Meet the Holm Family (continued)

Five years later, and it's 1995. Doran has been promoted and transferred to Newport Beach, California. Keeping close to their parenting ideals, Mariann home-schools the children. Most people in their affluent neighborhood thought she was the family's nanny. "I think I was the only stay at home mom in our community," she laughs.

"So what happened?" I ask. (After all, here we are on a hilltop in west central Wisconsin. Forty Jersey cows are peacefully grazing in the pasture below us. It's a long way from California.)

"One night after work I was putting Sarah to bed," says Doran. "We were reading All the Places to Love when she stopped me and asked, 'Dad, could we buy a farm?'"

"Right then I felt something shift inside me. The next day, I called my father and jokingly asked if there were any farms for sale back home. I didn't expect much. Farms back home were usually passed on to family members, and rarely sold."

"My dad was surprised, 'Why yes! In fact, the old Ovren place just went up for sale.'"

"The next thing I knew," says Doran, "I was buying a farm over the phone."

The following years were hard.

Doran was able to get a transfer with his company so that he could work in Wisconsin. He and Mariann went to work fixing up the farm, which had fallen into disrepair. It was a monumental task. And it raised more than a few eyebrows. "The Ovrens had an auction a few years back when they quit milking and even the milk pipeline in the barn was gone. So now, here we were replacing the milk pipeline." Doran shakes his head. "The neighbors thought we were crazy."

Visionary maybe, but not crazy. What this family seems to have in abundance is perseverance. And the strongest wills imaginable.

During the week, Doran traveled around the state on business while Mariann continued to home school the girls. "Back then," she says, "I had five little girls and Mary was just a newborn."

On weekends, they all worked at renovating the farm.

The whitewashed barn is charming and tidy. Flowers surround the farmhouse. The Organic Valley sign next to the driveway reads "Holm Girls Dairy." No shortage of feminine energy here!