Hi there, it’s Hillarie! Rewilding Mind is a weekly reflection on my experience leaving the city and finding nature. It’s a calming read to help you slow down, be present, and find wonder in the everyday. Read on for ideas on to returning to nature, finding ourselves, and creating community. 💚
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Podcast note: Friends, I wanted to test a new podcast feature for my newsletter. I LOVE podcasts because you get to hear me talk through some of this things out loud. Hit reply and tell me what you think!
Hello friends,
The past weekend finally, finally gave us the warmth we have been yearning for here in the PNW. I can tell the plants are just as happy as we are to reach for the heat. My eggplants have been stagnant and sad for weeks, but that heat has them looking perky and bright. Flowers are popping up on the tomatoes and the cucumbers look alive. And, most significantly, my first rose is about to bloom.
As I sat amongst my garden, I was so proud of all the work we have done to make this place feel like our little haven. I took stock of the skills we have learned in order to grow a garden, build a fence, reduce waste, or care for a forest. It dawned on me that what we are actually doing is homesteading.
I consider homesteading to be an ongoing quest for self-reliance and community. It is the slow and difficult untangling of ourselves from the various systems on which we are dependent. The practice of recalling our ability to care and provide for ourselves with food, physical strength, life lessons, crafting and so much more.
Growing up, I was in 4H and Girl Scouts for many years, and I learned real-life skills such as how to sew clothing, make a fire, grow food, preserve goods, and build community. At some point I pretended not to know such things because the modern world suggested those skills were antiquated, irrelevant, and absolutely uncool.
The message I got was anything worth having could simply be purchased. And not only could it be purchased, it should be purchased. You need not feel any discomfort in this life. The world promised to keep providing super cool solutions to our [manufactured] problems. It would cost just a small fee and mental toll of having that object float around your home for far too long, annoyed that it didn’t actually solve all your life problems. (Just me?)
Why cause undue discomfort if someone else can just do it for me? Why experience the vulnerability of having to ask for help? Why challenge myself when there is a faster, more powerful way? Why bare the risk of failure when there was an option of certainty?
As I slowly pull out the thorns of consumerism, I have begun to see that those skills are quite useful for solving everyday problems around my homestead. I am learning to grow food for my family, setup a permaculture system, build an orchard, create retaining walls, and responsibly care for my little forest. I am relearning skills my hands and heart once knew. I am finding how freeing it is to become self-sufficient, and unlearning ideas about the “worthiness” of doing physical labor.
It has been a little over a year since I started my garden and began to embrace this way of living. After lots of failures, countless fights, and some great successes, here are a few lessons I have learned in one year of homesteading:
It’s okay to start slow: At the start, you may desire a grand garden with a fully functional permaculture compost operation. (Speaking from experience.) Turns out, 2 raised beds was plenty for me to start. It allowed me to build up some basic gardening routines and start learning to care for different plants. With time, I have noticed that if I allow myself time to learn, the whole process is much more enjoyable.
Get creative: We have been led to believe that there is usually a right answer to a problem—a backed up toilet, a hole in the roof, mounting boxes for recycling, a patch of overgrown blackberries. The list doesn’t end. Homesteading has taught me to be more open-minded to new solutions that are different than my own. It has taught me to be resourceful and reminded me that working with the earth is itself a creative act.
Success requires community: Self-sufficiency is not the same as isolation. Finding people who live this way has helped me make the transition. My little community has helped me to learn faster, supported me through difficult seasons, and shared an abundance of fresh food. If the community does not exist, you can create it. Don’t homestead alone!
Homesteading has been a never-ending journey of learning and giving myself grace for not having all the answers. There will never be a point when I am “done” or know all of the things there are to know. My hope is to continue to collect life lessons and share them honestly so that more people can find their way back to a slower pace of life.
I hope you all have a a wonderful week ahead. Please take care, be kind, and talk soon,
Hillarie