Today we will talk about the witchiness of homesteading and why what seems so strange to some is simply living.
Meat canning webinar
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Which Witch is Which
Imagine hundreds of years ago if one of your family members was truly ill and some lady who kept to herself mostly gave you some tea for the sick person -- and they got better. Or if you sprained your ankle and the swelling went down quickly.
Add to that layers of superstition like which phase of the moon is best for planting, ceremonies involving burnt hair that reveal your true love’s face, and that sort of thing.
The final twist could be that the lone lady with that tea lives to be quite old and there we have it. A witch.
Yesterday, a friend stopped by who I had not seen in a long time and he joked on the way in the door that I reminded him of country women he remembers as a kid growing up who seemed kind of like witches. He did not mean it in a bad way -- he was just pointing out that I live an alternative lifestyle to the norm.
And it is true: If there is a natural or herbal remedy to something, I will try it first. If I have a bad headache, I go to bed.
I have some odd world views:
Some of these views make me witchy I suppose. In college, I used to make this brew of ginger root, bitter root, peppermint and hot peppers and honey every time I got a cold. Why? Because it helped. The bitter root soothed my throat, the ginger opened the capillaries in my sinuses, capsasis is an immune system boost, and the peppermint and honey make it drinkable -- not taste good -- drinkable. When I did this I just knew it helped, not the why. But over the years I have learned more about the why, down to peppermint helping with breathing and honey being an antibacterial agent.
And even back then, people thought me crazy. They wondered why I did not simply pop a decongestant and go on with life?
Moving to the homestead has brought my witchiness to a whole new level. I mean, here I am, living in what looks like isolation, growing a ton of herbs, wildcrafting other herbs, with a good collection of sharp knives around, hair down to my rear end, talking to animals and trees, and not a worry about current events.
Well maybe that is not entirely true - I sometimes worry about current events. But life on the homestead is not exactly the picture they paint when they talk about the American Dream is it?
It may be my American Dream, but it is a bit of a witchy one.
After my friend pointed this out, I realized that he was right. I live a rather witchy life. If you look around right now, as in this week, at my homestead, here are some of the witchy things that happened:
Yep, as I think about it, look at the browns of jars of dried herbs here for healing, get ready to age our first cheddar of this season, and watch people come through here with shared values, learning to take control of their personal outcomes no matter what happens --- I can see that homesteading looks pretty witchy to the outside world.
But to me, it is something different. This lifestyle is not something to be feared or looked askance at - but rather an acknowledgement that nature is at the core of us all. And when we work with nature, we get better outcomes.
Now sure, you may not be a person willing to get dirty and buggy on a homestead to tap into natural cycles. You may prefer your city condo - perhaps with a few pots of herbs. And that is fine. You do you as they like to say.
And I don’t even mind when people look down their noses at my witchy life here.
But there is a history of the state forcing people who live like I do into “modern” life in order to protect them. I mean, I do live near a giant Army Corpse project that flushed country folks from their family farms under the guise of progress that may or may not have actually helped (I am looking at you Nashville flood on 2010).
And that progress merely served to lock people in poverty and increase external controls on their lives.
So I was thinking this: Let’s embrace our witchiness and scare the pants off them -- maybe then they will leave us to work with nature as God intended.
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Make it a great week!
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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