One year ago Saturday, we arrived in Missouri, ready to begin our new adventures on our very own piece of land. Deciding to move to Missouri was an incredibly difficult process, but once we arrived, we dove right into the act of creating our new homestead: creating a garden, planting fruit trees, building a house.
As in any good adventure story, there have been roadblocks along the way. Last October, one week after we arrived in Missouri, Brian was diagnosed with cancer, which thankfully turned out to be one of the most treatable kinds, the tumor was removed with a fairly simple surgery, and he remains cancer-free. But still, we were floored. Emotionally and practically. I am a competent person, but Brian and I operate as a team. His strengths complement my weaknesses, and we each excel in particular areas. When one of us is down, and particularly when Brian is down, we feel the loss of our teammate acutely.
Saturday was a beautiful fall day, not unlike the ones we experienced last October. Windy, sunny, and just warm enough to be outdoors all day planting garlic, picking peppers, harvesting sweet potatoes, and working on the exterior siding. I had been looking forward to Saturday for days – almost like a birthday, or Christmas – with a sense of anticipation and excitement. Somehow it seemed very important to celebrate our first-year-in-Missouri anniversary, and truthfully, I had all sorts of ideas about how I would share the milestone here on the blog – photos of our homestead and what we had accomplished in a year – you know, that sort of thing. But life had other plans.
I was in town when I received the call: “Teri, I’ve had an accident. I fell off a ladder and dislocated my ankle.” I think my jaw might have hung down as my mind flashed through the impossibility of such a scenario. I mean, here we are, literally racing against the clock, housesitting until Wednesday in a warm, dry home, while watching the weather forecast shift to temperatures in the low 30’s and high 20’s, knowing that keeping two small children happy and comfortable in such temperatures is really not easy. How could we possibly work on the house when Brian could not even put weight on his foot?
(Rest assured, Brian will be fine. It does not look like a break, although his ankle is horribly swollen. He has a nice brace and some handy crutches. I’m thinking about getting him a little bell so he can summon me. Just kidding.)
Our neighbor Beth walked up our hill this morning and said, “I’ve been doing a bit of reconnaissance, and it looks like we have five people ready to work today, and possibly tomorrow.” And suddenly, people started to arrive. First Mike and Julia, our neighbors to the North, then Mary Beth, a new friend, then John. Beth put on her “forewoman hat” and began expertly guiding people towards appropriate tasks, while I moved boxes out of the way of the workers and began making snacks. Soon the house wiring was labelled, Mary Beth, John, and Julia had completed half of the prep work for blowing cellulose, and Mike and Beth were finishing the exterior siding. Brian cruised around on crutches answering questions, taking breaks to elevate and ice his foot.
I notice that when people talk about homesteading, there is a huge emphasis on “Self-Sufficiency.” Feed yourself, create your own power, collect your own water. And yes, these tasks are very important, particularly in this age of GMO crops and climate change. But in this year of homesteading in Missouri, I have come to recognize that the most important task I have as a homesteader is to create networks of interdependence in my community. Last week we helped raise Mike and Julia’s round pole timber frame home. This week they are helping us. John grows my pork and beef. I help educate his children. When someone needs help, we give, and when we need help, we receive.
Brian and I are challenged by asking for or receiving help. We are good at doing things for ourselves, and have fairly high standards. But our self-reliance is a strength and a weakness. Over the past year, we’ve been humbled several times, and have been given the gift of support and assistance from our community, without any expectation of reciprocation. This community’s commitment to interdependence is nothing short of amazing, and it has been so life-giving for us.
So that is what I want to celebrate today: community and interdependence. My neighbors here in Missouri, my dear friends in Oregon who call, write, email and hold me in their hearts, my family and friends across the country globe, and the many people I have met online, who have become yet another network of support and encouragement. Thank you all for sharing your gifts and yourself with me and with the world.
Love,
Teri
Teri
We’re reading one of the Little House books in 4th grade. I was explaining homesteading and mentioned that I have friends who are homesteading now in Missouri. We looked at the map and talked about different climates etc. After much discussion, one student asked, “Why are they doing that?” I laughed out loud and turned the question back on the class. Why would people want to do this in modern times, give up many modern conveniences and try to homestead? Here were some of their guesses;
They want to teach their kids how to survive in the wild.
The wanted to hunt wild animals.
They were homeless.
They wanted to spend less money in the store.
Oh, they thought it would be fun because Mindcraft (in case you don’t know, it’s a popular video game) is fun and in that game you have to build stuff and they wanted to build stuff.
It was interesting to hear their responses, but I felt at a loss for how to enlighten them about your motivations. I understand and admire your lifestyle, but to I opted out of addressing the environmental and social reasons with my class. Now I’m frustrated with myself. I don’t feel like I have to make them see your perspective, but your choices are so far removed from where my low-income students’ experiences are. Luckily, the pendulum in education is shifting back to allowing for more social studies and science which might give children a better background for making their own well-informed decisions as they become home-makers be it as homesteaders or not.
I read this and alternate between laughing out loud and wanting to cry! They did come up with some great reasons, but I know that what we’re doing is so far outside of the reality of so many kids. Perhaps I would add to this list in a way that might resonate with some of them:
* We wanted to live close to friends
* We wanted to grow our own food
* We wanted to live in ways that take better care of the Earth
* We wanted to spend less time at work, and more time playing with our kids
* We wanted to try to live with less debt (is that a concept that 4th graders understand?)
* We really enjoy doing things like knitting, raising animals, planting fruit trees, taking walks in the woods, making our own toys
I’m so happy to hear about your classroom discussion. Let me know if it continues!
Love,Teri
I’ll let you know how this discussion plays out. I intend to share your thoughts with my students.
Love, Heather
Great!
Dear Teri,
In class, we have been discussing perspectives and preferences with regards to playground behaviors and getting along. Today, I tied it back in with our discussion about my friends, Teri and Brian, and their choices to homestead. It was so unsettling when I last left that topic with them. I wanted them to practice seeing your point of view and respecting your preferences. My students were interested to hear that I had written to you about our class discussion. I shared your response with them. Thank you for helping me articulate your motives in a simple, kid-friendly way. I spent quite a while elaborating on your reasons for your lifestyle choice. I pulled up your blog and we looked at some pictures. I felt much better today and a lot less discouraged than last week when I fell short of what I had intended, which was to use you as a good example. The students are pretty fascinated by the concept, and your message did resonate with most of them on some level.
“Screen time” was what most of them felt they couldn’t live without. I’m thinking about having some discussions about how much time students average in front of a screen, with projected time over childhood years, and alternatives to screen time.
At the conclusion of our group talk, I offered to send comments or questions to you;
“What kind of chores do your children have?”
“Do you have electricity? What do you miss most if you don’t have it?”
“I want to do homesteading because of the information that you gave me.”
“I hope you like homesteading.”
“I can never do what you do, it would be hard to live without TV.”
“It sounds fun to homestead.”
As Thanksgiving nears, I miss you even more. Greg says, he does too. And he didn’t even make a sarcastic quippy remark about it… I’m still waiting for the gutteral, “Teri Page”.
You didn’t list the cliche phrase, “be the change you want to see in the the world” as one of your reasons, but you are living as a good example to many, and most importantly, your beautiful children.
Love
Heather
Oh, this brings such joy to me Heather! What a sweet, sweet moment for your students to experience. They are so lucky to have you as a teacher.
So, here are the latest answers:
Chores: my kids don’t have a set chore schedule right now, but they enjoy helping with many aspects of our homesteading life. Lately they have been helping with food preservation – cutting up apples and tomatoes – and also helping with the plastering inside our house. Sometimes they enjoy doing dishes. They also like taking care of the chickens and collecting eggs.
We don’t currently have electricity, although we will when our house is complete. We will have solar panels that will give us electricity from the sun. What I miss now, not having electricity, is having my computer at home, because it is harder for me to write on my blog or stay in touch with friends. But I really enjoy that we get to use candles at night for light and that it is very quiet at our house because there is no TV or radio.
(By the way, I don’t have a TV, but I occasionally watch TV shows on HULU or watch a movie :))
It is fun to homestead, and I really enjoy it. It is also hard work, but the kind of hard work that is very satisfying. I am happy to hear that some of you have a new interest in homesteading, and I encourage you to learn more about how you can homestead right in your backyard! Perhaps you can grow a small garden, or raise a small animal like a chicken or rabbit. Or visit a local farm or learn a new skill.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Teri
Yes! Interdependence! This topic has been on my mind a lot lately and I was planning to write a blog post about it this week. Thanks for sharing your views so eloquently. I hope your husband’s ankle heals quickly and completely.
Thank you! I look forward to reading what you’ve wrote. Share the link with me, if you wish!
Thanks for the inspiration. Here is the link:
http://www.makingshift.com/2013/10/creating-community-in-your-neighborhood.html
It is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing it with me!
Thia is beautiful, Teri! I totally agree with you that the most important thing is to have a networks – we need each other, God did not create us as loner.
Yes, so very important! Thanks for reading, Anna! I really loved looking at your blog today. So inspiring that you can grow so much in such a climate!
This is a great story. You are truly blessed. Congratulations on your one year anniversary. I can’t believe how much you two have done in just one year! Here’s to many, many more wonderful years on your beautiful homestead!
Thank you Vickie!
What a wonderful example of community! Thank you for sharing, I needed to read something positive and encouraging today!
Thank you for writing that. It is positive and encouraging to me to connect with others here!
Teri, that’s beautiful. I wish we would all focus on our interdependence more. It’s SO true that we need each other and ‘self-sufficiency’ has never really been possible for humans. It’s rare that we can ‘go it alone’ and like I said in our Visionary Mom team call yesterday, I often try to go it alone and one of the best things happening to me lately is that I’ve been reaching out to others. I am truly so much better with other people to lift me up and support me. That’s exactly what it sounds like happened to you guys this week, and I bet it was even more fun than doing all that work yourself.
It was a tad bit stressful having so many people around, but also fun. I made a big batch of ratatouille with pasta and all 12 of us sat down for lunch together – one of my favorite things. The ironic thing is that if Brian hadn’t hurt himself, I honestly don’t think we would have asked for help and would be feeling pretty overwhelmed right now!
I’m trying to come up with words that are good enough about your writing today…..magnificent?…breathtaking?…heartfelt?…heartwarming?
What it did for me most is make me feel better. Yesterday, I was tearing up a lot while going through my day, and I kept asking (as I did last October with the horrific cancer scare) Why NOW? Why THEM? Why AT ALL?
You guys are so blessed with those incredible people around you. And you ARE a team, the two of you. I’ve seen it so much over the years. We’re so very proud of you.
LOVE YOU!!! And good luck with the challenges—hoping for a fast healing, Bri.
Thank you! He’s already doing better. Lots of wonderful people to help us out.
I love this post… me and the hubbs are thinking about the possibilities of going “off-grid” on the new 31 acres of paradise we just purchased. I love the thought off ”self sustainability” and not having to rely on commercially produced ”food’ and I use that term loosely- because honestly its not food at all. I dream of extending our little herd of nubian goats, and raising more chickens, turkeys, and rabbits than we are able to now… and having the DREAM FARM DONE!!! We plan to build a house, and I know that will be a true test of my patience because, I am not natuarally a patient person… LOL!!! But we will get there some day- and your blog is such an inspiration to us, and to me particularly!!! I feel the need to step back, and examine the ”ways of the world” and realize that is not how I see my life. I want the freedom to live life on my own terms- and my FARM BECONS TO ME!!! 🙂 It means fresh food… it means safety- because I can provide for myself… it means peace of mind, and I simply cannot wait to get started- trying our hand at homesteading!!!!
Congratulations on your new land! It is so exciting to dream and plan, and so hard to wait for it to all be just as you’d like. But the journey is so rewarding, so watching each piece of your homestead unfold, and knowing that you’re creating your dream is so much fun. Enjoy!
This one elicits a “wow” on about six different levels…and a “congratulations”, and a couple of “phews!”
Yes, indeed! It sure feels that way too!
Hi Teri,
Your post made me cry! I am so glad you are part of such a community. I watch your adventure (for lack of a better word) unfold with such interest and admiration. I am not ready to become a homesteader but I am fascinated by the process. I learn much here at Homestead-Honey. Hoping Brian heals fast and that you stay warm! Your children are beautiful and growing like weeds! You wouldn’t recognize Cam…he’s almost 6 feet tall! – Wishing you all the best and keeping you in my thoughts! – Karen
Aw, you are so sweet Karen! THanks so much for your kind words. I read along on your Facebook posts about how the kids are doing, and how much they are growing. It is crazy that Cam is 6 feet! I still sometimes think of him as a sweet little 3rd grade soprano!
Love to you all!
Teri
Amen!
Thanks Dana!
Teri, thank you so much for sharing this journey with all who read your blog. You are allowing me the gift of watching amazing things that are possible when you live with wild abandon. So glad this has been such a year for you. Take care, Elizabeth
I’m so glad to have people alongside me, offering me support through this blog!
Thanks so much for sharing!