About Barbara

I have been on this path since 1992, but my real turning point came in 2000 when I finally moved up to the north Georgia mountains. My family moved to Georgia when I was only three months old, so for all intents and purposes, I am a native Georgian and metro Atlantan.

My father was a pilot for one of the air lines, and we lived south of Atlanta, two miles from the end of the east-west runway of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Out On My Own

I later bought that house from my Dad in 1977, then in 1986, after the neighborhood changed for the worse, sold it and moved north underneath another airport, this time Peachtree-Dekalb. It was the only thing I could afford even though I hated the noise.

But this time, being under an airport worked out well for me. I stayed there for 14 years and the county finally bought me out as a safety zone for the airport. It took them seven years to get to me and, meanwhile, all the houses around me were being torn down. That was not a fun experience.

Then in 2000, I was able to take the money from the buy-out and move to the north Georgia mountains, where I reside today. I am blessed to live right across the valley from Amicalola Falls, one of our beautiful state parks, with my partner Brian, and we have a beautiful view of the falls in our backyard. We have peace and quiet too, which is absolutely wonderful after all of the ear-jangling sounds of airplanes flying over for so many years.

I built a real log home with six-inch thick log walls for the outside of the house. The plumber and electrician I hired was supposed to be retired but he took on work if he liked the job. He worked for time plus materials and he said if I wanted to cut down on costs, he would show me how to do the work and I could help him.

So I did and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about how houses are built, but it was a great education and has helped me a lot in the interim years. I dug the ditches for the plumbing and pulled electrical wires until I thought my hands would fall off. But I absolutely adore my house and where I live now.

Brian Shows Up

Brian had bought the lot next to me with his then wife Donna. They were going to be celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary in September of 2001 and a month before that, she told Brian she didn’t want to be married to him anymore.

In the ensuing divorce, she kept the thriving massage practice that they both had built up in Stone Mountain, GA and gave him the land with a mortgage and a little log cabin storage shed on it. He told me he was just going to stay in the shed and take showers over at the State Park with the park pass he had purchased.

The more I thought about that, the more unfair it seemed, so I offered to let him stay in the little apartment I had built downstairs in my house in case I ever needed to bring my elderly father here with me (I did but that’s a different story). He could stay for free in return for helping me finish my house, since, like most people, I had run out of money in building it. He had been a master carpenter for 27 years before becoming a massage therapist so it was a good deal for me too.

He was the best roommate I have ever had and four months later, I decided that I liked him a lot and he moved upstairs with me. The rest, as they say, is history.

Finding Work Here

When I moved up here, I had been doing healing work (Reiki and ear candling) in Atlanta and I expected to just keep my clients and go back to Atlanta as needed. For some reason, probably because I detested driving in Atlanta traffic, that just dried up. Brian also was going to Atlanta to do massage work.

I checked with a local resort up here to see if they needed a massage therapist and it turns out they did. So he started working there in March of 2003.

I kept trying to find work around here and did all sorts of odd jobs. Finally I gave up. I told Brian, “If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Teach me how to do massage.” and he did. So now we both run the Spa at Forrest Hills Mountain Resort and he is my life partner as well as my business partner. It has worked out well for both of us.

Finding Raw Foods

In the year 2000, before I left Atlanta, I took a course in raw foods from Brenda Cobb at the Living Foods Institute. Later I also took classes from Jackie and Gideon Graff at Sprout Raw Foods and these people, along with Bruce Fife for the coconut flour baked goods, have been the inspiration for my recipes. I owe them a huge thanks for all their teachings.

That was the beginning of my current interest in healing. I felt that the raw food diet was the one for me and I actually gave away all of my other cookbooks. I ate only the raw foods but I found that I was gaining weight and was tired all the time. So I was really puzzled because it intuitively felt good for me.

I started adding in some meat and cheese and then the brain fog lifted and the tiredness went away somewhat. I kept exploring and searching on the internet and finally ran across Dr. Mercola’s site. His three different nutritional types really made sense to me and after finding out which type I was (mixed type), I stuck strictly to the rules for my type and started feeling much better.

In 2006, two of the owners of Forrest Hills started talking about having a Wellness Center and I was really excited about that. We went forward with it and in 2008, moved the Spa from its first location underneath the office, to its present location at the Big House, so called because it was the residence of Frank Kraft, the patriarch who first started the resort.

It was named Anidawehi Spa and Wellness Center, in honor of the Cherokee Native Americans who first lived on the land. Brian did much of the renovation work on the Spa area himself and I worked on getting the information together to teach classes on raw and alternative foods to help others become healthy and well.

The Wellness Center ultimately did not work out and that is why I put all of the information on this web site. That way it would be accessible to many more people.

Now instead of having to travel to Georgia and pay for a week's stay at a resort, you can have all of the information at your fingertips from the comfort of your home. Isn't technology grand?