Joey Kratochvil shows off the greenhouse he designed and built. Joey and his dad built the greenhouses, hoop houses and chicken coop with recycled materials and lumber from the land — some repurposed from fallen trees after an ice storm.
Melbourne, says she lives an “old-fashioned modern life.”
Aside from growing their own food, they can food for winter, make lye soap, sew, crochet, have rendered lard, churned butter and home school their daughter. They pluck apples off a tree that Joey’s grandma planted in 1976.
But “old fashioned” means more to Beth than the traditional skills they teach their daughter. It’s a life where they believe in simple values to honor God, help neighbors, keep their word, love and appreciate family — values that are disappearing in a modern fast-paced world.
Beth Kratochvil has scrapbooks filled with family history. Daughter Elizabeth and Joey's mother, Mary Elizabeth “Beth” Kratochvil, are in the background.
On the farm, life moves at a different pace. They watch the weather and the seasons, instead of the latest television show or trend. They build what they need instead of buying it. If it’s broke, they fix it, instead of ditching it.
He still has farm records from 1946 which show Joey’s great, great grandfather bought a bull and half a car — a share of a car with another townsman. A scrapbook from his great, great grandmother from 1944 is full of cut out magazine articles and newspaper recipes.
“We are rooted in this land, in God, and in family,” said Mary Elizabeth Kratochvil, Joey’s mom, whose nickname is “Beth.”
Despite this beautiful life, the family has endured some significant hardships, but as the inspirational saying goes, “When God closes a door, He always opens a window.”
Overcoming adversity
The first hardship came on a winter night in 2004 when the sky was spitting snow and the ground was covered in ice.
Beth and Joey shivered in their 10 Living Well i May/June 2017
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