Hello I’m Jenilee!
I wanted to start my first ever blog post by telling you who the girl is behind Wyoming Sage. I love all things homemade, especially a delicious home cooked meal from scratch. I love learning new things and restoring the old but trusted home skills.
I didn’t always live rurally. I grew up in the “big city”, and no not in Wyoming. There are no cities in Wyoming, in my opinion, just small towns and villages. Did you known that Wyoming is actually the least populated state in the U.S? So why do I live in a place that has more antelope than people? Well I used to ask myself a lot. The first town we lived in had 1,100 people in it. We went to church with a whopping 20 people, the most earthy, cowboy, and loving people ever. The grocery store, Hospital, and university, I graduated from, was 25 miles away. Doesn’t seem that bad right? Well the next place we moved was significantly smaller in size, population under 100, and 45 minutes from anything. Out on the lone, wind blowing, sage covered, prairie of Wyoming. And we never felt more isolated and alone. But out of obscurity, great and beautiful things are born.
I became a mother. I didn’t have family near by, so it was a fast growing period. We learned to stand on our own two feet. My husband and I become each others everything and our family, our whole world.
I got used to seldom attending the grocery store, or any store actually. And my lifestyle changed. The rhythm in which I lived slowed down, to accommodate small town living. Never a stop light, never a rush, never a traffic jam. And my mindset changed. I felt my self turning back to my grandmothers before me. How they lived, how they cooked and how they got on. I thought if they could settle the west, then I can too! It was then that I began to grind my own wheat, build a food storage, make my own soap, I even started studying cheese making, well I never got that far; but some day I’m gonna do it! The garden dream was born. The simple farm dream was born. The problem was, growing a garden is extremely difficult at an elevation of 6,772 ft. Eventually, life moved us again, to a bigger but still small and rural town. But with a local grocery store . A river runs through this town and where water flows, life flows. It feels just right.
We are living the garden dream with a large backyard garden. We have created a backyard farm with our own hens. The farm dream is still developing. But the purpose of my story is, I wasn’t always where I wanted to be. But through it all, I became who I wanted to be. I love this small town life. I wouldn’t even trade it for the conveniences of the big city, shopping and all! “Bloom where you are planted”. Grow through the struggles.
So if you find your self lonely and not where you thought you’d be….fortify your self with hope. Grab hold of those around you, and make them your best friends. Learn something new, and dive in! Life develops, people evolve, and new dreams take hold. A seed can grow in the barren, dry, gusty, sage covered plains of Wyoming.
Keep coming back Friends,
Lots of Love, Jenilee
