
The sky was bright and the trees smelled beautiful as the fragrance of the woods mingled with the fragrance of the spring earth…. That smell that makes me giddy with a sense of joy that I only experience when I can smell the spring earth, ripe for planting. It’s the fragrance of what all of us call our home. The fragrance of everything that matters and sustains us.

On a homestead, home, as a concept becomes far more significant than it seems to be to most people. The majority of which take it for granted. Homesteaders, understand home is a concept that is shared not just by all people but by all living beings that walk this earth. Yes, home may vary and mean something a bit different for each species walking our larger shared home. Still, everything alive has a concept of home.

Homes, don’t just exist or appear by magic. One of the key activities of homesteaders is making a home not just for ourselves, but for the living things we keep. Also for the living things that live wild, we care for and create shelter by caring for their nitches within nature to keep their populations healthy. Dr. Farmer Moomin, has just built us a new chicken coop for some pullets we hatched a few months back. He gave them perhaps the greatest gift anyone can give to anyone else. A secure, safe, sheltered place to feel comfortable and at peace.

Watching him work, made me think about the world. That is the thing about homesteading… No matter how isolated you are, you are still part of what I like to call the sangha of samsara. Or I suppose another way to say it would be the collective of the living. But it loses certain features in translation…. So it isn’t quite accurate to the way I think of it. But close enough I suppose…

Living here doesn’t put you outside the sangha of samsara. So even as a homesteader, what happens all around our shared home the earth, touches you. No matter how independent you are…. You can’t help but feel this sense of horror at watching people lose pieces of their home. For example, whales as plastic takes up more and more space in the ocean. Or, people in Ukraine, losing their homes to Russian bombs. The loss of home is traumatic… Much of what we do on a homestead, is build and repair the homes of the living things we keep. We do this, because they are part of our family. We do it, because we build our self sufficiency in part on their backs just as they build theirs on ours.

Of late, I feel like all I have been doing is watching human beings tear each other’s homes down. Exposing each other to the harshest that nature and the world can throw at them. It was so meaningful therefore, to watch this coop get built. Someone actually doing what we are here to do for all other living things we share this earth with. Building them a home. A secure place where they can feel safe and comfortable, in a world that seems to be ripping itself apart. It reminded me of who I want to be. What my purpose is. Why I am here. Why I am homesteading.

Homesteading, has the power to bring out the best in us. Not just the most independence in us. But the most compassionate self. The self that spends it’s time building for others. The self seeking to create a better life not just for us, but for all the living things we share our life with. I know homesteaders know how to do this. There is a culture of such helpfulness within this community. Yet… More and more of late, I am concerned watching this community as it cheers while human beings are dragged from the homes we know hold so much value for all living things. I have seen a meanness of spirit, that makes my skin cold. This community, is better than what it seems to be deteriorating into. We are the ones who build houses for chickens. Surely, we can find a way to create homes for children fleeing war zones and other horrible circumstances. Surely, we can shelter the most needy in our society. We are homesteaders. For the last 200 years, there has been nothing we have failed to do. No challenge that has beat us. Look at the amazing home we have built full of rights and freedoms. So where did we lose ourselves? Perhaps, it is time to turn off the social media or spend less time with it, and refocus ourselves on what homesteaders do, and do more of those things. Reclaim our minds from bad actors destroying for so many, that thing we value so much.

Watching my husband build this coop was such a reminder of who I am and who I want to be and what it means to be a homesteader, the values. It is not just your own home you build. True homesteaders never stop building. For their animals, for their communities, for those in need of a home. That is what being a homesteader is about. It is a drive and a sacred promise to show up to repair and build what you can to create a home for any you can. Be they live stock, or people coming to you in need. We aren’t just the builders of homes, we are homes, shelters that protect others from the elements. Anyone failing to be that, is failing to homestead. So many amazing homesteaders full of conviction have been marching lately. So many homesteaders in California, have been standing their ground against the US marines acting peacefully, as a shelter for those who need one. Though they may have no land, may have no traditional homestead skill sets. They may not even claim homesteader as a part of their identity. Yet I am in awe of people like these brave souls, being the shelter the home for those being dragged out of the one they once took comfort and safety from. I am in awe of my husband’s ability to use hammer and nails, and that he would put in the time for a group of chickens of no real consequence… This little coop came out amazing, the chickens are happy. I can’t help but think about these things as all around me people are dragged from their homes and sent off, exposed, into danger. This used to be a nation of homesteaders, people who understood the value of home. Watching this coop go up, is such a reminder of the importance of building and being a home. I hope more homesteaders can see in this coop, a wake up call, a reminder of who we are and what we are supposed to stand for. Because we still can. Not just for chickens, but for all living things, the entirity of the sangha of samsara.
Thank you for reading
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm