Welcome to the MacIsaac Homestead

 

Hello friends, 

And welcome to the MacIsaac Homestead. In case we haven't met, my name is Natasha MacIsaac and I run a little rental homestead in semi-rural Nova Scotia, Canada. I've been dreaming of this for as long as I can remember: a homestead property and a homestead blog to call my own. I have quite a few dreams you will come to find if you follow along with me for any length of time, but these two... these two are special. 

My love of homesteading started when I was just twelve years old, not in the typical way that you would expect: I wasn't raised on a beautiful property, living the simple life with my little toddler feet caressing the tall grass as I roamed around curious of all the little things, quite the opposite actually. My upbringing was anything but peaceful, and that story my friends is for another time. I used to cope with my life as a teen by collecting magazines (chatelaine, cosmopolitan, traditional home, style at home, etc.) and I'd plan out my perfect future, my escape from what was. 

As I grew older and the internet became more prevalent in society, my love of magazines quickly turned to a love of blogs I would find on Pinterest (I'm still enamoured by Pinterest even today so you can probably guess my age) blogs that would teach me how to milk a dairy cow, how to make butter, bake sourdough bread, freeze dry goods for the pantry, how to stock a larder, tips and tricks for vegetable gardening, the best way to fold laundry, you name it I was hooked. 

Speaking of hooked, have you ever heard of rug hooking? My great grandmother was a semi-famous rug hooker and homesteader, an Acadian woman who lived to be 100 years old before she passed in the highlands of Cape Breton, part of the Appalachian Mountains. She was the most loving woman I had ever known, and if I can spend my time here on Earth being anything like her I feel I will have lived a great and bountiful life. I spent parts of my summers with her when I was a child, and I think more of the small moments I had shared of her lifestyle have stuck with me than I can ever truly identify. 

Her and I are alike in many ways, though different all the same. She was a religious Christian woman and I a Spiritual Pagan. She a rug hooker and I a decorator, and although she wasn't musical herself, her husband and son, nephew and many others in her bloodline were; including myself. I can't begin to describe the way it feels inside my body to express the songs of Appalachia when I sing, it's as if I'm honouring my ancestors and their voices are pulled through me to be heard once again. 

There is also Scottish, Paris French, and Mi'kMaq in my bloodline (rumours of African and Viking although I cannot yet confirm), and Scottish in the bloodline of my betrothed. He is the descendant of a fairly famous and prolific musician here in Nova Scotia and is an incredibly talented musician himself. Whether or not we decide to have or are blessed with children of our own, and whether or not they come out of the womb with rhythm, they will be exposed to music in some capacity that is for certain.

After many of my young years living a mainstream life, partying and experimenting with sexuality and lifestyle, parading myself around the city listening to and performing live music, I'm called back to something deep within me... something sacred. The homestead blogs I used to read when I was young are no longer just a hobby of mine or an escape from a less than fortunate reality, but the reality I intend to create today. 

As it stands right now at the somewhat beginning of this road, my Fiancé and I are renting a very small house outside of Halifax, growing what we can in a little garden plot in our yard, applying some of what I learned from those old blogs way back when, and curating a home of thrifted decor in an Earthy Minimalist Cottagecore style. In time, our dream is to have a little cottage, a nature-folk inspired homestead that subtly captures the charm of our Scottish heritage with a root cellar, chickens, orchard, no-dig garden patch and a little family, fur or human (or both), and I'll teach you all that I continue to learn along the way.

I thank you for travelling this journey with me, 

Natasha MacIsaac