Perfect Chaos
6:30 a.m. comes around too soon sometimes in the Munger household. The family of six scrambles to get all the farm chores done, pack lunches and get dressed and ready for school and work.
Lynne and Craig Munger purchased the land in Elwell, Michigan that their farm stands on in 1998 right after they got married. The farm consisted of the newlyweds, one horse and some barn cats. Once they started having children, the farm quickly grew.
Their children, Alli, 20, Anna, 17, Jake, 15, and Sarah, 11, help to run the family’s farm with cats, dogs, horses, goats, cows, pigs, and chickens. The family also has their own garden that includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and onions. Most of the food the family eats comes directly from the farm.
“We didn’t eat chicken for a whole year a few years back because we didn’t have enough on the farm to eat,” Lynne said. “We tried eating store bought, but it’s just not the same.”
The Munger’s eat their pigs and angus cows as well. There are too many cows to eat on their own so they also sell their slaughtered cows by the halves and wholes.
In addition, the Munger’s have a lawn mowing business, and they service most farms in the area. This is now a full time job for Lynne, a former nurse and later, stay-at-home mom, and Craig, a former elementary school Physical Education teacher.
With everything going on in the Munger’s lives – school, sports, work, chores and extracurriculars – there seems to be constant chaos in the house.
“You never really know if someone is going to be home when you walk in,” Alli said, “but there’s always something going on and it keeps it interesting.”
The sky begins to clear following the passing of a storm over Elwell, Michigan where the Munger’s farm stands on Sept. 10, 2019. The Munger’s have owned the farm for 21 years, since 1998.
Alli Munger, 20, pushes one of the angus bull calf’s heads down to get him to drink water on Sept. 20, 2019 on the Munger family’s farm in Elwell, Michigan after bringing home the calves from Whitmore Dairy farm. Alli works at the dairy farm and got to personally pick out the one week old calves she wanted to bring home to the family’s farm. “Two of them are really tall and have different bone structure, so I want to see how they grow,” Alli said.
Jake Munger, 15, center, takes a nap on the living room couch after completing his afternoon chores as Lynne Munger, 48, left, and Sarah Munger, 11, right, get ready to leave for Lynne’s parent’s sixty-second anniversary dinner on Sept. 14, 2019 at the Munger’s home in Elwell, Michigan. “I just need 5 minutes,” Jake said after Lynne, his mom, yelled at him to get in the shower.
Anna Munger, 17, left, and her mom Lynne Munger, 48, inspect a lump on the back of Magic’s, Anna’s horse, ankle on Sept. 14, 2019 on the family’s farm in Elwell, Michigan. They both suspected that her ankle got cut the night before on some of the extra wood lying around to construct the new goat enclosure, causing the ankle to swell.
Sarah Munger, 11, collects eggs from the chicken coop on Sept. 14, 2019 on the family’s farm in Elwell, Michigan. “Some of the chickens are mean. Sometimes I need to get a towel to take them out,” Sarah said after one of the hens pecked at her while reaching under it to collect the eggs.
Lynne Munger, 48, kisses one of the eight-day-old barn kittens on the top of the head on Sept. 14, 2019 on the family’s farm in Elwell, Michigan. “Oh, they opened their eyes today!” Lynne said as she reached into the liter of six kittens and pulled one of the only kittens with orange markings from its mom and siblings.
From the right and around the table counterclockwise, Craig Munger, 54, Anna Munger, 17, Sarah Munger, 11, Jake Munger, 15, Zack Smith, Alli’s boyfriend, 22, Alli Munger, 20, and Lynne Munger, 48, eat chicken fajitas for dinner on Sept. 16, 2019 at the Munger’s home in Elwell, Michigan. “I hope these are OK,” Lynne said about the fajitas. “I haven’t made this since, I think, before Jake was alive.” The chicken Lynne used to make the fajitas were chickens raised right on the farm.
Just before the sun begins to rise, Jake Munger, 15, walks with empty barrels to fill with corn feed for the family’s eight cows, including the Munger’s calf, Leo, on Sept. 18, 2019 on their family farm in Elwell, Michigan. Jake is responsible for feeding the cows twice each day, feeding the family’s English Mastiff, Titan, and making sure the animals have enough water.