OUR STORY
Homesteaders and artists finding a new way of living
Séamus and Lalania have made the choice to work closely with the earth and their art. To us, sustainable living means that we have the power to create what we want to see in the world. To this end, we spend our daily lives growing most of the food we eat, creating the art that wells up from within, and creating a constant dialogue with our land and the earth.
Our family goal is to build community with people who support food sustainability while connecting deeply with the earth in their visions, expressions and fellowship.
ABOUT Our Sustainable Family
We own 2.74 acres in rural northeast Pennsylvania. Much of this land is rocky flood plain or cliff ledge. Our garden is about an acre and is able to provide most of the vegetable and fruit needs of our family. We outsource our meat and raw milk from local family farms while minimizing our need for external food sources outside of our local community.
Gardener, healer, woman of the earth
Lalania (Lanie) grew up on an communal farm in upstate New York which sought to connect urban people with rural life. The original idea of the farm was to transport its own homegrown food to ethnically diverse, yet food poor urban New Jersey while arranging for the youth of these neighborhoods to come up to the farm to experience crops, nature, and a whole more spacious way of life. Lanie was the child that got to stay on the farm, building forts, exploring forests and helping her parents with fieldwork. Her family life was both a service to the land and to community connection.
Later, Lalania pursued an undergraduate degree in ecology and a career in restoration ecology, wildlife assessment, and other environmental projects. After years of striving to heal the natural world, Lalania realized that humanity’s own connection to self as well as the earth was the place that most needed healing. Since 2010 Lalania has been studying the healing arts and has been a healing instructor at wildernessFusion since 2013. Through her garden, her community connections and her exploration of deep nature connection and primitive skills, she hopes to provide a grounded base for her young son to thrive in a less than feral world.
Writer, illustrator, man of the earth
Séamus Ó Ceallaigh came from a large rural family. He grew up among dairy farms in Pennsylvania, deliverance camps in Georgia, and on a horse-powered homestead in Texas. At age 26 he entered university as an English student and creative writer. He studied and lived abroad for six years, and when he returned to America he felt compelled to return to his family roots by homesteading. In 2013 he bought a cheap, derelict property consisting of 2.74 acres of trash heaps, dead fall, and a thriving population of snakes and rats. It has been his hardest task and greatest joy to turn this gem in the rough into the mountainside mini-farm that it is today. He waits patiently for his wonderful son Diarmuid to grow big enough to take over splitting the firewood.
