A five-year assessment

Installment #35 of Nine Years at Panther's Hollow

From the start of my homesteading adventure, I had been sending frequent dispatches to an email list of my friends and acquaintances, detailing my activities and experiences at Panther’s Hollow and in the surrounding region. For a few years I posted them in a blog on Grit.com, titled Panther’s Hollow, and sent the link to my email list. A number of people from my personal list would respond from time to time, and their comments revealed a variety of perspectives on my lifestyle and what I was doing.

Some praised what they saw as my pioneer spirit, while others saw me as “living my dream.” One seemed to regard my homesteading project as a kind of retirement hobby, or even possibly an ill-considered business venture. I began to realize that I needed to talk about why I was doing this, and why I continued to persist, in spite of the challenges, hardships and disappointments.