The Making of
Lil Patch of Heaven 

Lil Patch of Heaven began in 2015, when we, the Beene family, moved from the Country Estates in Ramona to a place where there was land and some freedom. In the San Diego Country Estates, I got in trouble numerous times for having too many chickens and turkeys. And I knew the backyard was not going to encompass the dream I had for the future. The dream I had was based from a literal one. The dream had a variety of animals, herbs, plants, and people. There was a farm and a home. And the home was red. When local real estate agent Jan Ryan showed my family this current property, we all saw different things…my husband saw a lot of cleanup, my son saw the lack of good internet, and my daughter saw how small the bathrooms were. I saw so much potential. I knew my family could too, but it was buried under the work that needed to be done and the luxuries from our other home that were being given up. But something was amiss. The thing I didn’t see anywhere was a red house. The house in my powerful dream that God gave me had been red. This house in front of me was an ugly tan color. I was so bothered that the house wasn’t red because I thought maybe it was a sign it wasn’t the right move. After walking around the property, I happened to look at the base of the house behind some bushes and guess what? Underneath the boring beige color was a patch of red paint…the house had been red at some point before. I couldn’t believe it. I told my family this was meant to be. We put an offer in and I won’t go into the details but there were some last-minute issues, some that threatened our ability to get this home. I remember sitting in my closet, praying for hours about it. I knew if it was God’s plan, it would have to work out. And it did. We packed up our stuff and moved in. That’s when the real work started. The property not only had fire damage from the 2007 Witch Creek fire, there was dumpsters and dumpsters of trash that needed to get cleaned up. Every year as I planted more, I’d find more garbage in the soil like brick and concrete and plastic. But bit by bit, it got cleaned up. Just like with weeding, I don’t look at all the weeds, just the ones that need immediate removal so I can plant. I used that method since 2015. And after all, God didn’t say it was going to be easy. But he did say it would be possible.

 

Some people only see what the farm is now and they want what I have, but it all came at a price and with patience. I went from selling herbs and eggs out of my garage to doing farmer’s markets to doing deliveries when Covid hit… and eventually I turned an old shed into a farmstand. I waited for years… 8 years actually, until I had made enough money to do it. I had crop failures. Goats got out and ate my trees. My front yard was a driveway at one point and now, after loads of compost, it holds dozens of trees and plants. I had my well go out and had to run a hose from my neighbor’s yard for a year. I had an area of my yard destroyed when they tried to dig a new well. The well woes as I call them were so stressful because when you’re running a farm with every kind of animal and hundreds of plants and trees, you need water. My social media following was unplanned. For years I didn’t have time to post all I wanted to and then almost overnight my neighbor pointed a camera at me and the rest is history as they say. People see my woodburning stove but they don’t see ten years of no vacations or breaks. They see me healthy but they didn’t see me decades ago when I was sick with thyroid disease. But that’s what led me down this path to health. God doesn’t give us what we want, he gives us what we need. And what we need is to have hardships and get through them so we have a testimony to be able to lead others. So that they can learn and lead one day too. So trust me, the reality is this Lil Patch of Heaven sometimes is a patch of hell when things go wrong. I don’t want anybody thinking my life is perfect. But I trust in God even when I’m mad at him. He didn’t say easy. He said possible.