City to Soil
After 8 years of loving, living, and breathing Los Angeles, my husband Miles and I (Rachel) are embarking on a new adventure we’ve dreamed about since we started dating in 2017. A homestead…a California homestead.
For the past 8 years, Miles has worked in the film industry while I’ve worked in the fashion and bridal industry. Although we were both relatively happy in our respective careers, upon meeting each other in 2017, we realized we both had deeper dreams that involved living more in tune with nature. It’s one of those dreams neither of us had really talked about all that much with other people, but somehow it came up almost seamlessly in conversation, I guess that’s how that soulmate stuff works.
When we moved in together in 2018, we really began scheming, and planning how we could turn this dream of an idyllic, sustainable, and regenerative homestead into a reality. Over the years, we’ve gone on extensive California road trips, saved money, nurtured sourdough starters, attempted many apartments gardens, researched and read permaculture books, studied herbalism, watched inspiring films and YouTube videos, and so much more. As we planted our roots deeper into this research, the more we felt dissatisfied with our jobs, and longed for something more.
Of course, life is not linear, and we’ve gone through cycles and seasons of the process. From first putting an offer on land in Grass Valley, to completely shifting gears and considering Vermont, I’m sure our friends and family became tired of our constant wavering with where to set down roots. And then of course, the pandemic happened which slowed down our progress, while simultaneously validating our desire to move out of the city. All of the back and forth and weighing our options eventually led us to this moment… the beginning of our journey on our 10 acre property in Northern California.
We’ll start living full time on the property at the beginning of 2023, alongside Miles’s parents who will be co-owners and live in their own lovely home on the property. We are super grateful they decided to come on this journey with us as we couldn’t have done it without them!
We want to be a part of the solution. We want to live a regenerative lifestyle that not only helps heal the greater nervous system of our society, but equally important, regenerates the literal soil under our feet. We want connection to The Great Mother. We want to sequester carbon while encouraging biodiversity, and grow food that nourishes us that is composted back into the same soil that grew the food. We want to BE in the wonder of the earth and we want to BORROW her gifts in order to learn, grow, and create a new story.
This is going to be a journey… with the seasons and cycles, honoring yin and yang, sunrise and sunset, and we’re so excited you’re on the journey with us.
With gratitude,
Rachel & Miles
“We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth’s beings.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass