Welcome to the newest addition to the Half-Acre Homestead offerings: our blog!

I say “our blog” because this creation has come directly from requets from the Half-Acre Homestead community. I have had requests from community members who were interested in an offering on the website that has the feature of an RSS feed. This blog has one!

Here it is: https://halfacrehomestead.ca/blog.rss

If you use a feed reader or news aggregator like Feedly, it is likely that you can enter the blog into your feed using this address:

https://www.halfacrehomestead.ca/blog

As well, I have had some requests from community members for content related to seed purchasing and garden planning. What a perfect time of year for this. I immediately thought of the blog as a natural way to share my ideas with the community quickly and easily.

I gave some thought, too, to my vision for this blog. What do I hope it will offer you, my reader? I hope that this blog will plant some seeds in the hearts and minds of my readers. That is where the title comes from: Sowing Seeds for the Half-Acre Homestead Community.

The photo is a picture I took of my own organic heirloom Waltham Butternut Squash seeds in the shape of a heart, placed my live edge bench that sits below my picture window in my eco-cabin.

I hope that this blog will offer you four seeds for your journey.

Seed #1: Inspiration

The word “inspiration” comes from the Latin verb “inspirare,” which means “to blow into or breathe upon.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, inspiration has now come to mean “something or someone that gives you ideas for doing something,” or even “a sudden good idea.” I hope that this blog offers lots of good ideas for your journey.

I love that the word inspiration is connected to the meaning of breath. I use my own breath as a tool on a daily basis: to ground myself, to calm my mind, to breathe in the smell of the glorious cup of morning coffee I drink overlooking the homestead.

Breath connects us to life. When we breathe, we are literlaly taking our environment inside of us in order to live. How cool is that?!?

Seed #2: Connection

 This blog has grown out of connections created by the Half-Acre Homestead community. I am looking forward to many more ideas coming to the blog through the community that is now growing. So, we are connected to each other and sharing ideas. That is great!

There are other kinds of connection, too. How about our connection to self? I have found that my journey towards self-sufficiency has also been a journey in learning about myself. Striving for a simple “no frills” life has meant that I have removed a lot of “layers” to get down to the basics. Who am I am my core? How do I want to live my life? I have learned to be my own friend on this journey.

Seed #3: Growth

EVen though I have been planting seeds for so many years, the miracle of life never fails to amaze me. You take this little thing (sometimes teeny tiny!) and put it in dirt, give it some water and put it in the sun…..then, these little miracles rise up out of the soil, little green lives that somehow know how to become…a bean plant….a squash. Every year, I celebrate the moment that my first seedling sprouts up. Life is a miracle!

When I think about my own journey over the past six years…..without a doubt, my greatest growth has come from my greatest struggles and challenges. After facing personal loss, I persevered with living off-grid while designing and building my eco-cabin. Without the difficulties I have faced, i would never have learned just how strong I am. I never gave up. I reached for my dreams. I hope that this blog will offer you seeds that inspire and feed your own growth as a person. I hope that you will find out, like me, that you are capable of more than you ever imagined!

Seed #4: Healing

 Healing can come from many sources. In my own life, I have found great healing in my journey towards self-sufficiency. Partly, this has come from improving my own connection to my self, as I mentioned above. Healing has also come to me through improving my connection to nature. On the Half-Acre Homestead YouTube channel, [Half-Acre Homestead YouTube Channel]  I share Moments in Nature on the homestead that I have been able to capture on film. By connecting with my awe for the miracle of life and the beauty of nature, I have enjoyed a great deal of mindful joy and healing.

I am so excited to share with you the Half-Acre Homestead model of self-sufficiency in the coming days. I created it to record my own healing journey and share it with folks just like you. There are roots that draw from the earth and build on our strengths. There are branches that reach towards the sky and help us reach our potential as people living on this beautiful planet. I share this model in the hope that it will provide similar healing and inspiration for others’ journeys. 

Celebrating the First Blog of Half-Acre Homestead!

 Hurray! It is launched and the first seeds are planted. I hope that you are as excited as I am about the seeds that this blog will sow.

As always, I welcome the input of the Half-Acre Homestead community. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and share your ideas and interests for future content. You can reach me on the homestead at welcome@halfacrehomestead.ca.

Thanks for reading!