dreams squashed in those few words. They say your life flashes before your eyes in near death experiences, after that experience I do not doubt that for a second. A healthy functioning liver is work at 80+%, my liver was functioning as low as 3%, he was right I was severely sick and running out of time fast. After, what felt like an eternity of sitting there hopelessly defeated and crushed. To tired to even come up with a new plan to save my own life, Mr. B said something else "but". "But, I would like to try to help you". In the next moment he was my saving grace, he was attempting to preform a miracle, in the hopes of healing this person he had only met moments before. He whirled through textbooks; half talking to himself, half taking to his wife who worked with him. He sprung around their little herbal shop grabbing bottles and double checking their efficacy and compatibility together, leaving no room for mistakes. There simply was not enough time for me to go through a mistake. I left that shop with so many herbal pill bottles and papers explaining not only usage but dosages, times to take them, what I had to take together, and what I couldn't take together, and a new diet plan. But more importantly, I left that shop with 2 hugs that I felt compassion in, FINALLY someone besides my family showed me they cared about my life or loss of life and were willing to fight with me, not against me. A tiny spark of hope began to grow in that moment, wrapped in a hug from a person I hardly knew. Hope for my own life... my own survival. As I walked to the vehicle beside my father's wheelchair, holding the hand of my almost 20-month-old daughter, and carrying my 5-month-old in my arms. I knew it deep inside this was going to work. It had to work. It was truly my last shot. It was a long and slow recovery, but my liver did recover. On our journey of my recovery we realized the power behind herbs. Sadly, for me, we still did not realize the power behind what we ate and what we put on our bodies. But that's a different story. Over the next decade I healed, we grew our family by welcoming 2 more children into the world. Our 3rd and 4th born children are both boys, they are a joy. The 4 children bring so much light, creativity, and a magical wonder into our lives.

Currently, we living in the house that my husband grew-up in. It is a huge reno project that we chip away at as we can. We grow a lot of our own food already, but not as much as we would like. Over the next few years, we hope to be able to expand our Mini Farm, expand our knowledge, and start living more of a back to basic's lifestyle. We want to increase not only our plant foods that we grow and preserve, but also start raising more of our own meat. We are excited for this journey and have already started to expand this past year. But we look forward to documenting not only our success but our failures as well. I'm a firm believer in learning from your mistakes, but also others can be spared the first-hand pain of it by learning from our mistakes alongside us. So we would like to take everyone who wants to come on this journey with us. This blog space will be simply about us, our lives as a family working to expand our homestead and space to create more simplicity in life and becoming more self-reliant on the land of our Mini Farm!