Why We Homestead: Our Journey into Closed-Loop Living

Tracing the Roots

Although a quick look through my family tree will tell you farming is in my blood, I didn't grow up this way. I was raised in suburbia and many who knew me back then have told me they were surprised when I dove headfirst into this lifestyle. Before 2019, my only real experience with anything farming adjacent could be summed up as the few years I spent horseback riding as a pre-teen and some desperately thirsty basil and mint plants on the balcony of my college apartment.

I think the signs were always there, though. After all, I spent most of undergrad studying biology. Three semesters in a row, I registered for the Medicinal Botany course at my university only for it to be canceled due to low registration numbers. When my Positive Psychology professor asked us to design our future lives, a small, sustainable farm was my plan C. The signs were there, but I had other lessons to learn before I was ready.

Building Intention from Scratch

Life has a way of getting you where you need to be. Over the years, as I explored my interests and hobbies, I circled closer and closer to homestead life. I fell in love with the idea of a more simple way of living. The more I paid attention, the more I noticed the waste in the world and the more called I felt to do something about it in my own life.

When my husband and I met and began building our life together, sustainability came up often. We dreamed of having space, chickens, a garden. Back then, it was a far off dream, and one that felt basically unattainable. I knew the power of nurtured intention even then, though, so I decided to start where I was and with what I had. I joined some frugal and small space homesteading Facebook groups, my first taste of what I now view as my tried and true crash course method for learning anything. I started checking Zillow with semi-regularity for listings over an acre in our area and learning about how to buy a home.

Growing with the Garden

At the end of 2019, the stars aligned for us. We closed on our 5.86 acre piece of heaven the day before Christmas Eve. In our first year, we added three raised beds, seven chickens, and five ducks. We said our vows in our backyard homestead wedding in October 2020.

Five years later, we are balancing over 15 raised beds, chickens, ducks, turkeys, quails, rabbits, honeybees, a garden we plant mostly from seed, a composting system that keeps our garden filled and nourished, a small apothecary operation, a burgeoning mushroom farm, and any number of miscellaneous creative homestead projects, depending on the day. We have built, hatched, brooded, fermented, seed started, baked, harvested, tinctured, extracted, and improvised our way into a more connected and sustainable way of living.

None of this happened overnight. We started as complete novices and we learned by getting our hands dirty and letting our curiosity get the better of us more often than not. Along the way, I have learned a lot about myself, about life, and about what is important to me. I have ridden the elation of a long-sought dream attained, and I have nursed the bitter disappointment of failure time and time again.

Rooted in Rhythm

Underneath it all, I think, the lesson I have learned most often is about gratitude and living in harmony within systems. The best systems I have found are the ones that draw on the boundless wisdom of the natural world. Cycles, not straight lines.

Closed-loop living is rarely about perfection or aesthetics; it is about approaching our limited time on earth with gratitude, respect, and resourcefulness. It is about drawing on the wisdom of the world and people around you as well as the technology and opportunity the present moment affords.

Here, I’ll be sharing essays and reflections from our homestead in North Florida - what we try, what we learn, and how we grow. You can expect to find motivation, tools, and resources for sustainable living and starting or planning your own homestead journey.

My path as a homesteader has taken me in many unexpected directions, from hurricane losses in our first year to our backyard homestead wedding to constructing the workshop of our dreams. I look forward to sharing some of those stories and hopefully to being a small part of the unfolding of yours.

A lunation is a moment in a cycle; it can be a bright full moon or a dark, balsamic night. Thank you for being here as the cycles unfold. Together, may we grow closer to life as nature intended; a little slower, a little closer to the earth, and a lot more connected.

Love & Light,

Lauren