Guest Author: Cami McLaren – Joan’s oldest daughter. For all my life, my mom has been healthy. She has always been interested in both internal and external health. She has experimented most of my life with food choices and ways to eat until she landed on veganism, which seems to be a very good fit...Read More

Have you ever wondered what happens after a wildfire rages through a forest? You probably never thought about it unless the forest was under your stewardship as part of your property. The Thomas Fire, California’s biggest wildfire in history, raged through our forest in early December 2017. We were among the lucky ones – our...Read More

“At my age….” How many times have you said that? Well, at my age, believe me, the thought of doing a chin-up never crossed my mind – that is until age 71 when I met Katy Bowman (www.nutritiousmovement.com)  and began integrating her practices into my daily life.  That resulted in our book Dynamic Aging: Simple...Read More

Have you ever had the experience of creating something where there was nothing before? If you have children, you certainly can relate to that experience. How about in other areas of your life? For Joyce, Shelah, Lora and I we had that experience when we collaborated with Katy Bowman (www.nutritiousmovement.com) to write the book, Dynamic...Read More

A redwood forest in Hawai’i?  No way! Yes way!  Believe it or not one of the best kept secrets is the redwood forest on the western flank of Haleakala Crater at 6200’ elevation in the Poli Poli Spring Recreation area on the island of Maui. It was planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in...Read More

Written by Lora Woods The above picture was taken in the Museum of Terror in Budapest. Hungary has had more than its share of invasions, wars and revolutions which justified a hospital built inside a mountain in its capital. The second picture is me wearing a WWII wool nurses’ cape which I treasure wearing both...Read More

Sunday, December 3, 2017, family members joined us here at the Ranch for our annual decorating of the Christmas tree. It looked beautiful when we were done. Finished up with pizza and started the Christmas season with a forecast of strong Santa Ana winds blowing west for the next four days. Twenty-four hours later, Monday,...Read More

In March 2011, Lora and I (Joan) were newly certified Restorative Exercise Specialists™. We could not wait to share what we had learned so we offered to give back to our community by providing a free weekly class at our local senior center. We called the class Aligned and Well. We had an amazing turnout...Read More

I became a certified Restorative Exercise Specialist™ in 2013. (To learn more about restorative exercise check out http://www.nutritiousmovement.com.) I was so excited and enthusiastic about sharing what I had learned and was experiencing personally, I volunteered to teach restorative exercise at the independent living apartments where my husband and I were then living to accommodate...Read More