This year marks our 10th Anniversary at Ozark Akerz Regenerative Farm. Before Sue and I moved here, we spent 2 months fixing leaks, mending all manner of things and cleaning the farmhouse to make it livable. It had been abandoned for over 10 years. Little did we know what we had gotten ourselves into!

The following are excerpts from emails we sent to Sue’s mom, Lou, during the first couple months on the farm. It has been amazing to relive the beginning of our journey in detail, much of what we had forgotten. We both remembered the day we moved in as Feb 1, in fact it was Jan 27. All the joys and challenges came back to life when reading the emails. Lou suffered from dementia and would forget what we told her over the phone. Daily emails were a good way to stay close to her even though she was 2100 miles away. She kept the printed emails and photos we sent her in a binder. She would re-read the emails over time. She eventually filled 3 binders with our emails.

One of the key measures of environmental health is biodiversity. As of June 2023, Ozark Akerz is home to over 600 species of plants, insects, reptiles, birds, fungi, mammals etc.
Our strategy for increasing biodiversity at Ozark Akerz has taken many forms. This includes but is not limited to:

• Selectively mowing pastures to preserve Milkweed stands for Monarch Butterflies
• Converting an old hay field to a Food & Medicine Forest
• Improving Soil microbiome biodiversity by planting cover crops and amending the soil with raw milk to add Lactobacillus
• Increasing Dung beetle population for healthy pastures and Pineywoods Cattle

In terms of labor, planting native perennial plants in the food and medicine forest has been the most intensive. We have planted 130+ trees, shrubs and other perennial plant, all of which require regular watering, weeding, and hand picking insects like Japanese Beetles every morning for 3-4 weeks during summer to ensure they have a fighting chance to grow. The increase in plant species has had a knock-on effect on the increase in insect, reptile and bird species.