Question: what is truly possible on a small piece of property in a tiny coastal town?

This is the back story of what inspired the coastal homestead. If you want to get right into the nitty gritty, start with the next post. 🙂

I grew up in Southeast Florida – on boats, jetskis, knee boards, surf boards, and paddle boards – surrounded by manatees, and pelicans, eating kingfish, wahoo, conch and lobster. My favorite days were ones spent entirely outside exploring different nature reserves on our bikes, or just spending the full day on the sand under the sun with a pub sub on my right and a book on my left. I am so incredibly grateful for my childhood and think back on it with so much joy in my heart.

We moved away right before my senior year of high school.

Uprooting

I was devastated but my dad had an opportunity for work so who was I to make that difficult for him? I acted excited so that he wouldn’t feel guilty, when I knew he needed to go regardless of how I felt about it. So off to Charleston, SC, we went.

I will say on days when the sadness of leaving my friends wasn’t so heavy, I was able to dream of what my new life would look like. I had Pinterest boards and a list of places to see, restaurants and cafes to try, and shops to wander through. I imagined us living on King St. above the shoppes overlooking the horse drawn carriages passing by below.

Though we didn’t end up moving downtown -surprise- I did spend much of my year there. Driving with the sunroof open, looking at the stars on cool winter nights. Walking the battery, admiring the cannons and the statues, and imagining the ships battling in the harbor all those years ago. I walked through the market, and toured all the historic sites. I felt the ghosts walk the streets after sunset – it was so eerie. I learned so much about this area, and this little section of our history.

The friends I made at school would take me to the beach so I would feel at home. I loved them. They were so kind and thoughtful – but at the time, for some reason, all I could notice was how the sand was hard and cold. The breeze was chillier than I was used to, and the water wasn’t clear all the way to my feet. It sounds spoiled, I know, but it was just the first time that I was actually nervous to be in the water because I couldn’t see what was around me.

I know this is how a lot of beaches are it wasn’t any less beautiful by any means! Looking back, I did appreciate the beauty of it all. I loved the long wooden boardwalk to the sand, and the tall sweetgrass folding over in the wind, and the sand crabs running all over. I loved the families flying kites, and eating ice cream. It was a beautiful place to be. I was beyond blessed to experience it. I knew it then but I still felt sad. I just missed my home.

College years: FSU. A world of it’s own.

Everyone always says college will be the best years of your life – soak it up. While I don’t believe in the idea of them being the best years, when there’s so much left to come, but I do believe in giving it everything you have and not letting the time pass you by!

The school itself is gorgeous, with the spanish moss covered oaks, and open fields with fountains. The students walking together laughing, or lounging on the green with a blanket, their pet bunnies hopping around. Birds flying overhead, and squirrels scampering up the trees. Everyone always looked so happy.

I spent a lot of time outside at FSU. I skateboarded, biked, or walked to class to be in the open air. Honestly parking on campus was a disaster so this was easier anyway – but I loved it!

I went to The Rez all the time to get my water fix in. It was a park off campus on a gorgeous lake. There were sand volleyball courts, and kayaks that you could borrow to get to the other side of the lake and paddle through the mangroves or just lean back and soak up the sun. We’d picnic on the beach, and then head back home.

Everything about FSU was truly a dream.

Graduation and becoming an adult.

I graduated my master’s program and started my job less than two weeks later. I was so excited to start, and my new boss and I had developed a great relationship right away and I was so eager to get started building upon his vision.

Looking back, I wish I would have taken a little time between finishing school and starting ‘real’ life. Many of my friends graduated in May, and started their jobs in August. That sounds lovely haha.

But the best part about it was: I was moving home!

All I wanted from the career fair at school was to get back to my hometown. I was gone for 5 years at that point and I was so excited to be back!

Reality check

A big chunk of my family had moved away, same with most of my friends who went to different colleges and then got jobs elsewhere.

So in a place where I once felt most like myself, I now felt completely out of my element. Nothing was the same, and I felt very alone. It was so weird. People don’t talk about how difficult the transition to becoming an adult is.

It took me so long to try and figure out what it was that I was missing, but it was obvious. I isolated myself in my work. I wasn’t actively building the life that I wanted outside of work. Since then, I’ve learned that a lot of people have struggled with this.

So I decided to make a change.

Figuring out what “home” feels like.

My work brought me to London. So my dad, my boyfriend, and I took those opportunities to visit other countries as well. I am so incredibly grateful for these trips!! I have so many pictures and notes of everywhere we went, I can’t wait to share those with you here.

Not to be dramatic, but these trips were life changing at a time I really needed it. Seeing the different cities, landscapes, people, culture – all of it.

I loved the hustle and bustle of the big cities over there but it had a lot slower of a feeling than the cities do here in the states. The architecture has so much character, too!! So do the shops and cafes, with their hanging flowers everywhere, and all the people and their outfits are so unique to themselves as well. They actually gather in the town square and enjoy their afternoon tea together. I loved it all. It was like a big breath of fresh air.

The countrysides were unbelievable, too. Each country had a different landscape, of course, but each one blew me away all the same. I was completely astonished by it all – and so beyond thankful for the time.

I visited my grandmother a lot during these years, also. Her home in the mountains was the only place that actually felt like home to me at this point in my life. I always thought it was just her, which to be fair, most of it was. She’s always been my rock.

There was more to it, though.

The air is always fresh and the birds are always singing. The warm sun passes through the leaves in the forest and makes pretty designs on the paths. The waterfalls are cold and exhilarating. The horses are kind to us strangers that ride them and their barn dogs lead the way, their tails wagging..

I see cardinals on the porch and think of my grandfather with his morning paper and his kind eyes. His full white mustache curved with his smile. I see the fire crackling and think of all my grandmother’s friends in this neighborhood who have been so sweet to me. Each of them so unique: a pottery maker, a master gardener, a publisher, an ex-FBI agent, a world traveler, a former college president, a rock collector, a new baking student.

It’s a community and they are so happy for you to be there with them, and they want to hear about everything. They want to know all about you, and you them, of course.

I always felt so sad to leave, but my whole body always felt refreshed at the end of the trip.

I wanted to bring those feelings home – the feeling of being at my grandmother’s in the mountains, the feeling of being in those places overseas, to my little coastal hometown.

I want my body to feel at peace here the way it does there, and what brings that peace?

A connection with nature and the people around you.

Duh. It seems simple and yet we so often forget.

We get caught up in work, in all things you need to do, but it is so important to slow down. The sun shines through the trees here just the same, I just wasn’t looking for it. I am now. 🙂

Celebrate the milestones, celebrate for no reason at all! Just get together. When you work work work, you get drained and you don’t want to do anything but relax and recharge, I know, but trust me, you’ll recharge faster with the people you love.

My cousin moved to San Francisco when he graduated college. He moved to the other side of the country! He knew one person and now he has more friends than any of us can keep up with. It’s because he gets out there. He goes to the park and plays Spikeball with some buddies and people pass by and ask to join. They get together once a week at a different friend’s house and do all sorts of activities. One was where they each made a tiny business card sized piece of art, and then put them on display and everyone took their favorites? Something like that haha but it sounded so fun! They all work day jobs, but they all make the time to get together. I love that.

Digging roots back down and making new priorities.

Seriously, how lucky are we? You just have to look around and notice it.

Build that community that you crave. Nourish your relationships. Be the difference.

Grow your connection with nature.

That’s what I’ve always yearned for. What I was always trying to escape to. Whenever I would feel overstressed, I wanted to fly straight to the mountains just to lay in the grass with my grandmother’s dog and hear the leaves rustling in the wind. I wanted the sun on my face, and fireflies floating along the grass beside me. I wanted to check in on the neighborhood garden and smell the flowers.

But I can have that here. You can have that where you are, as well. You just need to be the one to start building it.

The birth of the Coastal Homestead Dream

I want to bring back long summer days in the sun. A beach day that seems to never end. I want slow mornings with coffee in the garden, birds chirping, butterflies flapping, bees buzzing, squirrels dashing. I want ducks quacking, and dogs sniffing. I want donkeys braying and horses neighing. I want goats bleating and fresh eggs sizzling, and sourdough baking. I want flowers blooming and the smell of salt in the air, salt in my hair. I want sun showers and pink skies. I want dinners outside with laughter, and music, and lightbulbs glowing. I want game nights and homemade meals and babies babbling.

I want all that right here. At home.

I want my home to feel like home again.

While, I do wish all of my people would move back here, because home is where your community is, the truth is they love their new homes, and I love that for them. So I’ve settled for more visits which I’ve been very happy about these past months.

All I can do is work to create the environment and community that my heart has been aching for and that I’ve experienced in the mountains and overseas.

I have already started creating my own garden: building up the ecosystem so that the plants, and the birds, and the squirrels, and the bees thrive here. I’ll share that next. There’s a lot.

I have learned to make sourdough bread, and bagels, and english muffins.

The idea of self-sufficiency and homesteading scratches an itch in my soul.

I’d like to get ducks sometime soon, so we can have fresh eggs and feel more in tune with nature, and our food. My brother has already done this in his town, and I simply adore sitting on his back porch watching the ladies (chickens) poke around.

Other animals are a dream, as well, and it will come, but that requires a different plot of land.

So we’re starting with what we have!

Making my home a sanctuary for myself, my family, and my friends, so they want to gather here and be together. Creating a welcoming environment for the native species so that the home is bubbling with life inside and out.

That’s the dream.

Song of the week: weren’t for the wind – Ella Langley.