The author’s labor of love, her family’s hand built homestead.
By Méla Caza Pugh
Life at times has an uncanny way of serving you up exactly what you didn’t realize you asked for.
The awakening comes with embracing it and learning the Universe has sent you exactly what you could handle. This is precisely how I ended up living off-grid, homeschooling, farming and finding myself accidentally homesteading! Had you asked me 10 years ago if I saw myself at 40 years of age educating my own child and living amidst chickens, donkeys and sheep on a farm, my younger self would have had a very good laugh.
Yet, is where I stand today. My long and winding life path having brought me to my medicinal plant-farm to raise my little one. I’m endeavoring to save a corner of the rainforest at the same time. One part was a stumbled upon vocation and deep calling and the other is fulfilling a childhood dream.
It appears to be rather common among homesteaders that it happens without a 5-year plan. It starts with a chicken or two for eggs, to which you add a mammal or three to graze the grassland. Next thing you know you’re putting in fences and learning about herd management! All the while fermenting and canning what you can grow on the land.
Six years ago my husband and I made the very conscious decision to leave the comfort of our car owning, apartment leasing, and albeit it “green” consumer lifestyles. We liquidated our goods, said our farewells to friends and family and carried our 46kg worth of packs (each) to South America. Taking a few detours here and there, we made our way to our somewhat predetermined final destination in the Northern highland jungle of Peru. By predetermined I mean a huge triangle spanning 3 regions in the Northern Highlands.
The start of this adventure marked the beginning of a subsequent and even more daunting yet rewarding one, the conception of my beautiful wild child. To be perfectly honest, the two events were certainly synchronistically linked. Embarking on this reconnection to the land opened the portal to my own deep rooting into motherhood!
What could possibly motivate us to do something so, well, crazy??
The author’s daughter leading her donkey to graze.
For my part, it fed my inner adventurer. As a family it boiled down to several overlapping points: our priorities, our ecological footprint and taking literally the “be the change” movement.
Before meeting my husband, I spent a portion of my free time attending eco-summits and devising means to protest in favor of environmental protection. I was taking on long-term substitute teaching positions and ensuring that ethics and the environment played a big role in my students’ daily classroom. I was making a difference. Yet... I felt lost in a sea of shoppers. A good many of who truly feel to their core that they are doing what they can. (Side note, I do believe that this is the case, please don’t think I am judging anyone: we all do the best we can.)
I peeled back my own truths.
By choice, I took off the blinders. The ones carefully crafted by our collective society and the corporations among us. The green washing became blah, I saw it for the propaganda it was. The impact was not less but more. The conventional veggies didn’t take less space at the grocery store; no instead new shelves were built to hold the organics. To the point where new stores: bigger stores were built! This hardly made a dent in an already guilt-ridden consumer lifestyle.
My very own hypocrisy had me teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. My inner self, the one whom had always walked to the beat of her own drum, demanded that I walk my talk! Though, being smack in the middle of Europe in the heart of Nestle country made this a wee bit impossible. A plan was drawn up and an exit strategy plotted.
The location we chose featured a lovely landscape and nothing else! We built from the ground up.
Sheep grazing in a banana patch.
Behind many of our choices were theories and texts ranging from a gamut of holistic living disciplines ranging from permaculture principles to gardening journals. I had loaded up on seeds and relied heavily on my temperate climate gardening skills. In the end my tropical farm garden reminded me everyday I still had a whole lot to learn. Some projects were a success. Others well, let’s just say we learnt to make do with “good enough” as we still do to this day.
I had dreamt of a life spent in part on the farm and in part seeing the world.
Instead, we have a donkey and a growing flock of sheep that I care for along with an expanding number of people I brew medicinal plant remedies for. I discovered an innate talent for formulating with our distilled plants and extracts.
Construction project in the works.
Living at nature’s doorstep has a way of doing that: bringing out your hidden talents. Farm life has me performing tasks that I never thought I could do but I do them, knowing that if I don’t no one else will.
Having traded in four walls of education institutions, I now teach a classroom of one, my very special Wild Warrior. Her upbringing is entirely unique. In truth, it is what keeps me motivated to continue to pursue this life during the many and varied challenges. My dream to create a conservation area has become hers too. One she may be even more passionate about than I! When I dream of running water or a friend to grab a coffee with I remember this is her dream come true too. This is the life I chose and continue to choose. The opportunities of this homesteading life gives us so much to be grateful for. We follow the rhythms of nature in our work and in our play! This is so unlike my old metropolitan life.
As the masses begin to plug into their 5G networks we plug along with speeds that take me back to the age of dial-up! Yet, we have enough tech and goods to live a full life. Albeit a simple one that fulfills our basic needs and aligns with our priorities.
I do not feel as though we are hiding away from the world. If anything, recent times have shown how connected we all are. We do still find ourselves dependent on global trade for some things like clothing that endures and maple syrup (yum!!) I strive to focus on solutions and creative ways to reduce even more our consumption all the while balancing it out in favor of the planet’s wellbeing.
We have certainly reached a crux in our society.
Do we pursue the way it was or do we tear down the old to begin anew? I often hear that many long to return to the land. The best advice I can offer from my experience is to prepare yourself. This applies not only to physical needs but also to your emotional and spiritual ones. The honest truth is that the grass is never greener! There are as many bumps in the road in an off grid life as there are in a connected urban sprawl. The big difference: with elbow grease, determination and a whole lot of creativity they can be overcome!!
Méla Caza Pugh holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University. Over the years she has taught in elementary schools and language centres. She has lived on three continents and swam in several oceans, seas, rivers, lakes and streams. Some of her current passions include plant alchemy, photography and education. She can be found mixing remedies and homeschooling her daughter in the Amazonian jungle highlands of Peru. She has founded the Adaptivore Private Reserve and her natural products business Esencia. You can read more about her adventures on her website.