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Welcome to “The Sunny Side” where we’ll chat about all things homesteading! My name is Liz Threlkeld and I have been homesteading with my family in small forms or large fashions for most of my life. From growing gardens to DIY projects, to cooking and preserving, to raising and processing our own meat animals, we’ve learned a thing or two along the way. I’m excited to get to share some of this life with you. Ready? Let’s grow!
Welcome Friends,
I often hear some form of the phrase, “Everything in balance.” It’s meant to “steer the ship,” if you will, and keep the line of the horizon horizontal in our sights. This effort to keep homeostasis in our everyday lives is a good thing in many ways. If someone is in a toxic environment whether relationally, physically, emotionally, etc., I would encourage an “everything in balance” approach to seeking that peaceful horizon. However, in other aspects of life, is that approach always the right one? Let’s explore …
I take many life conclusions from nature. It operates in the most natural and innocent ways. Now—tabling for later any theories—when I take a step back and study it, I can see nature striving for homeostasis. Water seeks to be level. Animals want shade in the hot sun. Plants do various things to mitigate too much or too little water or sun. “Everything in balance.”
However, if you live in Oklahoma, and I’m assuming that most of you reading this do, you know oh-so-well that there are things about nature here that few would describe as “balanced.” Let me explain for the newbies:
In Oklahoma in the last year: April rain broke our April record held since 1895; 23 tornadoes in NOVEMBER alone made our total number of tornadoes in 2024 come to 137—the third highest on record. And how about that freakish 515-mile-long lightning strike in July that broke the world record and blasted through Oklahoma? What about death? You’re alive your whole life and the next second you’re permanently unalive. That’s not very balanced. Speaking of death, if you are a gardener, you know there’s nothing balanced about those hungry little squash vine borers who suck the insides out of your cucurbit plants and leave you with a lifeless surprise in the morning! Oooooh, one more good—less grim—example, raising kids! You might as well just toss the word “balance” in the compost because if there was ever a beautifully wild, unbalanced ride, that’s one!
What does all of this have to do with homesteading? Well, the way I see it is that Mother Nature is giving you “permission” on your homestead, and even in your life, to be a little unbalanced at times. Push yourself down into some deep work for a while to hone your skills, build something outlandish for the heck of it, get that wacky creature you just can’t quit thinking about and proudly be that ‘weirdo with a zebra,’ get into a completely unfamiliar hobby and force your brain to ‘figure it out,’ start a business because you can, stock a year’s supply of food or just do something for the fun of it!
The point is, nature loves homeostasis but she isn’t tamed, and I don’t think we should always be either. Sometimes, it’s that out-of-balance experience that levels you up! Some terrific real-life homesteading examples are:
Pansies and Prawns has locally grown shrimp and prawns from Guthrie making fresh seafood in our land-locked state possible!
Tiffany, owner of Backyard Butchery, made a name for herself by taking a typically male-dominated profession mobile, offering animal processing for beef, pork, lamb, goat and bison, servicing the state of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Donkey Dairy in Luther, Oklahoma, is making waves by promoting health using their fresh donkey milk sold off the farm.
So, think about the season you are in. Is it one that calls for equilibrium or is it one to embrace the growth from the extremes? In the end, all seasons change and balance arrives again.
Here’s to leveling up!
Liz Threlkeld
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