My Custom Homestead: Step 3

Step 3 of Jill Winger's Your Custom Homestead (www.ThePrairieHometead.com) is to develop a mission statement for your homestead.  Drawing on all of the things you listed in Step 2, create a platform for which all of it will come to fruition. 

photo by Katrina Rodabaugh via Pinterest

I am fortunate to have an amazing supervisor at my creative arts therapy internship.  She recently sent all of the interns an email with words of encouragement from Rob Brezsny.  The message starts out, "Lately, I must admit, our work has seemed almost comically impossible.  Many of us have given in to the temptation to believe that everything is upside-down and inside-out.  Ignorance and inertia, partially camouflaged as time-honored morality, seem to surround us.  Pessimism is enshrined as a hallmark of worldliness.  Compulsive skepticism masquerades as perceptiveness.  Mean-spirited irony is chic.  Stories about treachery and degradation provide a visceral thrill in millions of people who think of themselves as reasonable and smart.  Beautiful truths are suspect and ugly truths are readily believed."   So what is a person to do with all of this pessimism poisoning our souls? Brezsny suggests, "We have to be ferociously and single-mindedly dedicated to the cause of beauty and truth and love even as we keep our imaginations wild and hungry and free....We can create safe houses to shelter everyone who's devoted to the slow-motion awakening of humanity...."  After reading this, I felt so validated.  I have often thought of giving up and giving in to the "reality" of the dreary lies that society serves up to feed hungry pessimism.  I am exhausted from the fight already.  Can I be the only one who believes that we are all beauty and truth inside and even the most corrupt human heart has an opportunity to heal?  Sometimes it feels like standing in front of a tidal wave and looking it straight in the eye.  But Brezsny's solutions of creating sanctuary to "hospice what is dying [lies] and midwife what's being born [your beauty and truth]" equally validate my mission.

As I have gained clarity in my personal vision and work for this life, I have come to embrace that my job is to create beauty and a safe place for living things to do the work that Breznsy describes.  About a year ago, frustrated and foggy-headed from not knowing how to put all the pieces of my authentic-life-puzzle together, I asked the question, "What am I supposed to do with this life?"  The answer came immediately and clearly, "Offer a cool drink of water."  I felt such relief. Finally, a clear mission.  I knew what these words meant for me and I knew that I needed to create a sanctuary that offers literal and metaphorical water for weary and thirsty creative spirits who are facing the same tidal wave every day.  And so in that moment, I midwifed the birth of Soaring Heart Acres.

To be continued....

My Custom Homestead: Step 2

In step 2 of Your Custom Homestead Jill Winger (www.ThePrairieHomestead.com) urges you to consider your reasons and motivation for wanting a homestead.  This is something that I have thought about for years, and something that keeps growing as I learn more about myself.  My personal motivations and aspirations have also evolved as a result of meeting and marrying my husband, and more recently, after having a daughter.

The vision I have of our creative life on a homestead is rooted in my longing for a simple life living close to the earth.  I want to live in beauty and create beauty.  In the quiet of nature, I find peace.  I want to share that peace with my family, friends, and those who need the tonic of nature.  I want to wake up and start my day outside, breathing fresh air and wiggling my toes in soil and grass.  I want to sleep to the gentle sounds of peepers, birds, and barn animals.  I want to grow food to nourish myself and my family.  I want homegrown and handmade feasts outdoors under a big tree.  I want to rely on money less and my two hands more.  I want our daughter to develop a relationship with mother earth through direct experiences like sleeping in a meadow and scanning the sky for shooting stars until she can't keep her eyes open anymore.  I want to create beautiful useful things that will be employed in our daily lives, like clothes, candles, soap, art, and pottery and then teach others to tap into their own creative energies to bring authenticity and meaning into their own lives too.  I want to celebrate every day.  I want a home to pass down to our daughter.  I could go on and on, but one more simple reason to have a homestead is that it will be so much FUN.

Why do YOU want a homestead?  Tell me here.  Let's create a community of inspiration and encouragement.  I will cheer you on with each step you take.  "Ask not what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive and do that.  Because what the world needs are people who have come alive."  Living a creative life on a homestead makes me come alive.

My Custom Homestead: Step 1

Inspired by Jill Winger's eBook, Your Custom Homestead (available on www.theprairiehomestead.com),  I have begun her 21 step plan for creating my own personalized homestead.  My current homestead is small, being that it is located in a highrise apartment in New York City, but there are plenty of resources right here to support urban farming.  I am also gathering resources for my future homestead which will be much larger, complete with farm animals and a garden that will supply a year's worth of food to feed my family. 

To organize all of these resources and ideas, Jill's Step 1 is to create a homesteading binder.  She lists several sections that you may want to include in your binder.  Since I don't have any farm animals yet, my binder will not hold much in the animal paperwork  and health records section.  But I do have plenty to fill a binder for now.  My own binder is divided into sections for canning and preserving recipes, recipes for homestead essentials like my natural cleaning products and Jill's other eBook Natural Homestead, and a fantastic mini-handbook on Grow-Biointensive mini-farming techniques. (I will post more about this topic in the near future.) I also have info from Peaceful Valley's website (www.GrowOrganic.com) that I printed out such has a winter garden checklist and a guide to vegetable families for crop rotation.  I have separate folders for cooking recipes and my collection of inspiring images. 

Now that my binder is is organized, I have officially completed this first step to my own custom homestead.  Woo-hoo!  I think I'll celebrate by baking a loaf of homemade bread. 

Peaceful Vallley Farm and Garden Supply

If you have the gardening bug, then you understand the sheer joy of opening your mailbox to find the season's new seed catalog right smack in the middle of winter.  Although I don't have a garden plot with raised beds at the moment, I do have wide sunny windowsills.  This spring I will start my indoor kitchen garden which is just one of the many ways I can cultivate my urban homestead until we have a rural homestead.

www.GrowOrganic.com

Yesterday I received one of my favorite farm and garden supply catalogs.  My joy expanded exponentially when I opened it to find a free packet of certified organic tomato seeds.  Simple pleasures like this fertilize my dreams and plans for a small farm.  Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply has an amazing website (www.groworganic.com) where you can spend hours learning about gardening and homesteading from their resources like free videos on anything from starting seeds to making cheese. 

Farm Table: Healthy Granola Cookies

"Cookie" is a word that makes all toddlers pay attention. (More so than the word "no"...Hard to believe, I know.) Heck, even my ears perk up at the sound of "cookie", and that's good enough for me.  My niece, who also has a toddler at home, shared her idea for healthy cookies (thank you Anne!) that are made from kitchen staples:  peanut butter, bananas, oats, and raisins.  In fact, that's her entire recipe: Mix these four

ingredients together and bake for 15 minutes.  So today my daughter and I got out the mixing bowl and did just that.  We poured spoonfuls of peanut butter into a bowl and added one mashed banana, a handful of raisins (the size of my hand, not hers), and some oats.  We tossed in some pecans just for fun.  We mixed it all together with a wooden spoon until it seemed like the right consistency.  Then I patted little lumps of dough into cookie shapes and placed them onto a cookie sheet.  Fifteen minutes later, viola!  Healthy cookies!

Our first attempt did turn out a little dry (nothing a glass of milk couldn't cure).  I'm considering adding a smidge or two of applesauce next time to see if this helps.  And I'm thinking of all kinds of other ingredients that could be added or substituted:  craisins, carob chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, honey, apples, blueberries, pears, and the list goes on.  You don't even have to be adventurous in the kitchen to bake these cookies into a satisfying snack!  So try it and let me know what ingredients you used.  We can compare notes here in this blog post.

These tasty treats are great for packing up and taking on our city excursions to ward off crankiness caused by crowded subway cars.  And I'm looking forward to packing some for extra energy on a long hike in the country too.
Bon apetit!

The Prairie Homestead

www.ThePrairieHomestead.com

My wonderful sister-in-law (thank you Karen!) sent me a link to this awesome blog called The Prairie Homestead (www.theprairiehomestead.com) and here I discovered a kindred bohemian farmgirl.  I immediately purchased Jill Winger's two eBooks (Your Custom Homestead: Awakening a Fresh Vision of Homesteading and Natural Homestead: 40+ Recipes for Natural Critters & Crops).  She also has a free eBook called The Essential Homestead: Successfully Using Essential Oils in your Home, Barnyard, and Beyond, which I also downloaded.  The next day I read Your Custom Homestead from cover to cover in one sitting!

 Jill defines a modern take on homesteading as "a mentality that strives to go back to a simpler way of life and celebrates wholesome foods and the natural world.  It's a mindset that resurrects time-honored skills and appreciates the simple, yet meaningful, pleasures in life." 

She continues on to identify 21 steps to creating your own custom homestead regardless of whether you live in a high rise building in a big city (like moi) or on 100 acres of raw land.  With her permission, I will chronicle my own journey through these 21 steps here on this blog.  I would love it if you joined me as you discover how Jill's ideas can make your own homestead adventure more meaningful for you.  Send me a note, write a comment after each post, and by all means check out the inspiration of Jill Winger on her blog!

I also posted a link to her recipe for homemade liquid dish soap on my Homestead Inspiration board on Pinterest. Once I have all the ingredients, I will let you know how I made out.  Stay tuned!

An Invitation to the Bohemian Farmgirl Blog

Fine Art by Elise Mahan available on Etsy

I have come to realize that blogging is like a constellation--connecting stars until something magical appears.  As someone who desperately wants to create a beautiful life in the country, I am not very attracted to all things technology, particularly social networking.  I'm much rather meet up with someone in person in a local bakery and share ideas over coffee and crusty bread.  I also fluctuate in mood between wanting to isolate in nature for days at a time like a bear in hibernation and longing to connect with other bohemian farmgirls who share the same creative passion.  ...Which is precisely why blogging is so perfect.  Here I can do both, and I don't even have to fix my hair.

As I read back on my journal pages for the past year, I see just how much clarity I have gained.  I know what I want.  I know what I don't want.  I know what I will do and what I won't do.  While my family and I are busy with this stage of our city lives, I have been able to explore ideas before making any major investments, commitments, or decisions.  Now the steps are clear, and with each new insight, things feel more right.  So moving to New York City hasn't been a step in the wrong direction; it has been a necessary part of the evolution of my dream.

So here is my invitation to you:  Do live on a farm or homestead, or imagine doing so?  Does the perfect day include creating and hiking or napping under a tree?  Do you long to grow your own food and serve it up on a beautiful handmade plate?  Do you count sheep, goats, chickens, llamas, cows, and bees before you go to sleep?  Do you wish you could make cheese, butter, soap, yarn, and maple syrup in your kitchen?  Do you scour flea markets and vintage shops for things you can repurpose or revive? Do you look forward to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival more than Christmas?  Do you want to do any and all of these things in a dress you made yourself?  If you said yes to one or more of the above, please, become a star in my constellation.  I am looking forward to meeting you.