A quaint little business on Main Street in a small town. It’s the stuff Hallmark movies are made of. The historic building, creaky floors, foot traffic, nostalgia, community… we loooove to romanticize it. After reviving the oldest operating soda fountain in the state of Wyoming, I can tell you firsthand that yes, there is something deeply meaningful about bringing an old place back to life. Yet, like most things we ...Continue Reading
The Cage Was Never Locked
I saw a quote the other day that said something like: “Mid-life is when you finally do the things your sixteen-year-old self wanted—but stop apologizing for it.” My first thought: Hell yes. My second thought: But why do we forsake our first loves to begin with? Why do we tell ourselves the dreams planted in us from birth aren’t meant for us? How do we get ourselves into these pickles where we wake up one day and ...Continue Reading
What the Hell Happened to Homesteading?
I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while… At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old gatekeeper, I haven’t... However since I’m forty now and have seemingly lost my fear of saying things… I’m going to say it today. I’ve hinted at this in a few recent posts and podcast episodes, but it feels like time to put it in one place: After fifteen years of promoting and advocating for the homesteading movement, never in a ...Continue Reading
On Being Blissfully Ignorant
Lately I’ve been finding great joy in not paying attention to things. Not all things. I’m still reading books and working on skills and learning new stuff. I mean the other category of things. The halftime show(s), the latest political dumpster-fire, what-I’d-look-like-as-an-AI-caricature, who-wore-what to the Grammys type of things. I’ve been letting all of that slide right past me. And it’s ...Continue Reading
The Gift of Not Belonging
I’ve never really belonged. Not in the dramatic, “nobody understands me” way. More in the quiet, lifelong way—like I’ve always been standing half a step outside of whatever circle I’m supposed to slide into. It started simply: I was a shy kid. Then I became the weird horse girl. (Still am…) Then I was the homeschooled weird horse girl, which is… a cringey niche within a niche. Then as a very young ...Continue Reading
