Tawny McVay || Bus + Homestead Life(@sincewewokeup) 인스타그램 상세 프로필 분석: 팔로워 669,412, 참여율 22.15%

Our story… • Hi my name is Tawny, and this is my home, a school bus named Oliver. • For five years I lived and traveled in this bus, and together we’ve been over quite a few roads, all the way from Alaska down to Mexico. • Between travels we had a home base in Montana, a small homestead we shared with family where we kept chickens and goats. • Last year we finally found a place that made us want to settle for good, so we packed up all those chickens and goats in a cargo van, and together with the bus we caravanned down to the Midwest, where we purchased ten acres of land in beautiful Missouri. • This valley is our dream, an abundant forest teeming with wildlife and plants and mushrooms, with a pond and streams flowing through it, and trees hundreds of years old. • There were a few existing structures, but the last year was one of solid work building the foundations of our new homestead, mostly from scratch. • First up were barns and fencing for all our animals, which was good because we had quite a few new faces join us along the way over the last year. • Then as spring arrived we turned our attention to building a greenhouse and garden, creating compost and water systems, and planting an orchard to supply as much of our own food as we possibly can. • We rounded out our first year by adding additional living space to Oliver in the form of a greenhouse style bathhouse with a tub and shower supplied by the natural spring, and an outdoor living area so we can continue to live outdoors as much as possible even though we aren’t traveling now. • We had a lot of amazing views out of these little bus windows during our travels, but its a different kind of joy now when I look out in the mornings and realize I, and Oliver, are finally home.

After a summer of work (and two years of dreaming), we finally have a tiny guest home to welcome friends and family to. • We renovated and added onto an existing prebuilt shed to create this little retreat nestled on a hill above the creek. It isn’t completely finished (the inside is still a work in progress), but I couldn’t wait to share this little sneak peek of the outside now she’s painted and nearing completion. • Welcome to The Nest 🍂

This summer carried on the steady rhythm of life here in the valley - long days in the garden, the usual array of chores, and afternoons reading to my favorite little goat. • It also brought new joys. Freyja and Odin became parents to five beautiful puppies, we began the process of turning an existing shed into a tiny guest home for friends and family, and I started writing my second book. • To be honest, I’ve been slowly writing it for a decade in journals and scribbled thoughts on scraps of paper and notes on my phone. It’s fragile, a piece of my story so vulnerable and scary for me to share with a world that often seems bent on destroying everything beautiful I’m not sure I will ever be brave enough to publish it. • And yet - I’ve spent the last months immersed in bringing all these scattered pieces together to construct the bones, in stringing them into some semblance of order to see how they move and flow, experimenting and adding and dreaming, allowing space for the idea that, just maybe, this fragile skeleton of words might someday be my second book. • I decided to start here, where I’ve shared so much of the more forward-facing story, by simply showing up again, starting by welcoming you into a day of life here on the farm as summer fades and autumn begins hurling her colors over the landscape. Welcome back to the valley friends 💕

A few weeks ago I posted my own raw words trying to encompass what we are witnessing unfold. Today, I’m posting those of my friend @samuel.hurley instead, because I can’t possibly find better ones. • This message is beyond political lines - it’s a plea to our shared humanity. When children are dying preventable deaths on a daily basis, when 1/3 of a population is going days between a meal while the world watches, we are beyond words - action must happen. • You can call or write your state representatives and tell them you demand action for immediate aid. You can choose to donate to one of the many NGOs trying to get aid through - @savethechildren is one I’ve chosen based on my research. If you have a platform to speak, even if it’s a tiny one, you can use it, and if you can’t find the words, choose instead to amplify one of the many voices who already have. • I often feel helpless, watching the horrors unfolding in real time on social media, sandwiched between ads and funny dog videos like some surreal dystopian nightmare, a slow erosion of our empathy through desensitization. But we aren’t helpless, not as long as we are willing to continue witnessing and speaking out and calling on world leaders to make changes. • Even if your voice shakes, even if you’re afraid of saying it wrong, even if others try to silence or distort or detract from the message - never be afraid to speak up for what you know to be right.

Odin 🐾 • Awhile back we celebrated our big man’s first birthday - still very much a puppy some days, but growing every day more and more into his full potential as Freyja’s partner. While she patrols the fence lines, Odin displays a very deep loyalty to the herd, and spends most of his time roaming the pasture with them. • We’ve been so impressed with his natural instincts and disposition. Livestock guardians are generally not trusted solo until 18 months, but this calm and steady soul has seemed to understand from the beginning he has a purpose here, and required almost no training toward that end. • While he loves Freyja, his best bud is clearly Yul, and he follows my buddy mans around like he’s a personal bodyguard. If you look through these photos, you’ll notice a little Solstice goat in most of them. • The first photo is my favorite of him, at six months - swipe to see him grow up 🥹

We can’t stop bad things from happening, but we can continue to pour good into the world to help even the balance 💕

A day in the life of Pigwidgeon, Peregrine, Periwinkle, Pear and Plum 🦆 • I mentioned in my last duck post that by the time I’d posted it, their little home already had a little mailbox and picket fence added. Over the last few weeks they also got a covered in-ground pool, picnic table, and stone path. • Our little flock starts every morning checking the mailbox for treats on their way out the door. After a quick round of calisthenics in the pool, they take a little shower and then head out for the day. • They make their way down to their favorite little bend in the creek and spend the morning foraging its banks. Around noon you’ll hear them come quacking back up their little path, and they head straight to the neighbor’s house where they’re greeted with their favorite treat - a bowl of peas. • Then it’s off to work in the garden, where they spend the rest of the day hard on the job keeping the pest population in check. As the sun disappears over the hill, they troop back home to where dinner is waiting. After another leisurely swim in the pool, they wind down in their little front yard before filing back inside for the night. • Enjoying watching our little neighbors go about their day - marching single file down the garden paths and quacking with glee when they find a good tidbit and lazing in their pond and front yard is my new therapy. I was looking for some pest management and garden fertilizing professionals when we brought them home, but their sweet presence and comic relief is probably their most valued addition to our little Haven 💕

This morning, I woke up and decided to share my heart with you - an entry from my journal this week I decided to set to video. • I’ve never posted anything like this before. But it feels important that we keep sharing our hearts, offering them to the world, so they don’t harden and shrivel in our chests as we face a burning world. • If yours is hurting, straining to understand and continue forward, here is mine. May it beat alongside yours and remind it - you are not alone 💕

My beloved Freyja, my Friggy Frey, head of security here at the Haven, my soul dog with the siren eyes and goofy grin, turned two this month. • Watching her become the livestock guardian her ancestors were bred to be, seeing her natural instincts come forward this last year as she defended her animals from threats, was such a privilege to witness. My sleep has been sound the last six months, knowing this fierce protector roamed the night, guarding her flocks and herd from the dangers in the dark. • There’s a gentleness to her, though, a sweet and silly softness. When this year’s kids were born, you’d find Freyja cuddled up with a pile of them while their moms grazed in the pasture, patiently letting them jump all over her. My heart about exploded a thousand times, watching her interact with the herd’s tiniest members so carefully and intentionally. • I’ve always loved my animals, but the kinship we share here with our two and four-legged friends is different. There is a deeper bond at play, a way we each provide for the others, that calls to a deep ancestral connectedness somewhere inside me. I depend on these animals the way they depend on me, a daily reminder for me that we are all in this together, not separate from nature, but part of it, returning home. • And this girl is at the center of it all. Happy Birthday, my fierce and beautiful Frig 🐾 #livestockguardiandog #womansbestfriend

Six years of bus life 🚌 • I was asked repeatedly on my last bus tour video to make one that included the outdoor spaces we added last summer. I’m about three months late answering, but here it is just in time for our busiversary - my tiny home, complete with outdoor living room and greenhouse bathroom AND a sneak peek at the quick spring bedroom refresh I dreamed of all winter. • It’s hard to believe I’ve lived in this school bus for six years, both rooted and roaming. I know people think I’m crazy when I say it, but this chapter of the same view out my window every day instead of an ever-changing one is my favorite part of the story. Having a home that traveled where I wanted to was an incredible period of my life, but having that same home now settle into place with me, replete with those memories and miles? • The perfect ending to Oliver’s tale - a rambling man who finally found a home. Happy Busiversary Oly. You are so much more than just a home to me 💕 #skoolie #tinyhomeonwheels #myhomevibes

Did you know the Monarch population decreased 96% this last winter, dropping from 233,394 to only 9,119? Or that honey bee losses this year are projected to be around 70%, or that world wide animal populations dropped 73% between 1970 and 2020? • If you’ve followed me longer than a reel or two, you know animals have my heart, and statistics like these break it. Like most problems, it seems huge - how can any of us individually make a difference in the face of such staggering loss? • And the answer is remembering while we may operate alone in our backyards, when we make any effort at all, we join a collective movement toward conservation and protection. • For two years, we’ve been making those efforts to protect and serve our local wildlife population - building dead hedges and nesting areas and bird feeders and pollinator watering stations, planting native species that serve as food sources while working to disrupt the invasive species crowding them out, being mindful in our building not to disturb native habitats of the animals already present here, and providing safe spaces for those local populations to raise their young. • We are fortunate to have such a vast array of wildlife present here coexisting in this forest with us. Living so closely alongside them, witnessing their interplay and habits at close range - it’s an absolute privilege. • It can start in your own backyard, wherever you are. A bird feeder, a water station, committing to organic gardening practices, planting native species - every little act can make a huge difference to the wildlife in your area. • Behind the scenes, we’ve been quietly working to turn the Haven into a wildlife sanctuary. This month I certified our ten acres as a National Wildlife Habitat, making a conscious pledge that this piece of forest will be a safe place for every animal that resides or migrates through here. • I decided to share this small moment with you, along with two years of my favorite ones, in hopes it might inspire you to join me, wherever you happen to be. We can’t fix the world, but we can change the small part of it we are in, at least 💕 #wildlifesanctuary #wildlifeconservation #fortheanimals

This week the girls moved into the Quack Shack, a little cottage on the edge of the garden with the pond as their backyard. • This is by far the most over the top thing we’ve ever built. Do ducks need a porch light and flower window box? Probably not. They also probably don’t need the mailbox I made out of a tin can and added a few days later. • But I needed a bit of whimsy in a series of weeks that have otherwise been difficult (anyone else?), and so the Quack Shack was born. And every time I look at it, I remember there are people just like me all over the world, finding whimsical ways to recapture joy in the midst of not so joyful chapters, and I feel better. • There is still beauty in the world, and hope, and love. • (That’s a bit of a heavy caption for a duck house, I suppose, but it’s built sturdily enough to hold the weight 😂) • What do you think of Pear, Plum, Peregrine, Periwinkle, and Pigwidgeon’s new little cottage in the garden? . . . . . #duckling #homesteadlife #cottagelife