And I am back! YES!

Hello!!! Oh I am so so so happy to be back! It has been such a long time with no outlet to discuss the homestead farm or my life on it. So much has changed. The blog kinda broke down and became unusable for a while. Then I had to wait years for the person who can fix it to fix it. Thank you Dr. Farmer Moomin! I can type, but I am not much use with technology beyond my grasp and high speed use of a keyboard. For stuff much beyond that it takes someone who is far more technically minded. I never was. My brain has always been more creative and systemic in thinking understanding how societal networks and such fit together and impact each other. Figuring out how to create anything I might want or need. I don't know that I write well, my grammar is certainly garbage and I am sure for this reason there is a circle of hell for dyslexics because I have lived in it for some decades now. But I do my best.... But yes, finally back again, and at least trying to write as a semi creative exercise, to chronicle homestead life.

There have been many changes. As a result of Covid and many changes over at ABB that we are finding untenable as a farm. We have decided not to host as a B&B for a while. Maybe permanently. We haven't decided yet. But for the moment, we are operating only as a small homestead farm in New England. We are quite comfortable in this capacity since the pandemic, as hosting became dangerous to our health and welfare. And then post pandemic most of the world seems to have lost it's mind... Which also causes me trepidations about welcoming strangers to come stay at the farm for days and days at a time.

Everything changed during covid for most people, I think. For us as well. What we planned to spend 20 years doing became something we decided to try to massively speed up the time frame on. As a result here at Wildflower, many new things have been coming home to roost, and many old things have gained in importance. I still love my canners and am working gradually to get more comfortable with them. The dehydrator is still a good friend. But we have added some tools, some major tools. Tools I hope to cover in more detail in future posts but I will mention them here. A pool went in after one summer of heat and fumes from Canadian wildfires, almost caused my demise in August while I was alone here on the property for several weeks. I had to abandon the gardens or perish from the heat due to lack of a cooling station outside. We fixed that. So now alone or not, I am safe in my gardens and I shouldn't have to abandon the garden that allowed us to avoid grocery stores more so than other people, during a pandemic. YAY! While it is a safety device, I won't lie, it also makes a very pleasant toy to enjoy even when dangerous heat isn't the issue. So I am truly glad we did this.

Another thing we finally did... After ten years of fighting for it, and after a massive pandemic that left many dead, and a supply chain that garbaged out and is still selling mold and food with no shelf life at least here in MA... I was finally able to score a greenhouse. Oh, this isn't any greenhouse. It is 14 by 18, built onto the side of the house. It is wired for electricity, has a heating system, water is hooked up out there. Then on one side is a raised bed and the other side is dedicated to a potting bench my mum got for me and several shelving units my dad got for me that have lights that I can use to start plants for the spring garden. The purpose of the giant raised bed, is to feed us through the winter months, so that we can continue even in a post covid world to save money and or avoid grocery stores as much as possible. Because the greenhouse has electricity, it has achieved a name of it's own. The pool as yet remains unnamed. We call the green house The Night Club, because of all the light it puts out when you drive back up the long driveway in the evening after dark.

Things have changed... We also have acquired and incubator for egg hatching, and some new interior improvements for storage as well. Since the end of Covid, Dr. Farmer Moomin, is more in the office than out of it. So his giant home office is no longer necessary. He has returned to the little room upstairs and I have inherited the giant downstairs room he was using. it has become my studio space. I love it. I set up the chicken hatchery there, all my creative equiptment and materials live on newly minted shelving.... And there is a futon where I can sit and work on the blog. It pulls out into a guest bed making it possible to still have friends and family come and visit the farm even in the event our primary second bedroom is occupied by a long term tenant. I also enjoy hanging out there to study and listen to lecture series through various continuing education platforms online right by one of the three woodstoves that heat the house through the winter months. It has been great to be warm and cozy while doing some self growth through education. I did a study last winter of folklore through The Carterhaugh School, which I loved and highly recommend. Studied botany and wildlife tracking through lecture series offered by Wondrium which seems to be part of The Great Courses. I got involved with The School Of Traditional Skills, to help me continue to grow as a homesteader.

I also enjoy reading in my studio. I have been on an Alaska, kick lately. Just finished one about the Cobbs, the last pioneers of Alaska. Also read both of the books about lake Skilak written by Bonnie Ward. I have also been reading some great books on gardening and homesteading that have nothing to do with Alaska. There was one set in Minnesota I believe it was, that was about a lesbian couple that went to farm, one a writer and one with a dream, their exploits with sheep. It made me feel so so so much better. To discover other people who went out to do this and succeeded but went through quite a bit of hijinx along the way. It was hilarious, and I couldn't put it down. In some respects I liked it better than the books about Alaska. Why? I guess it was just one of the only secular non religiously biased homesteading books I have ever read. I love the adventures people had in Alaska, the adventure for me is so inspiring... But all the Jesus, forced on me to get through the adventure... Yeh, not so enjoyable, while clearly important for the authors lives.

Homesteading is diversifying. It is an unbelievably wonderful way to live. But it needs to make room for the slightly less traditional. For example my background is in a Buddhist hippy commune full of international Buddhist hippies... Hearing the endless droning on about Jesus from these otherwise wonderful books, does nothing for me personally.

While I know some love it, more and more people are coming to homesteading not to live a Godly life, but to live a healthy life of adventure and personal growth. To be in harmony with nature. Even the pagan community has been turning to homesteading of late. It would be nice to see this community expand not for sissies. But for hardworking people who are a little less traditional in the God and Guns department. People get into homesteading now for so many reasons, to avoid grocery bills and live less expensively, to create a long term situation of independence they can pass on when they go, to grow and eat organic, for some peace and quiet but in this case the joke is on them. Or so the guinea hens keep telling me, or at least the joke is on me when it comes to peace and quiet as a guinea hen keeper... Some come to this way of life for the freedom that comes from avoiding society... So very many reasons drive people to this way of living. Young people too are beginning to return. For the organic gardening and for sustainable living and a healthy place to start and raise families. It would be so lovely to see more publishers making room for stories that are more about the adventure and less about Jesus. Because everyone who does this life style no matter where they do it, is living a most amazing adventure. For sure for some God is part of that adventure, but for more and more, he has nothing to do with it. Yet, every book just about seems to harp on his all importance. Even still, every one of these wonderful adventures is food for my homesteading spirit and has something to teach me.

Many changes, much growth, the adventure continues here in MA, on my very own little homestead where I get to write the story to include who ever and whatever I want. I hope everyone will join me on that adventure yet again for a while, until next time the blog breaks down and takes 2 plus years to fix... There is a lot of old material here and much of it is a bit of a mess. We will put in an effort to repair it so it is easy to read over time. We will continue the story of tiny little Wildflower Farm, that does what every homestead does, it tries to be self sustaining. It has the struggles of other homesteads, to bring in the funds to keep it alive. Towards that end, we are building a little shop on this site to post some of the excess of whatever it is I am making. And money from the sales will be used to enrich the adventure of homesteading in Massachusetts, an area that is very high cost to live, and is not particularly friendly to farming. Still this state is home and we love it here. No matter where you live, homesteading is a way of life that brings you in contact with nature and unbelievably hard work. So we choose here where we are not so very far from friends and family. We choose her,e after another adventure that took the better part of ten years caused us to live as international nomads. We have found our home at least till we can achieve a much larger version of pretty much exactly this.

I have missed shouting into the void of the internet, telling the story of modern homesteading as I experience it. For me, a blog is a creative outlet. One that has been very powerful for me in just understanding and keeping track of what I am doing out here, and why I am out here, and of my own growth and change, and education surrounding this way of life. A chronicle of my adventures. A place where when I am done fighting the battles and doing the labor, I can sit back and enjoy how it has deepened my connection and friendship to this piece of land and made my house even more my BFF.

The void is vast. Before I left here to travel I had friends and people I considered close. Between time zones changing being a billion miles away for years on end, followed by moving out to a homestead farm, and followed by a pandemic... I have to say, the void truly is vast... But that is part of the nature of homesteading. So many people want to live this way of late it seems, yet they can't handle not being around other people for short spans of time. They can't handle not having that constant plug in with the hive of humanity, they need to be part of the unhealthiness that now seems to permeate everything from schools, to gun ownership, to politics, to just every social space... There is a certain amount of isolation that comes with this way of living. Shouting into the void is I suppose one of my methods to feel a little less alone without rejoining the masses in public territory where mental stability has gone to die due to short term loneliness from a pandemic. For just a moment the whole world experienced what it is like to be a prisoner of their home, something homesteaders live with pretty much constantly.

One thing I want to do with this blog, is tell the whole story. Not just how beautiful it all is. Or how high you get from defeating a bear. But the ugly, the disgusting, the nitty and the gritty, the isolation of having to be home due to snow, or naughty escape artist goats that can't be abandoned to take advantage of the lack of people present to further their evil escapist agenda. People come to this way of life all the time. They often last not long at all. Because the dream grows into a nightmare of isolation, and of the gross and less appetizing parts of homesteading. Adventure takes us through many different areas, from which we learn and grow. Homesteading is truly an adventure. Not just a trip to pretty fields of wildflowers. I love good homestead blogs, but they seem to come in two categories. Either they are selling the gross saying you have to be rock hard to live this way are you strong enough? Or they sell the dream. Homesteading offers both ends of the spectrum. Once, it was the only way people could live. So it doesn't need just the dreamers. It doesn't need just the hard asses. It needs the dedicated, the people willing to step up as necessary, the normal people just there to build a life. There is room within homesteading for all types, all varieties. Homesteading grows as a practice and way of life from the ingenuity of often those least equipped for this way of living forging a path for themselves within it.

Welcome to Wildflower Farm once again
Whoever you are, please know you are welcome.
My goals here are first and foremost to tell a homesteading tale.
Secondary goals include some small scale funding to help further the growth and development of the homestead. To make new connections or revive old ones with other people in a post pandemic world. Still other goals, include trying to help build a place for non traditional homesteaders, who like traditional homesteaders find themselves drawn to a life of independence, adventure, and healthier living closer to nature.
Welcome to Wildflower Farm, and thank you for reading.
Amanda of Wildflower Farm