Dear Homesteading Hive,

I believe this is the first time I will be posting on this platform since I longed to take part in it for quite some time, but have always been discouraged, as @ravenking13 & I had no place of our own yet to nurture a common hearth.

Now that finally changed; Universe suddenly, yet magically opened the gates for us to find a new home in the span of one short month with our companions Brownie, 15year old Labrador a pair of royal pythons, and a few seedlings I had started back in January. As soon as we got this ultimatum, I felt somehow relieved and gliding on course. Surprisingly, although we had no idea where our new location should/would be, the steps on the path aligned themselves smoothly, it felt all weirdly arranged already.
We both sensed the articulation in us to find a property that will be creatively stimulating in diy, a home that we can nurture and cultivate and that since we naturally live with animals and always welcomed wildlife and elementals to our living space, combined with our artistic contemplations, the place we will settle in, will be a Sanctuary dedicated to the mysteries of the Divine.

From then on, we found an ad of a property in rural Croatiathat had some very attracting energy to it; in french we would say it's charm stuck out. The owner we contacted felt enthusiastic towards our vision of transforming this place into a Pollinator Sanctuary to begin with, as bees have been the sacred initiatresses to our Sanctuary-building journey. After a short exchange, peculiar synchronicities, like depictions of Shiva, some of our favorite plants being planted in the garden already, like a young Fig tree, hibiscus and roses, the owner invited us to come and see the place for ourselves. We were quite energetically settled for that property and after 2 weeks we departed 1300kms en route to the East.

_{Shakti, curiously exploring the new Sanctuary Gardens}

𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖚𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖘 𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊

The morning following our arrival, the previous owner showed us around the property.

Right away when we walked towards the back of the house, a big buzzing flying thing stuck out from everything; it was dark, shiny and landed on the wall just in front of us when I noticed it.
From the way it was standing still and slowly spreading its wings in & out, it felt like it was saying hello. I've never seen such creatures before, and found out they are called Violet Carpenter Bee. They are slightly bigger than bumblebees and do have a mezmerizing deep blue-violet shimmer.

Shortly after, we both saw a lizard with a missing tail. Amore made fun of me saying it's like me, I too, had left my tail at the police! What a strange omen though!

That place with the staircase to the garden teraza turned out to be a sort of miniature fairy garden; the energy vibrant with Life. @ravenking13 even called me to come introduced ourselves to the dragon guardian that lives in the penthouse hole.

To top off the strange messages of life around, welcoming us into this new place, it got really weird when I found an oddly fascinating spider on my jacket: it had not only 1 missing leg but 4!! Its entire right side was gone; suffice to say, I was dumbfounded!

_{Yin Spider}

The same day we were sitting in the garden all afternoon, soaking in the sun and the energies of the place.
A big bird of prey, looking like an eagle was hovering over the forest just across. it was humongous! A silent greeting was exchanged in awe.

The garden is huge compared to what we had at our disposal for the past years! Overall, there is a lot of sun exposure, especially because there is a cliff with an earthen 'terrace' on top, that goes straight to the attic entrance. The soil overall is clay, which I am super excited about and the property even has the same amount of area of woodland with creek to a little river!
That part was the cherry on the cake for the both of us, as we are passionate about the subject of Food Forests, especially since I found some research pointing out that the Amazon Rainforest was in fact, over generations, a carefully nurtured Giant Food Garden, cultivated by the indigenous tribes along the stream.
Having a forest land at our disposal is inspiring & humbling at once, as it is something so ancient and yet feels like yearning for our co-creation as a species again, as I described a little in my post The Messengers of the Divine Garden, and am inspired to write more about our findings and contemplations on the subject in the future.

A few days later when I was chilling by myself on the 'fairy staircase' a pheasant (!!!) made a loud cry and flew right across me from the terassa towards the road. I had not expected such thing and had never seen one in the wild, but it was obvious as the long stroke of feathers could not lie! I later looked up about the spiritual messages related to pheasants, and found out that in many cultures it was celebrated for good fortune, new beginnings and fierceness. It symbolizes the groundedness and the sacred individuality, as well as having one's safe place in the web of life. Seeing it fly across where I was sitting surely was a mysthical (yup, that word has to exist!) sight and a heartwarming welcoming gesture!

So far, I stopped counting but we have lizards, carpenter bees, bumblebees, giant ants, ladybugs and a snake living on the property. The entire place, especially the Nature feels vibrant with life, full of tiny pockets of nests of little creatures from earth and beyond.

_{notice the lizards in & out of hiding?}

𝖘𝖍𝖔𝖗𝖙 𝖗𝖊𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖌𝖗𝖆𝖉𝖊 𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖒𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝖘𝖕𝖆𝖈𝖊

Although we have decided to settle on this property, Life pushed me into a noospace for a couple of days.

From the first day I roamed around and had a look at everything I got visions and fantasies of how to decorate, furbish and arrange the spaces.

We agreed that we would start with making a terrarium for the pythons, do the garden, do a mulching splurge and observe the forest to learn about it from the inside.

What we would focus on over the summer up to the winter would be settling in and tackling the isolation/heating so that we are set up for the winter. We would start with building a stone wood oven.

The architecture of the house is traditional in the way that it has a sort of entrance court with "detached" kitchen & rooms and summer kitchen as well as a smoking chamber. The previous owner had closed off the entrance and encased it in glass door panels so as to make a conservatory space which is awesome, but is practically the same temperature as outside as the roof is not isolated and the cold sifts in. We would start with that room, which feels like it has a prestigious lobby-touch to it, and transform it into a greenhouse/sunroom with creative space. The rough idea is to have our painting space and tools as well as a grow space for non-frost-hardy plants with eventually the sewing machine and leatherworkshop. The previous owner had created a beautiful altar space on one of the walls, and transforming the entire level into a creative altar fits the energy perfectly.

_{My first attempt at video editing some footage I made with the gopro of our new home.
Tips and suggestions are highly appreciated while I develop my skills!}

There is a wine cellar just there too, if we manage to keep its temperature for its purpose we would use it for keeping stuff cool, like hanging herbs, or storing produce over the winter, or a storage for the adjacent future alchemy lab.. we will see what the space will want to turn into..

From the very first day I felt quite some affection for the place and as if it calls us to work with it. Quite a potent Prima Materia.

I like that it is still in a somewhat rough state; if it had been fully renovated and polished it would be nagging, just like moving into a rented place. I'm thrilled that most of the walls are white and can become real-life canvases for our creative impulses!

I must say it was quite shocking to realize that until now there was never such a place of creative freedom in my life. The thought of painting on walls, experimenting with interior design and art with my very own hands is so exciting and never realized how it was a major missing part in my life; and I suppose of many humans.

Working with space and co-creating it with the surrounding and finishing it with our individual touch feels like the same urge than us scribbling fantastical figures on the walls of our childhood houses and building tents and treehouses.

_{these pink blossoms have inspired me so much they are real life paintings!}

𝖉𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖗𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖚𝖘 𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘

I also understood quickly, especially through Brownie's dependency that it would all not happen just yet. If you made it this far you'll realize he is still alive, although immobile and incontinent.
The most crazy thing about him though is Life is so persistent in him; he is fully conscious, aware and isn't wary of life inmidst of his restrained state.
It's a huge mess, but it's admirable and quite humbling to me for how often I used to want to give up on Life so easily compared to that.

But Brownie's situation needs constant watch and the paperwork was not fully completed, so there was no other option than to be patient and wait for the entire storm to settle to finally take our stuff inside and start settling in.

Being used to short deadlines and jobs for my entire life, I never really permitted myself a long term project that would take years to build & unfold, and now what better project that one's own living space and sanctuary in the making?

So I had to understand clearly that the decorations, the tiling, the furnishing would not be just yet. There is alot to be done before that.

And it made me contemplate how as a creative especially I was very thrilled with surface design, with aesthetics, interior design & installations etc but never really paid much attention to structure, foundations and the unseen things.

It also made me reflect how a year ago, we were both ready to move to a piece of land with a ruin and just build everything from scratch.
And how, although we didn't move anywhere, we did lay foundations and shaped structures of character in ourselves and in our union, and I found it funny that now one year later, after having worked on building solid ground in our inner realms, life sent us here on this property that already has foundations, in fact it is a traditional slawonian house, yet it needs to be put back into shape and strengthened in its structure, framework and configuration to transmute it into a warm & lively home.

Just like me I felt, I still had some shaky foundations in my own sovereignty and still my own tyrant when it comes to fulfill things.
Funnily, the feeling of being at sea from the cardrive motions, stayed for the first two days, very shaky grounds!

I was very confronted with that side of me these past days.

My own impulses were to start right away get to work and start cleaning out the place and building. But I was repeatedly gently reminded by Amore that he doesn't even own the place yet, the reality is not yet of us living here, so let's first properly sit in that understanding. As stupid as it was to forget that detail, it was funny to realize that I was quite lagged from reality and my impatience made me lose my sobriety about the reality of the matter.

So I agreed on making "vacation" and forgetting the world and just be for a couple of days.

It does me good. There is nowhere I need to be. There is nothing I need to do.

Just be here.

And let the creative spices simmer for a bit longer...

_{Shiva's first time in his life to be out in real, outdoor Nature}

Thank you very much for reading me, I hope you had a pleasant experience and maybe (!haha) some contemplations that resonated,

If you are curious to read more about our adventure, here are some other posts from our Sanctuary Diaries (in the latest order);

۞ Sanctuary-on-Wheels through Austria, Hungary, arriving to Croatia ۞, by me

۞ Diary & Logbook of Mystical Encounters During our Exodus Part 1 ۞, by A.E.K.

۞ "The DreadFul Wait & Psychopomp ain't an easy Job" - Bee Sanctuary Update Situation April 4th. ۞, by A.E.K.

۞ Trials of a New Dawn - Initiations into Sovereignty. ۞, by A.E.K.

۞ How I found myself modern Priestess of a Sanctuary on Wheels 𓆣 Exodus Diary by ؞‎ KPHI ؞‎ 𓆤 ۞, by me

𝕺𝖚𝖗 𝓥𝖎𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖔𝖋 𝖆 𝕻𝖔𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖔𝖗 ꕷ𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖙𝖚𝖆𝖗𝒚 𝖎𝖓 𝖆 𝖓𝖚𝖙𝖘𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖑;

It kind of all started with this:
۞ Stripping down to the Bare Essentials ۞, by AEK

Then came this
۞ Exodus is official ۞, by me

So we have decided this
۞ Building a 𝕭𝖊𝖊 ꕷ𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖙𝖚𝖆𝖗𝐲 - Fresh Start (with Video) ۞, by me

Creating in the philosophy of this
۞ The Messengers of the Divine Garden ۞, by me

Update after our Arrival in Croatia
۞ Bee-Sanctuary Project & Vision. Financial Situation, Thoughts on Income & Fundraiser linked to NFT. ۞, by A.E.K.

A.E.K. has released NFT Art to fund our project here:
Bee Sanctuary - Fundraising Exploration Using NFT on OpenSea

May you have an enlightening day,

KPHI