Old Fashioned On Purpose

S15: E5: The PERFECT Place to Homestead

• Jill Winger • Season 15 • Episode 5

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I get the question constantly... "Where's the BEST place to homestead?" 

Listen in as I share my (probably surprising) answer, as well as the lessons I've been learning lately about community, flexibility, and leaning in.

Podcast Episode Highlights

  • Why this question seems to come up a lot lately (for others and myself)
  • My first casual response to this question...
  • My official answer to this question about the perfect place to homestead
  • The potential for people to adapt to conditions
  • Building ROOTS 
  • Thoughts on the current restlessness trend
  • What happens when you invest into a place
  • Pondering the different seasons in all of our lives
  • Thinking about creating and restoration
  • When the problem is the solution...
  • Final thoughts on this question

Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Episode:

Learn more about Air Doctor here: airdoctorpro.com

  • Use code HOMESTEAD to save up to $300 on your air doctor system

Podcast episode mentioned: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/tph_podcasts/season-12-episode-1-when-the-problem-becomes-the-solution-with-rob-avis

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD:


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Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome. Today on the show. I'm going to be answering a question that I get a lot, whether it's through email or social media or when I'm speaking on a panel at a homestead event, and the question is where is the perfect place to homestead? So the answer I'm going to give may surprise you and I'm guessing it's going to be relevant to your situation, whether you just bought a homestead, you're looking to move or you've been working the same piece of land for a while. So this topic has been on my mind a lot lately and I'm going to share why as we get into the episode. So let's dig in.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Old-Fashioned On-Purpose Podcast, the show where we look at what we have left behind as we have raced towards progress and how we can get the good stuff back. I'm your host, jill Winger. I've been living this homesteading slash old fashion lifestyle since back in 2008-ish way back before. It was cool and I love sharing what I've learned along the way and teaching some practical tips and skills as we go, all right. So sometimes on the show we do more practical topics, like in previous weeks. We've talked about whole wheat sourdough bread. We've talked about working dogs in the homestead mulch, how to zone your garden, things like that. Today we're going a little more philosophical, as I wanted to share something I have been really ruminating on a lot lately, partially because it always is my inbox, it's always in my DMs, and partially because it's just something that's really showing up a lot in my own life, this summer especially, and that is this question, this question of where is the best place to homestead, where is the perfect location? And I've always had this question come in, but I've gotten it a lot, especially lately, kind of since the COVID era, which really gave a boost to the homestead movement, we've seen more people move to buy land, we've seen people with a bigger desire to get out of more populated areas, and so I feel like there's this big transition still happening as people are moving and deciding they're going to make big life switches and things like that.

Speaker 1:

So whenever I get this question, my first response, selfishly, is to say Wyoming, of course, because I actually like it when people move into our area. I know that, unfortunately, sometimes you get negative attitudes oh, we don't want outsiders and we don't want people from certain states moving here. My perspective is actually different than that. I like it when we have new families and new folks move into our community. I think it's healthy, I think it's important. So I'm always like, oh, you should come to Wyoming, knowing that not everybody really wants to come to Wyoming because of weather reasons or other reasons.

Speaker 1:

But kind of beyond my first gut response, the real answer, the answer that I think is more relevant to this question, is maybe not so cut and dried. So my official answer to the question of what's the perfect place to homestead is that the perfect place to homestead doesn't exist. So there you go. How helpful is that? So let me explain, and let's just kind of think about this for a minute, because I feel like we can get so in the box and kind of pigeonholed with our thinking when it comes to locations.

Speaker 1:

So we have the northern states. Right, they tend to be wintry, with shorter growing seasons. Okay, we might go over to the Pacific Northwest. That's where I was born and raised. They have a lot of moisture, they have a lot of trees, but it's also pretty gloomy there and sometimes it rains too much and things mold and things flood. I remember growing up our basement flooding was a every couple year occurrence. Everyone's basements flooded. There was always flood somewhere, just like so much water, right. So it's something to consider. My parents struggled to get their garden in some years, because it's so cool, well into the growing season. Garden in some years because it's so cool, well into the growing season.

Speaker 1:

If we shift over to the Midwest the flyover states, if you will they have tornadoes, they have a lot of corn it's maybe harder to find those small farmsteads. We go down to the South and especially right now, I've been talking to some people back East and in the South and it's so oppressively hot and humid. Some people back back East and in the South and it's like so oppressively hot and humid and every time I go back that direction for a visit in anywhere near those summer months, I'm always just like such a baby about humidity. I like cannot handle it and I'm just like I don't know how people do it. I don't know how people do it. We, if we go over to the Southwest you know Arizona, new Mexico, well, that's also pretty hot. You don't have snow, but you've got cactus bugs and you're not going to be growing anything for a number of months throughout the year.

Speaker 1:

The Northeast I was just up in New York state a couple months ago for a conference Beautiful. But all the people talked about was how many regulations they have and the taxes and how limiting it is, with all the rules they have to follow on selling food or with their properties. Right, we go to the trendy states that everybody's trying to move to right now, which was like Tennessee, florida, texas, etc. Those are jam-packed with people. Land is very expensive. I was just in Tennessee at Rory Feek's event and I talked to so many people who were new to the area or had lived there a while and they're like oh, land prices are just through the roof because everyone's coming here so it can be hard to find the homestead property you want there. And then, of course, that leaves Wyoming, which is my favorite.

Speaker 1:

But people would complain that there's not a lot of people, which to some is good, to some is more of a detriment. There's not a lot of culture here in terms of the things and resources that you would have if you were in a more populated place. Now that could be, again, good or bad depending on your perspective, but it's a complaint. I hear a lot. It's cold and wintry and windy, so freaking windy, especially this year, the summer, and so you can kind of get my point right. We could pick apart any state in the union or any place across the world if we want to. And before you are pulling up your email to write me a message and get mad at me for criticizing where you live or your favorite region, know that.

Speaker 1:

You know my point is there is no perfect place, right? We get to decide what we want to put up with. You know it's funny because I have so many people from the warmer states or the southern states. They'll come to me and they'll say I don't know how you do it, I could never survive a Wyoming winter, I would rather die. But you know, on the flip side, they don't mind basically being housebound in their air conditioning for four months out of the year when the heat and the humidity is crazy. Contrast that with me. Right, when I travel to a place with humidity and heat, even just a little bit, I complain and I moan and I don't like how my skin feels and I can't wait to get back to my dry Western air, even though, you know, this winter a wind gust basically like physically smashed me into our dumpster because it was blowing so hard. So at the end of the day we get to pick our poison right and any place can be reduced to its stereotypes or its detriments, and I just think about that a lot. And so when it comes down to finding the perfect place to live or homestead or put down roots, you just have to kind of decide what is priority to you.

Speaker 1:

And one of the most interesting things I've noticed over the years just with our human propensities is a person can get used to almost anything, good and bad. Right, that can sometimes be a not great thing about our human wiring is sometimes we can get into negative situations or bad situations and we get comfortable there and we don't want to reach out. But the same is true for more positive scenarios where you know maybe the humidity or the wind or the weather or the regulations can feel overwhelming at first, but if you're committed and you're digging in, you can work around them, you can get used to that and really, at the end of the day, all of the regional differences aside, what matters most to us and our families and our homesteads and our legacies are the roots that we are choosing to put down. I love the word picture of roots because it's what we're doing physically in our gardens and in our pastures, building those stronger root structures, improving our soils. But we're also doing it with our families and our relationships and our legacies. Hey friends, so I'm interrupting this episode for just a second to share something pretty cool with you.

Speaker 1:

So I'll never forget the time many years ago when we visited a naturopathic doctor to talk about my husband Christian's allergies he's dealt with them since he was a kid and he's kind of just one of those people who tends to be allergic to pretty much everything. And the doctor's recommendations was to put in a air filtration system in our house, to stop working in dusty barns or outbuildings and to stop being around animals. And I walked away super frustrated because obviously, if you know us, that's just not an option. We're going to have the animals, we're going to have the barns, we're not going to go live in a sterile house somewhere in a big city house somewhere in a big city. So I kind of ignored those recommendations. But over the years since then I've heard a lot of other naturopathic doctors and people in that space talk about the importance of having some sort of air filtration in your home. I just didn't really know how to do that and I didn't like the thoughts of putting in a ginormous system that sounded really complicated and super expensive. So I was really excited to come across Air Doctor.

Speaker 1:

Air Doctor is a air filtration system that captures all of those super tiny contaminants that you can't see. Think things like dust, pollen, mold spores, pet dander, bacteria, viruses and even things like ozone gases and VOCs. It's this little unit. You don't have to hire an HVAC company to put it in, you just take it out of the box, plug it in and off you go, and it has this thing called an ultra HEPA filter that is proven to filter particles that are 100 times smaller than a typical HEPA filter. So it's kind of like a HEPA on steroids. So we have ours in our bedroom, because we spend more time there than any other room in the house, while we're sleeping, of course, and I love knowing that, at least for that period of time, especially during these summer months, our body is getting a break from the constant pollens and histamines and everything else that's floating around outside, and, quite honestly, it's making us a little bit miserable itchy eyes, runny nose, you know the whole nine yards. So I'm excited for you to give it a try If this is something you've been struggling with as well. Air Doctor comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you don't love it, you just send it back for a refund, minus shipping, and I have a promo code for you. If you use the code homestead, you can save up to $300 on your Air Doctor system. So head on over to airdoctorprocom that's A-I-R-D-O-C-T-O-R-E-R-O, airdoctorprocom, and use the promo code homestead to give it a try. Now back to our episode.

Speaker 1:

One thing I've also noticed and I'm not saying this is good or bad, this is just an observation but I've noticed that, especially after COVID era is that there's a lot of people who are constantly restless. They're constantly moving. You know they'll move across the country and stay there for a couple of years. Sometimes they're even moving across the world, across the continent. They'll move there for a couple of years and then they announce on Facebook I'm moving over here. And they stay there for a couple of years and then I'm like I'm moving over here. And I'm not saying that's wrong. Some people are wired like that. Some people are wired to be more nomadic and that's your jam, go for it.

Speaker 1:

But what I do see is I think sometimes people are thinking those big moves are going to find that perfect place, and what it really comes down to, in my opinion, is to stop fantasizing about greener grass somewhere else and instead to resolve to digging up the grass that you have right now in your yard or in your garden and you're planting something worthwhile. I know that's like the world's worst mixed metaphor. You're welcome for that, but anyway, it's not about greener grass, it's about cultivating what you have. And one of the most interesting phenomenons that has happened to Christian and I in our quirky little community is this idea that investing love and time into where you live and this can mean your home, this can mean your current homestead, whether it's a backyard or an apartment balcony, it can mean your actual community, it can mean your state like but investing time and love into wherever you are right now will change how you see it, and it's so fascinating change how you see it, and it's so fascinating For us.

Speaker 1:

Right now, we're in a weird transitional stage. We're not moving right. That's not why I wasn't hinting at that. We're moving somewhere. With the intro of this episode, I just thought about that. Some of you are probably like, oh my gosh, they're leaving. No, we're not leaving, we're not moving. But we're feeling like so many areas of our life are in this transition and right now, especially at the time of this recording, like we're in a season of Chugwater that's the name of the little town, the area where we live and we're being called. I feel very strongly to continue to invest in Chugwater, to dig deeply into Chugwater, and I kind of feel at this moment you know I talk a lot on this episode sometimes you just take action and you don't know the five steps in front of you, you just know the one. It's all you can see. So that's where you put your foot and that's very much where Christian and I feel like we are. And it's not a bad feeling, it's a feeling of excitement and I feel like there's interesting things working behind the scenes and coming. But, um, we're just being called to dig deeply and it's not so much a season of straight up homesteading for us.

Speaker 1:

I was looking at social media the other day. We all know that social media is like a hotbed of where we can get stuck in comparison, and I was looking at a lovely account from someone else and they just have the most beautiful homestead and garden and for a minute I was like, oh, I feel like I'm not homesteading enough right now. I feel like my homesteading enough right now? I don't. I feel like my homestead is less than in this season because, you know, we're still gardening, I still have the chickens and we're still doing things, but we are investing so much time and attention into our community and I realized that's not a bad thing, right, it's not a bad thing to have a season of more intense homesteading. It's not a bad thing to have a season of more intense community. It's just different and it's okay to lean into that. And so I've just been wrestling with this a lot and just kind of giving up my own expectations of what life is supposed to be at this moment and being a lot more flexible, which is hard for someone like me, because I'm like let's get this done, let's make it happen, and I'm still very action oriented, but I'm also feeling like I'm being told to just chill and go with the flow. So I don't know, but even within that, I'm continually in awe at how digging in changes.

Speaker 1:

I've shared before that Chugwater's an interesting place and so often when I share about it online, people tend to romanticize it. I think like it's Mayberry or just some charming little town and there are absolutely moments where I am like this is Mayberry. But there are other times where you know you drive through it for the first time. You're not going to see Mayberry. You may see the vultures that live on the silos next to the Zodafone. You may see the rundown buildings. You may see the tumbleweeds blowing across Main Street. But I see it through a different lens than I used to One of our latest projects.

Speaker 1:

Well, we still have the soda fountain, of course, and I shared a couple of weeks ago that I think we're just going to settle in to keeping that for a while, until the right buyer comes. I'm not gonna try to force a sale. I know people are a little bit skittish with interest rates and the election season and everything feels tumultuous, and so, until the right buyer comes, christian and I are really we've become really happy with the idea of just keeping it. I have a bunch of ideas. We're going to be changing the menu and adding a bunch of new things, so I've been sinking into that and learning how to go with the flow there.

Speaker 1:

But and I haven't shared this yet we invested with some partners on an old school building in Chugwater and we started the charter school. I have previous episodes on that and that's in an existing school building that's been used for a while. It's owned by the district that we rent from them. But there's this old school building. It's not beautiful, it's not a romantic architecture school building, it looks kind of like a prison. But it's been mothballed for five or six years. It's been unused and the district put it up for sale. So we decided to go in and invest on that with some friends to potentially use it for the charter school. We won't be using it immediately, but it has a ton of potential for our project spaces. It has a commercial kitchen, it has a huge old gym and a stage and a ton of classroom space. And so we have all these ideas.

Speaker 1:

And so, once again, christian and I find ourselves walking into an old kind of half abandoned building in this little town. This is now our third purchase like this and dreaming and thinking you know how can we take this legacy of this little place and steward it in a wise way, and how can we bring it back to you know how can we take this legacy of this little place and steward it in a wise way, and how can we bring it back to life and how can we revive it. And for some reason, that is like what we do and I feel like that's been put into my life over and over again is revive and restore and revive and restore, revive and restore. So here we are. We're now reviving and restoring a giant school building, which who would have thought? But you know, we're in there and it's got bugs everywhere and we got some flooring to fix and painting to do and vacuuming. But we were there one day with our friends who are helping us work on it and our kids went on this old stage and this building has been in use since the 40s or the 50s and the stage went on. This old stage and this is. This building has been in use since the forties or the fifties and the stage If you look under certain steps and different doors, there's signatures from previous classes and previous people who went there and there's so much legacy and so many memories in that gym and on that stage.

Speaker 1:

And our kids decided to put together because they have the run of the school building. Right, we're in there working in there and they're working with us and running all over and, um, they'll go down this. They'll walk down the street and go to the soda fountain and they'll walk to our friend's house. And that to me, is so special to have a town where I can trust my kids can just walk wherever. But anyway, they decided to put on a play and our kids were, you know, they had the lights and they were running. They figured out how to run the stage curtains and they did this cute little play.

Speaker 1:

And I'm like I looked at my friend and I'm like this is a fairytale childhood. And it's not because we live in a fairytale town, but it's because we've invested here and it's become something I never would have imagined. And it's not just because I'm tooting my own horn and saying we just did this magical thing, but it's like become more than the sum of its parts and it's one of the most magical things I've ever been a part of. You can just feel it. You can just feel the electricity in the air and I feel so privileged to be able to play a tiny part in it, even though I wasn't raised in this community, even though this, this community, has been kind of the butt of jokes in the area for a long time. You know it's the last place on earth you think this would happen.

Speaker 1:

And so I'm rambling about all this just because I want to encourage you, whether you are looking to move, whether you are have moved somewhere or you're just hunkering down in your current location and I'm talking homesteading, I'm talking community, I'm talking relationships Know that when we dig in, it really, really changes how we see things, and it doesn't have to be perfect when you start. And I think one of the most amazing things we can do as humans is we have the ability to make something special from almost nothing. Right, it's that birthright of a creator, and I talk about that in my books and I've talked about it here on the show. But when we're in that act of creation and restoration, it not only feels good, but something really special happens. And when you can invest wherever you are in your homestead, in your backyard, on your apartment balcony, in your local community and you can just have that vision, then you may be surprised where that takes you.

Speaker 1:

So you know, even in the midst of this quirky community where we have vultures downtown and well, there really isn't a downtown we have vultures on Main Street and we have a lot of wind, and a lot of people think we're crazy for living here. You know my kids have found friendships and activities. The older folks here we're not related to them but they treat us like their children and my kids like their grandchildren. They're grandchildren. I know all the local coffee guys by name and I get to tease them every time I'm at the soda fountain. We have created some amazing connections with dear friends who are now literally family to us. We are ride or die.

Speaker 1:

We're in this for the long haul, we're committed and that's something that's special and rare and if you can find people to do life with you and run hard like that's something worth fighting for. But that familiarity is born from years invested and I know that if we had kept jumping around, because we honestly there was a time after we bought our property and even before we bought it we were renting in this area We've tried to move away twice, not like really hard, but we had intentions to move away twice and we kept being. We were kept like being kind of brought back here, brought back to center, and every time we'd go, look outward to try to find, okay, well, we're going to find what we need elsewhere, in a different community, in a different state, in a different region, like the answer always was here, always was here. It was always right in front of us. And I'm not saying that's going to be the same exact story for you, but it's something to consider and time and time again, when I start to look for the answers outside, out here, the answer is actually in here with me or I already have the answer. I just didn't realize it. And for some reason, that lesson keeps coming back to me over and over and over again and I think again.

Speaker 1:

I've referenced this episode so many times, that episode with Rob Avis of Verge Permaculture, but he said the problem is the solution. The problem is the solution, and I think about it constantly. And that can be true in your gardens. It can be true if you're dealing with issues on your homestead, with your animals or your grazing. It can be true in your communities. It can be true within your life as you decide what your purpose is and if you want to start a business or how to keep growing and expanding. So it's just a fascinating phenomenon and I think that there are times when we need to move.

Speaker 1:

There are instances when moving to better soil where you can plant roots, both literally and figuratively, may be the right choice. It may be. I can't speak to your exact situation, but perhaps I just want to present the idea to you. Perhaps there are more instances where we're being called to improve our current soil, literally and figuratively. We're being called to dig in, to invest, to pour in energy, to cultivate relationships both with ourselves and the people around us and the land, and to commit for the long haul, because I have found personally in so many ways that when we cultivate that spirit of stick with it-ness, that's when things blossom in the most unexpected and beautiful ways. So that's my ruminations for today, friends.

Speaker 1:

A little bit of a shorter episode, but I just want to encourage you that perhaps the answers you're seeking are closer to you than you might already know. Seeking are closer to you than you might already know. So thanks for listening, thanks for being here, thanks for continuing to cheer us on from afar as we take on this chug water adventure. It's been so wonderful to meet those of you who come through and visit at the Soda Fountain. I'm not there all the time, I just want to set proper expectations.

Speaker 1:

So I know sometimes people come in and I miss them and I feel so bad. I'm not there all the time because I'm running around with many irons in the fire, but when I am there I love to connect with folks who come in and if I'm able to, I'll sign your books or we can take pictures. So if you see me in there, feel free to catch my eye and wave. I'd love to chat with you. But thank you for supporting us in that endeavor and so many others over the years, and I wish you all the best and all of the most wonderful challenges and adventures as you learn how to dig in in your own life, whatever that may be for you. So thanks for listening, friends, and we'll talk again on the next episode of Old Fashioned on Purpose purpose.