We are Mike and Cat Eads. We have quite the love story, a love for nature, and hard work. Mid 2019, we found this land by chance. It was once a beautiful property. The house that once stood in our back yard, dated back to the Civil War Era (We actually have pictures). We worked nights and weekends outside of our paying jobs, and transformed this property to what it is today. Mike is a Master Mechanic and a part-time county deputy. I am a school district administrator.
We consider ourselves stewards of the land. The monarchs stop here by the hundreds on their migration path. We started rescuing them from ditches and raising them to adulthood. We put in an acre farm pond in 2020, which drastically improved the property for wildlife. We started a not-for-profit to increase understanding and awareness of the importance of pollinators. We raise bees on the property and harvest honey. Red-tailed hawks nest here, which brought us to name the ranch after them.
One of the amazing things about the property are all of the rocks that were here. Not naturally, but brought here over time by past owners. Thousands, including huge boulders our backhoe can barely handle. The two of us have moved more rocks by hand than we thought was possible. Most twice! We have done most of the work ourselves. We had some help here and there, but if it was possible to do it ourselves, we did. We built a new home on the property and moved in 2023. We found amazing treasures during the property reclamation. I love to garden and decorate. We used a lot of what we found here to decorate our home and garden.
We have four adult children and two lucky puppy dogs. We always have a new project up our sleeve so you never know what we will be sharing! I started a Facebook page in November 2020 for friends and family to keep up on our progress; never expecting the number of followers we have now from around the world. We appreciate our followers, especially those who encouraged us on the days when we were exhausted along this journey.
This story comes to you from east central Illinois.
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The Story About the Red Tail Ranch 