Among the Homestead

The Art of Storytelling

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You must be curious as to what storytelling has to do with building a homestead. My answer is everything! A homestead is not a far off vision of what we will obtain when we have land, chickens, a productive garden or an income generating farm. I want to begin to redefine what a homestead is for our current and future generations. My blog is titled, Among the Homestead and I will be writing about topics related to homesteading. However, I will also write about topics that in the world of homesteading have nothing to do with building a homestead, at least in the traditional sense.

I want to leave a legacy to my kids, grandkids and beyond. I will do that primarily by telling stories. Stories that our told throughout this blog, my old blog @amongtherealm and verbally passed down through what I hope to be generations. Since my Dad’s passing in 2003, I became a husband and a father. My wife and my kids never knew my Dad. Some of the stories will be about him so my family can get a sense of who my Dad was. I will also tell stories of my childhood and the events that shaped me into the person I am today. At the core Among the Homestead is a homesteading blog, so there will be plenty of posts on homesteading projects, side hustles, growing food and permaculture.

A Magical Memory

Growing up I became interested in magic. I began to learn magic tricks at a young age. I poured countless hours into this art form. I am sure my parents were tired me of using them as audience members, but they never showed it.

One of my favorite magicians growing up was David Copperfield. Every year he came to Cincinnati to perform his magic show. When it came time for his Cincinnati show, me and my Dad would always attend. It was a big deal for us. It was the one thing we always did together no matter what. We began the evening with eating somewhere downtown, which was a rare occurrence. Arriving at the theater, I could feel the magic in the air. But it wasn’t only because of David Copperfield. It was also because this was a special event that me and my Dad did together. David Copperfield was a great storyteller. As you watch below notice how he used magic and stories together to create a powerful piece of magic. The second video, has his commentary with some audio commentary about the story behind the trick.

Stories + Homesteading

You still might be wondering what telling stories and homesteading have in common. Stories are powerful and bring about connection. A well crafted story can transport us into another world or bring people into ours. Homesteading is a part of our life and hopefully that grows over time along with new stories. Stories can enrich our lives and bring us together. That is what I hope to accomplish with this blog and our homestead. Enriching our life and others along the way. My Dad impacted a lot of people, read more about his story, The Dirt on the Ball Field.

Ken Burns clip: On Story

The Future of the Modern Homestead

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Victory gardens were encouraged for families during war time.

We all have likely heard the word homesteading in our daily strolls through social media. Is homesteading a new fad that people want to pursue? Do they know how to incorporate that daunting word into their already busy lifestyle? Probably not, however there was a time in the past when everyone was encouraged to have a homestead.

Victory gardens were an idea from the past that encouraged self reliance and community. We all wish other fads from the past would have stayed preserved in the time they lived, however building a homestead is something everyone should be encouraged to start. This idea of homesteading is the opposite of what’s in place in today’s world. How do we remove this stigma that comes with homesteading that we need lots of land or time? It is true, certain tasks require a lot of time and land, but there are simple tasks that a family could do to make a tiny homestead work for them. I don’t have actionable advice yet on what that might look like. It will be different for everyone. As I build my homestead, with simplicity in mind, hopefully some ideas will present themselves and I will chronicle them on this blog.

Victory gardens, were used to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil “morale booster” in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.

From Wikipedia

Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex,
the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.

Bill Mollison

The Dirt on the Ball Field

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A signed baseball from my Dad. It reads, “Good luck Andy, Dad”

My Favorite Christmas

One year for Christmas, I wrote my Dad a poem about him being my baseball coach. I cut a baseball in half and placed it in a shadow box and printed the poem out and placed it on the felt backing. The excitement on my face, was barely contained as he ripped open the paper that hid my favorite gift. The wrapping paper, glided to the floor and his eyes gazed upon the words that I had carefully written for him. In this moment, he looked at me, with tears in his eyes. My heart was full. “Merry Christmas, Dad.”

My Favorite Gift

You probably assumed that this was my favorite gift to give to my Dad. It definitely was that, however, my favorite gift was what my Dad gave to me to pass on to my kids. The gift of being a good coach on and off the field. Even though he is not here with me in the physical sense, the closest my kids will come to knowing my Dad is through me. Thanks Dad, for being my coach and guiding me to be a father to my kids. I wish you were here to show them how awesome you would be as a their PawPaw.

Giving the Gift to my Kids

That day is here, I have a son and a daughter and while I haven’t been their coach in sports, I do coach them in many other areas. Do I fail? Absolutely. Am I perfect? Not by long shot. This poem is a reminder to be a good coach to my kids and hopefully someday they will feel the same way about me as I did with my Dad.

The Baseball Poem

There is one favorite memory I will always cherish from my childhood. It is that age-old game of baseball. I remember stepping out on to the field for the first time in my new uniform and those brand new cleats that I had to have. The grass always seemed to be freshly cut even though most of the time it wasn’t. The dirt on a field always seemed to be placed just right for a great game of ball. The lines of chalk neatly outlining the diamond were ready for the first runner to follow. I loved the smell of baseball. It is one of the smells that cannot be described; you just know that smell. I played ball from t-ball through junior high school. I learned all there was to learn about the game from my Dad. From rally caps to game day losses, my memory of this game will never be forgotten. I will remember this game especially because I could look in from the field and see my Dad in the dugout. My Dad was the head coach of our team. He treated everyone fairly including me, his son. He was a great coach. He brought our team to victory one season. We had an undefeated season and went on to play in the tournament. But as long as my Dad was the coach every season was a victory.  My Dad taught me to always give the game my best effort and win or lose; the game would give me back all I gave and more. My Dad was right. My Dad, my head baseball coach is my hero. It is not because he was my coach but because he is my Dad. I hope and pray I can be as good a dad and head coach to my son.

Love,

Your Son the Left Fielder

To learn more about the kind of person my Dad was read the blog posts posted below.

My Dad the Coach

A Trip Down Memory Lane

The best coaches don’t do it for the money, they do it to ensure their players receive the same values and experience sports once gave them.

Anonymous

The name on the front of the jersey represents who you play for, the name on the back of the jersey represents who raised you. Do them both justice.

Anonymous

Defining our Pathways

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I have intentionally chosen the name of our little homestead to reflect what I want to constantly be building into my family and my life. That name is Pathway Homestead. The idea is that we all have one major pathway, which also connects with other small pathways that branch off the main one. Throughout life our main pathway intersects with many other pathways (other people, work/life, community, spiritual) which grow as we do (I will dig deeper into that later).

Consider a trail in the woods, there is one main trail with many branching off to other areas of the woods. Some of the trails can lead to danger/risk, amazing views/experiences or both. But if we always stay on the main path we will never know what is out there for us to experience. In the photo above, there are two trails branching off a main one. Did you notice the sign? What is missing? There isn’t any direction on the sign. That choice is left up to the hiker. Similar to life, there are many pathways we can choose. Often times there is not a clear direction marked for us.

As I try to discover my pathways, listed below are some of the ideas for this blog and the new pathways I will be exploring as this journey begins for me and my family. It is a work in progress and nothing is definitive yet, but it is a start!

  • Mission statement
    • Pathway Homestead establishes and manages simple sustainable systems and landscapes as a pathway to restoration for individuals and intentional communities.
  • Revenue Model
    • Pathway Homestead profits from four primary revenue streams; food production via multiple urban farms, plant, tree and seed propagation, permaculture design consultation utilizing our unique pathway design model, and educational opportunities/events. 
  • Tag Lines
    • Creating/connecting new pathways to connect you back to simple living.
    • Learn. Engage. Impact.
    • Helping you to design sustainable pathways to living a simple and happy life.
    • Helping you to discover your pathway to healthy and sustainable living.
    • Learning together to build a simple, yet resilient life. 
  • Other Ideas
    • Helping you to find your path within your homestead.
    • Cultivate the desire to learn.
    • Build a family team around homesteading with a outward focus and living a simple life. 
    • Build a legacy for my kids to expand on. For example, a homestead business that supports multiple streams of income. 

Occasionally, I will link to previous blog posts from my old blog titled Among the Realm. I wrote a post when I was on my travels in Honduras, about Finding my Path, which goes along nicely with this post.

Sitting at our back doorsteps, all we need to live a good life lies about us. Sun, wind, people, buildings, stones, sea, birds and plants surround us. Cooperation with all these things brings harmony, opposition to them brings disaster and chaos.

Bill Mollison, Introduction to Permaculture

Making the Most of my Dash

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make the most of your dash

We all have a beginning and an end. That beginning is marked by a four digit number and the end will also be marked the same way. In the middle of those two numbers, sits a dash. That dash, although small on paper signifies your life. It signifies my life. The nagging question in my mind is, what am I doing to live the best dash possible? I was introduced to this idea from The Survival Podcast. I was also introduced to the idea of starting my own business and discovering what I want to do with my dash. As I move forward with this blog, I will begin to unpack what that actually means for my life.

This blog, titled Among the Homestead is the start of a journey to making the most of my dash. This is the beginning. My wish for you is that you will stick around with me on this journey to the end and learn about making the most of your dash.