LET US BEGIN

Hi!  My name is Laurissa Jarvis and this is my blog.

This blog will focus on topics that are important to me: my family, my farmstead, and coaching youth basketball. Other topics may pop up as well!

My family and I moved to Louisa County, VA, in July 2017.  Up until then, we had lived in suburbia-land and had never had any land more than ½ an acre.  We now have 10.6 acres.  Holy Cow!  That is approximately 10 football fields without the end zones.  It is mainly wooded.  I call it my Retreat in the Woods. 

So, why  leave the city life for the country life?  The answer’s complicated, , but a big part of it is climate change.  Simply put, I believe climate change is  real, and I believe it’s happening to our world right now.    After years of hoping and expecting  for our governments and corporations to solve this problem and rally around our shared planet, I decided to take personal responsibility for my family’s relationship with our environment. I firmly believe that one small act can change the world and that change starts with me.  I want my kids to know that I tried, that I saw a problem and tried to address it.    So, it’s  time to put my money (and effort, and time) where my mouth is .

I am an engineer by education and profession. I have no homesteading experience.  So, when I told my husband, Stephen, that I wanted to sell our home in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Richmond, downsize, reduce my hours at work, and move to the country so I could focus on doing my part to save  the planet , he thought I had lost my mind.  Maybe so.   But this ember of a desire continued to smolder until I read Joel Salatan’s You Can Farm.  I started learning more about regenerative farming, namely permaculture, and found it fascinating  I was hooked, and though  I didn’t have a clue how to start, I was convinced I could do this!

Honestly, I still stumble around a lot. Seriously, a lot! But I’ve had some success and I’m trending in a positive direction.  Hey,  that’s good enough for me.  If I keep putting one foot in front of the other, eventually I’ll get to where I’d like to be.

It’s been almost 3 years since we’ve moved.  We have a garden, we compost, we built a coup and have hens for eggs, and in March took our first feeder pig to the butcher.

Be on the lookout: I hope to officially launch my farming enterprise, Just South of Cuckoo, in January 2021.

I hope you’ll join the adventure and subscribe to my blog!

Onward and Upward,

Laurissa