Starting Our Pennsylvania Homestead: How Laven Thymes Began

I’ve learned that moving forward doesn’t mean pretending a loss didn’t matter. Sometimes you need time to grieve the future you thought you were headed toward. Then, when you’re ready, you can ask what remains possible and take the next step. My path has changed many times. My love of learning, caring for others, and building a life close to nature has stayed with me.

Long before I knew the word homesteading, I knew I wanted this life.

As a little girl, I picked different plants and pretended they could cure just about anything. I made mud concoctions and called them medicine. I begged for horses—every little girl’s dream, right?—and promised I would take care of them. I wanted animals everywhere. I wanted to know how things grew, how to care for living things, and how to make something useful with my own hands. 

Those games were fun, but the dream behind them was real. I imagined a life with land, animals, plants, and room to explore. As I grew up, the dream grew with me. It changed shape at times, but it never went away.

After high school, I wanted to go to college and become a doctor. I loved medicine and wanted to help people. College wasn’t affordable for me then, so I joined the military instead. I became a military police officer. It may sound like a sharp turn from medicine, but it was my second choice: I cared about helping people, animals, and doing what I believed was right. I didn’t know of a path into working with animals in the military, and MP was the path I took.

I broke both legs during basic training. I stayed in for two years and was honorably discharged. Later, I used my VA education benefits to pursue a degree in psychology and premed, still hoping to find my way toward the work I cared about. During my junior year, I was told the VA would no longer support that course of study and that I needed to switch to social work.

I was already volunteering at a foster care agency. I had seen how hard the social workers there worked and how little they were paid. I respected them, but I knew that path was not the right one for me. I said no, and my education benefits ended.

That was one of several times life took a path I hadn’t chosen. Finishing school and making ends meet remained a struggle. Through it all, I held on to the idea that someday I would have land of my own and build the life I had imagined since childhood.