Hardcore homestead

A few years ago my buddy Caleb and his wife Caity were looking for a property. Their wants were hard to meet. Lots of room for a homestead, a house, and cheap, like, bought with cash cheap… When you’re looking for something wild and you add cheap to the mix you’ve got to get flexible, wicked flexible, and boy o boy, I did not know how flexible a family could be until I saw the property he bought for the first time.

Caleb and Caity had recently transplanted to Hillsboro from Wenatchee, Washington to be close to family and join the new wave of revitalization in the small town of Hillsboro, IL. (pop 5,825). They left behind a homestead plot with maturing fruit trees and “soil you can stick your hand in to the elbow”, Caleb says laughing about his previous garden.

The property they bought a few years ago is finally starting to show the potential it dripped with when I first got to see it- a few acres of land next to a train track on the edge of town with three massive industrial brick barns and a very modestly sized office building.

Caleb’s family seems to thrive in a survival setting and flourish once established. I’ve watched them over the past few years renovating the small office building into their home, starting gardens and an orchard, clearing brush and dead trees, constructing fencing for animals, and making many, many plans for the rest of the buildings and property.

And what kid wouldn’t want it.

Caleb works for the local gear company Atlas 46 while he develops his homestead. He’s also in the middle of flipping a commercial building downtown. If that’s not enough he also buys, develops, and manages properties in Hillsboro with his brother, Eli. Caleb studied horticulture in college. Caity studied nursing and recently finished her degree in sustainable agriculture and farming! After school Caleb went into the coast guard, and was deputy sheriff in Washington where they started a family. The two met in Guatemala where Caleb grew up as a missionary kid. (Caity was visiting the mission.)

Any time I spend with Caleb usually ends up in front of an obscenely large bonfire drinking a beer and talking about gardening, tree maintenance, construction, backhoes, or an idea for a new business.

What I love about these guys is hard to explain. They have a high tolerance for discomfort, a raging work ethic, and a commitment to living in a sustainable, generous, and simple way. Caity has a reputation for generosity among friends- giving away things like a 5 gallon bucket of honey, a cow tongue, or cooking a steak for you at 9 at night. (like she did while I was shooting this)

I think doing things with your hands, making a difference in your community, and giving your kids a life connected to wildness and nature is so powerful and rare in our culture. It is something we should all ruthlessly pursue.