Dear Hive Homesteading Friends,
At long last I (actually, we!) have a homesteading story to begin;our adventure started a few days ago, and the seed is already sprouting vitalicious roots and shoots....
What does it take to make a dream come true – to have it come fully to fruition? For it to endure and to bring the riches that we wish for - that we truly merit?
For 
Then as if from nowhere it rose up out of the landscape - and we knew immediately that it was for us - even just from the track leading up to it: “This is our track!!” I exclaimed excitedly to Vincent, as we were signalled by the soon-to-be-ex-owner, to park our car and get in his, for the last part of the journey, over lumpier rocks….
What does it take to fully form a vision and a feeling of the heart and soul? What are the steps that the Universe wants from us, before it will relent and present us with this veritable (potential!) paradise??
For now, sitting back at the Arthouse kitchen table, as we clear up after the first of many ‘goodbye lunches’ with a dear Guardia Sanframondi friend, I can think of some main themes to share with you here: the clarity of the prayer seems core. The keeping-up-of-spirits in the form of deep self-care also seems vital. And the consistent calmness of nerves, to not hastily jump into something that isn’t quite for us.
Even a couple of days before, we were super-into a glorious cottage on a round hillside near Poggio Sannita – even with all the drama of the corner of the house being compromised, the hillside in front having subsided at some point (!!) and trees having been ‘spostato’ (moved position!) - and even with the cost being more than twice our realistically-available budget - we were feeling like we could just go all-in - for the sake of ending the immense strain of searching, right there and then.
Thank the heavens we didn’t! Though we COULD make something magnificent of anything, the basics were mostly not there. The basics are also slightly compromised on the piece of land that we are taking (from the beginning; e.g. a well needing restored, and no running water currently), but we were 1000% for it, as opposed to 50-50… The previous two properties we looked at were too steep and/ or too close to a road and/ or neighbours – or too far from the next town (one being 10 kms). The penultimate house we viewed was very near the place we are settling with, but it didn’t ring true for us – Vincent loved it and was ready to commit – sort of…. But I had a strong sense of the land being too neglected for us to begin with – and the busyness of the road next to it, though a small rural one, was very distracting from the peace and privacy that we really, really want…
As we left Antonio who had showed us around the previous place, and were humming and hawing about it - though the temperature was managable in the shade, the sun was peaking... The water that we’d harvested from the spring at the campsite the day before – we took one full day just resting there – was already kind of flat and warm, instead of its previous vital and freshly cool. We made for the nearest fountain – there are many on this side of the valley – and my Beloved began filling our glass bottles and flasks…
piazza of a nearby town, with a favoloso general store lorry, which pulled in in front of us as we were enjoying an orzo cappucino
I was quite perfectly tense with anticipation: veery uptight with feeling that sense of fullness of the effort to discern, fullness of heat and dryness, and so over-ready with want to find our place. I made a shift in the online search facility we had been struggling so much to use: instead of seeking a nice simple wee house with land (there seemed to be plenty with wee gardens, and in towns, which we were averse to), I switched to seeking land with a house – completely different search perameters, and VERY different choices! The budgets for what we were looking for, were also profoundly lower, so we got enthused quickly – scrolled just a few inches – and there was a glorious piece of hillside, in the same vicinity, with an incidental abode upon it... the snapshots glowed with promise, and I messaged the owner to ask if he might possibly be able to show it to us today…
some views of recent hills and glens where we looked before finding Our Land
Within half an hour of sending that blessed message, we had made the decision to buy, practically shaking hands with Raffaele about it there and then!
some views of recent hills and glens where we looked before finding Our Land
He replied immediately and arrived a few minutes later to find us at the fountain. We followed his car up the sweet backroads, turning off at this gorgeous junction with three ancient oaks guarding it, and then up and around on a grassy-rocky track with high hedges and woods either side of us… Then the property was in front of us…. Such a feeling of rightness, of home, of clean air, privacy, freedom, sovereignty. I almost wept with relief. Vincent was grinning happily, we squeezed each others’ hands here and there, whilst I chatted and translated occasionally, and Raffaele told us the history of the land, and helped identify a tree that I hadn’t seen before (crespino - a barberry or berberis) – explained to us about neighbours (there are literally none!)
As we completed the circle and found ourselves back in front of the quirky bothy/ (animal!) stable/ house, I suggested to Raffaele that “We might need a couple of hours to make a decision, but we’re pretty sure we want it!” and Vincent sort of started, and exclaimed, “Heyyy, what are you saying?!” - but in a jovial way: we both were essentially s m i t t e n.
and a glorious river that we found unexpectedly, stopping at a superstrada layby halfway back to Guardia
Whilst the owner – in normale Italian fashion - wanted to drive us the hundred metres back to the car, we requested instead to walk back ourselves, and as he drove off, we actually walked back along the outer edge of the land, in (frankly!) a daze of ecstasy! This is our home, this is our land, our future, our potential and our dream. Simple. It just Is.
We spent another hour or so, just sitting there. We walked back to the car and back again, realising it was not far at all, and checking the track on foot for whether or not my right-hand-drive car will make it to the front of the house: it will – in the past months it has been down many a far-less-managable road! - and actually, the track is quite gentle, if organic.
a place to stop and get refreshed, along the 2 hour drive between our old and our new home, is vital in the scorching weather these days!
But we know too that the track is not used by anyone but ourselves and a super-elderly couple who occasionally arrive to tend to chickens and feral cats. The road past us is only travelled perhaps once per year, by a property owner who comes to check their land. Wow. Perfection!
We marvel at the trees, the woodland alongside, the fruits already ripening; the riches the land brings… And we are seriously in awe: that old-fashioned Real Awe, of this place seeming to appear out of the ether for us! Of it having been there waiting for us. Of us having gravitated to it, even when it seemed so impossible just a day before, an hour before… We just found it and made it ours – by following our deepest feeling of what we need. Living In Gift, Under Natural Law – The Highest Law That Is. Being led only by what we know we need and want, in order to best live freely in harmony with all things. Our dream is not attached to ego or material construct, but to our Knowing that we are meant to be Guardians of this earth and these elements passing through it, over it: we are meant to be flourishing here, not enslaved and not striving for crumbs.
So (after a few more messages and calls) we have an appointment for next Monday, to fare l’Atto! Vincent is organising Bitcoin wallets and minimal paperwork. I am packing boxes of glamping and essentials for our first day/s there, after we sign… Some comforts and magical support for best making our Right entry onto the land. Some cleaning stuffs for the not-much-used house. A large heavy broom, at the very least!
another stop on the mountain way over to our new location: filling up water containers of icy spring goodness 😍😍😍😍🌀🌀🌀🌀💧🌊
Our hearts are swimming with inspiration!!
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