Greetings Steem Fam! Today I am excited to share with you an event that happened over the weekend in my local area.
Community is one of the most important aspects of homesteading. Indeed without community life looks a lot more bleak and with it we have better chances of thriving!
Why is that? In a world of lone wolf & hero myths, we're often taught to "sink or swim alone" or to become "self made" people who battle against the world to achieve our dreams.
Yet the blunt truth is that in this interconnected world not only is it less fun to "go at it alone", we actually need others!
It is no different in the country living a homestead-based life.
Surpluses happen as do total crop failures. Perhaps your neighbor grew really good squash this year and yours all died or another has a killer heirloom seed that's perfect in your bioregion and you'd also like to grow it. You have more milk from your goat than you know what to do with, but you need some more seed garlic. All of these trades could be done in the marketplace, but it's so damn empowering when we can skip the halls of commerce and play instead within a 20 mile radius and forgo the fiat economy altogether!
Our good friend Amelia sees this vision and she got a SARE grant (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education) to help bring our community together, to organize and make a directory, among other things!
I invite you to watch the video in this post (I've uploaded it to YouTube as well so look at the end if DTube isn't working for you) to hear her talk about it and to watch some scenes from our gathering.
And of course there must be music!
Local folk group, Hot Missoury
Gathering
At our gatherings, we nearly always have a potluck with delicious, unique and homegrown food. This sets the stage for enthusiastic conversations, meaningful connections and a more rooted connection to place. Sharing food is but one way we share as we swap experiences, successes and failures and make plans for future collaborations.
We all live full lives and most of us work on many levels, so these gatherings are a great way to feel the connections between us. It's not always easy to get together but we really need each other for support and connection. We are so much stronger together and we need to forge bonds with each other through the highs and lows. This last gathering was certainly a high!
Gatherings give time for reflections as we see ourselves in others. We are share a bioregion, and many of us also share a watershed. This weaves us together for better or worse and learning to live with this awareness is in part what this gathering is helping us do.
We all need water, to eat, to be healed, to be protected and seen. Community is crucial for this.
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS