Meet The Wilson Family

Hello! I am Taryn and we are the Wilson Family!
Here is a bit about our story and how it all began...

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The ocean calling me and moving to Oregon...

I followed my heart and moved to Oregon in January 2005. Having been born in California, then raised in Minnesota and mostly Iowa, I always felt I would return to the West Coast when I moved out on my own (I always thought it would be California, but when I saw Oregon for the first time I loved it.) I headed out on January 1, to embark on a brand new life. I started out in Portland and quickly discovered that I was not a city girl. After moving to Oregon, I soon met Jeff.
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Meeting Jeff and instant magnetism...

Jeff was a woodland-living, wizardly-looking, overall-wearing mountain man and I instantly adored him. He was unlike anyone I had ever known. His radiance, jolly smile, generous heart, warmth, and inspiration for life drew me right in. (You can read more about all that here: A Real Life Love Story.) Jeff was living on a 3 acre homestead in the mountains and I moved in with him that spring, thus becoming a country girl for the first time in my life. He had been living at his place for over 20 years. Working multiple jobs had made it impossible to keep up the house and land all on his own. He needed some help and I was ready to learn. Jeff taught me a lot of homesteading skills and I did what I do best- I cleaned and organized. We started getting this place into shape.

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Digging in and building our dreams... 
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Together, we started building our dreams here and began turning this place into a small farm. This land was not a typical farm with open pasture, we were on the side of a mountain and mostly forested. That meant we weren't well suited for animals that liked to eat grass- like sheep and cows. But we were well suited for a few animals that enjoyed woodland browsing for their foraging  and free ranging pleasure. We started raising goats for milk and chickens and ducks for eggs. We had cats and dogs. Our family grew. We loved having animals, they became some of our best friends (especially the goats.) We expanded our garden each year with the sunny spots we had available. We loved eating real food off the land and it was so satisfying to have a part in bringing it to the table. We built a woodshed and a greenhouse and put up lots of fencing. We enjoyed being happily exhausted at the end of a long working day on the homestead.
Country living brought our souls so much joy!
I felt I had truly found my home.
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A leap of faith and forming Mystic Orb..

Jeff quit his jobs and we started our own family business, Mystic Orb, where we lovingly created art with our own hands. We lived on faith and very little money, but our souls were satisfied by doing what we loved. Being able to work from home was a dream come true. It also had it's challenges in that we needed to stay focused because we could easily get distracted by all that needed to be done on the homestead, and we had to work very hard to make a living. The stress of living without a steady paycheck made us wonder if we were nuts sometimes, but our hearts kept urging us forward. In living on less we learned to be grateful for each and every thing in our life. We learned that if we wanted something we either to made it ourselves, traded for it, saved up for a long time, or did without. This made us more mindful of what we really wanted.

In time, we strove to create our business to be more sustainable, along with our life. We made everything with natural materials. We loved to offer jewelry that made it so people could wear the energy of nature wherever they went, and carry that essence with them. And we started expanding to natural art for the home. We began selling our artwork at the Eugene Saturday Market every week and then started our online Etsy Shop. Our little business grew bit by bit and we were grateful for each and every customer who supported our dream.
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 A Woodland Wedding...

On a beautiful summer day, July 11, 2008, Jeff and I were married on the land, under our favorite cedar tree. Though we had been devoted to each other long before that. We looked into each other's eyes as the dappled light shone in the woods, and felt so grateful that we found each other. That, with each other's support, we had found the courage to live a more authentic life, growing healthier and more joyful each and every day. We felt we brought out the best in each other. We had reminded each other of so many things we loved- like singing and making music. And along our journey, we discovered new passions- real food, cooking, and harvesting, among so many other things. We loved enjoying life with each other and we were in awe of the power that comes from two souls building a dream together. 
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Wooly Moss Roots begins...

 In the winter, February 2009, I began Wooly Moss Roots blog, with this very first post: Winter is the time for Wool. The inspiration for the blog title came from my deep loves for wool, moss, and roots. All things that spoke to my soul and invoked deep feeling. I loved having the creative outlet. I had loved writing since I was a child, it had always been my strongest form of communication, and being able to share the discoveries from my country journey with others was so fun. It was my way of sharing joy with the world. Being a gal who valued alone time in the woods, it was another great way for me to connect, other than face to face at market, and with friends and neighbors. I liked gaining more global connections, that expanded my world beyond my community. I loved learning about life in other places. Over time, through Wooly Moss Roots, I met friends and made connections that brought daily delights and made my life richer in infinite ways.
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 A passion for real food...

Besides learning to follow our hearts and live more from our souls, we began to learn to take better care of our bodies as well. We ate out less and made more meals from scratch. We continued to produce more of our own food and spend more time in nature, getting exercise and sunshine. One day at the library, I discovered the cookbook 'Nourishing Traditions' by Sally Fallon, that introduced us to the Weston A. Price Foundation. I became passionate in learning about nutrition. We started eating more whole foods and less  processed foods. We followed the ways of indigenous people, who were wisely connected to the earth and enjoyed vibrant health. We healed in miraculous ways. (You can read more about that here: My Body's Healing Journey.) We felt a soul wanting to come into our lives and both Jeff and I prepared our bodies for conception by eating nutrient dense foods. All during my pregnancy, I ate colorful, whole foods from the earth, to give our baby the nutrients to thrive. I poured lots of love and good food into that little being in my belly. I was so excited to meet our baby and to become a mama!
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 Bracken joins us...

In the fall, on October 14, 2010, our son, Bracken Lee Little Hawk Wilson, was born at home. (You can read the birth story here: Bracken's Birth.) He expanded our hearts beyond what we ever knew was possible. Our family felt more complete, like we had always been waiting for him. I felt I had found my place and purpose in the world even more. With every fiber of my being, I was meant to be a mama. Bracken reminded us to see the world through the eyes of a child- the wonder, the awe, the color, the glory and beauty. He taught us so much in every moment. His laughter, his smile, filled our world with more light than we had ever known. His soul was deeply rooted and his presence was strong. We felt honored to be his parents and get to share life with him. We felt grateful to bring him into a life we loved so much. (And loved that life even more once he was in it.)

 
Simplifying and Expanding...

We made some changes after Bracken was born. We found homes for some animals and simplified our homesteading responsibilities, so we could focus more on the business. We started expanding the products we offered and opened a second online shop, Wooly Moss Roots, offering handmade artisan buttons, herbal goodness, and wooly delights. We enjoyed filling it up with handmade love ever since.

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Now...

And now, these days: we are flowing with the seasons, deepening our connection to the earth, and sinking our roots into this land. We're planting new things in the garden and terracing more hillside to maximize garden space. We built a chicken coop with recycled materials and love having chickens here. We're learning about caring for fruit trees and look forward to the blueberries and grapes producing more each year. We are healing our bodies on a diet similar to GAPS/hunter gatherer.

We're working hard at our business so we can make a living, continually expanding our products, and creating new art for natural living. We run our two online shops and sell at the local market during most of the year.

In this space, I write about what we care about: nutrition, knitting, herbalism, homebirth, breastfeeding, sustainability, local food and more.
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Is life perfect? Nope. Some days getting the bills paid is stressful and we hardly have a cent to our name. Some days we're exhausted and just plain tuckered out from working so hard. You'll be sure to hear about those days from time to time, but mostly I write about the parts of our life that bring us joy and the things that we're grateful for. I know blogs can have a way of making things look glamorous sometimes. I can tell you that our life is not. But we wouldn't have it any other way. We get to spend our days together as a family and that's what we value. We do our best to live an authentic life.

What are our dreams for the future? 

To create an edible paradise homestead here. We dream of raising bees here again, building our own home, growing mushrooms, more landscaping, planting, getting set up off-grid and so much more. 

So stay tuned, many more adventures are ahead! 

And bless your hearts, dear readers, for visiting us here and joining us on this journey. Your love and support means the world to us!

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And finally, I'll leave you with this...
(something I had in the sidebar when I first started this blog)

On our mountain homestead, 
our life flows with the seasons.

Spring 
brings nettles, fuzzy little chicks, 
singing frogs, and planting seeds!

Summer 
brings garden bounty, berry picking,
clothes on the line, flowers in bloom,
open windows and bonfires at night!

Fall 
brings food preserving, celebrating harvest,
gathering firewood, apple pressing parties,
and baskets of huckleberries and chantrelles!

Winter 
 brings fires in the woodstove, savory soups,
books full of adventure, a slower pace,
quiet contemplation and warm cups of tea!

Come along with us on our adventures through the seasons! May you find inspiration here!