Preparations for our Permanent Move to Healing Earth

After almost 6 years in Madinah, we are preparing to return to Healing Earth this summer to live there full-time. It is a difficult move in many ways, but for every difficulty there is ease and we look forward to taking our sheep to the hilltops (or in our case, the grasslands). It is a hijrah to Allah, to put ourselves in a situation where sincere and correct intentions with tawakkal (total reliance on Allah) is made real to us every day and in everything we do.

There are so many things to put in place when we arrive. Aside from setting up our temporary housing and purchasing another vehicle, hopefully a 12-15 passenger van with heavy duty towing capability, we have to prepare the following as soon as possible.

- Chicken tractor/housing (egg layers)
- Chicken coops (meat birds)
- Housing and milking shed for cows, sheep, and goats.
- Greenhouse or similar for growing out of season
- Planting immediately for late summer/early fall crops

Once things are in place, we will be going for our dairy cow training and to pick up our dairy cow and a bull calf from Joy and Robert at www.handmilking.com.They are making all sorts of arrangements to ensure we will be comfortable and our Islamic faith is respected and catered for during our stay.

We have spent weeks making lists of the seeds to purchase, deciding between heirloom, organic, etc. and the varieties. In addition, we have decided on the various birds we plan to get started with: a mix of laying chickens, meat chickens, ducks, and turkeys inshaa Allah.

Shariyf's resignation was finally accepted yesterday and we are now officially in moving mode! We will keep you posted of the progress inshaa Allah as we proceed on our journey.