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Long answer:
I used to live in Southern California where my garden gave me solace from the urban and corporate lifestyles. Eventually a series of events, realizations and decisions led me to pursue farming and Permaculture. I started volunteering many days a week for local urban farms by the time I realized I really wanted to be in the Pacific Northwest.
For someone in their mid thirties and having had worked full time since I was a teen (part time while in school) - Letting go of having an income, and especially letting go of the idea of pursuing an income I didn't have was a really big struggle for me.
I finally overcame my fears and took the leap into the unknown. Getting over this fear helped me pursue a life as a volunteer which I would not have been able to experience otherwise.
I was propelled me into a new life - living with and working with farmers and homesteaders.
In California I volunteered and worked with 7 local farms. Then in the Pacific Northwest I spent six months on the road while living with and volunteering with 6 homesteads and small family farms. The following season (last year) I returned to a few of my favorite farms to help them throughout their growing season and to learn more from them.
This was also a good time for me to digest what I had learned and really refocus what I wanted to learn and where I wanted my life to head.
I knew that I was hooked on homesteading pretty much as soon as I started volunteering on homesteads.
In fact the experience shifted my whole attitude from wanting to earn a living operating a farm to wanting to homestead. I enjoy the lifestyle of sustaining and nourishing myself and those around me. It is so fulfilling. My past self would not have placed that over money any day because I was so bought into the system of placing career and money as the highest importance in my life.
While I still feel money is an important tool, nourishing myself and helping to care for the planet have become higher priorities.
Last fall @idyllwild and I decided to officially move in together in a farm house on a homestead and sheep ranch. It was totally by chance.. a friend of a friend had a home available that they were renting. But they were willing to allow us to stay there on a work/trade basis.
We offered our labor and skills in the garden and with the livestock. We even helped them setup a new income stream for their homestead with airbnb and created a new website and online store for selling fiber.
It was a very good winter because we had the opportunity to refocus our plans. Especially where do we want to live and what does our dream homestead look like? We had many, many discussions.
One of the biggest challenges I had was not letting my fears control me.
I had fears about myself, about money, about future relationships, about environment, you name it. Many of the fears were things that are out of my control... like being able to predict the future for example.
Navigating the fears was at times painful, but in the end rewarding. Though there are still fears lurking, and more to appear int he future I am certain. But many have been dealt with and I am so grateful for that.
After many sessions of brainstorming, soul searching and pondering @idyllwild and I decided to move to Southern Oregon and start looking here for land for a homestead.
I am grateful that wwoofing and work/trade for a private home on a homestead had opened our eyes to possibilities that we did not know existed before but had now become second nature to us.
We first asked ourselves what do we want to accomplish this year? The answer:
- Explore a new region
- Connect with community
- Start new businesses that can move with us to a homestead
- Start looking for land.
Knowing our goals we were able to ask ourselves what would be the ideal living scenario. We wanted to consider many options:
- volunteering on a homestead for room and board
- renting an apartment or a room
- farm sitting
- homestead care-taking
- work/trade our photography/web design skills for a home
- any combination of above
We asked ourselves what is the ideal scenario? We knew that our goals were lofty and would already keep us busy so we suggested the best scenario would be either work/trade for a private home or renting a private space with enough flexibility in our schedule to have the independence of meeting those goals.
I know that we were hooked on homesteading and after spending going on two years on homesteads moving into the city or suburbs wasn't very appealing to us.
So we painted this vision of a dream of living on a homestead and we put out a message to the universe.
I began sending notices out to craigslist, friends of friends, local facebook groups, permaculture folks and more. I wanted to cast a wide net because I had no clue where the answer from the universe would come from.
After hearing nothing for a few weeks we suddenly heard back from 3 people that had a place for us. We scheduled a visit and drove across 2 states to meet them and knew immediately that we wanted to live here.
And so here we are on an off grid homestead living in a straw bale house care taking a horse and a cat. Our care taking duties is helping to lower the cost of rent to a very manageable place which allows us the flexibility, freedom and time to garden and homestead, to start our businesses and to interact with the community.
There is something magical about taking off the pressure of having to earn a lot of money to pay a lot of big bills.
With modest rent and not a lot of other bills we only need modest income which we can earn part time both from home and working for local family businesses. Without the pressure for income we used to feel we find it is easier to get into a place of inspiration, learning and doing. We are volunteering time at local farms to help out, connect and learn. We are finding out how we can turn our new passions into businesses by exploring, trying things out and dreaming.
How is this even possible?
Simply put: Our landlord cant live here this year because he has other obligations in the city and needs someone to live in the house, take care of the animals and keep an eye on things while he is not around.
This is a rare opportunity and somehow it fit perfectly with our dream and vision. The universe suddenly aligned and answered our request. We were completely ready to settle for less than our ideal scenario, but here it is. The only way we recognized it is because we were present with ourselves when we asked what we wanted and we over came the fears we had that came up about being able to achieve what we wanted or not deserving it.
Oh.. and our landlord? He's so glad we are here... from his perspective we are exactly who he wanted living in his home and feeding his animals.
And I am so grateful to be here.
How lucky I feel to be able to live on a homestead with autonomy and flexibility to continue homesteading and not have to put it off until I find my permanent place.
I realized that this is a huge opportunity for me to learn by doing in the garden space and beyond before starting my own homestead. That's the same way I felt about wwoofing.
Actually it is a smooth transition that I have been taking: from gardener -> to farm volunteer -> to live in homestead volunteer -> to homestead work/trade for private home -> and now care taking for a homestead with own garden space.
In retrospect taking those steps is exactly what my personality needed. There was no way I could imagine going to work full time while learning how to homestead.
I just couldn't do it... at least not without some time off. I was too burnt out from my previous career and lifestyle. I needed this total immersion into homesteading. I needed to learn from people doing it before I knew I could do it myself.
I know going this route is not a possibility for everyone, especially those with family obligations, but it is my path and it is what worked for me.
I am so grateful that my path has brought me here that I want to continue sharing with what I have learned along the way and what I am learning now for the benefit of others. And I will continue sharing what I think is significant, important or noteworthy.
As I have mentioned in previous posts I feel grateful to be here on steemit and contributing to communities that embrace nature, learning from each other, homesteading, sharing from the heart and overall making this world a better place. I am honored to be a part of that.
Who is @sagescrub?
I am a ex-suburbanite turned permaculture homesteader. Follow my journey and I will share what I know and am learning along the way. You can learn more about me in my re-introducing @sagescrub post. Wishing you abundance in your life!
Know that I am likely NOT an expert on the subjects I present. Please do your own research and be your own expert!
