Well, hello there. Welcome to Tales of a life. My name is Lela Mael, well, honestly that is not the name my parents gave me but the name I chose for myself years ago. I use it everywhere and all the time, even have it inked on my skin. So, who is Mael you might wonder. I am female, was born in the early 1980s in a small village in Germany. Oh, Germany you say, why do you blog in english then? Well, the answer to that is easy. I prefer English over German. In reading, in writing and listening. In day to day life I obviously have to use German but well, you cannot have it all right? So, then move you might think. If only that was that easy. I live on a homestead that has been in family hands for centuries and if I can help it it’ll stay exactly there for the next centuries to come. Moving a whole homestead is kind of impossible though right? That is why I stayed in Germany. My Dad passed away in December of 2022 and with that the homestead was passed on into the hands of my siblings and I. This blog is about the journey to restore the homestead to be what it once has been: a working homestead with animals and a huge garden. In the 1990s my Dad completely gutted the main house and turned it into renter units. In one of those I live. My Mom lives in a separate house one street over because she never liked the homestead with it being a tremendous amount of work. My siblings both are married and live in their own houses not having much to do with the homestead apart from doing the book keeping (which is a huge thing in itself) and occasionally helping out. Which is fine and exactly the way I want it to be. I’m an introvert, I recharge by working on my own.

I share my life with my furfriends, a mixbreed dog named Happy (born 2014) and an Irish Tinker horse named Lucy (the exact age is unknown). Both are kind of rescue animals. Happy isn’t socialised and not good with other dogs or humans for that matter. It doesn’t help that she was my first dog but well, you learn best by doing things right? We did the best we could with what we have. Lucy came to be through a friend. I had horses since I was 15 even though I have not ridden a horse in the past … 10 years? My first horse, Nessie, a beautiful brown horse, was not the easiest to ride and well, I kind of like to work the horses on the ground. But I want to get back into the saddle and Lucy is a lot more chilled than Nessie has ever been. Three cats complete the furfriends gang. All three live outside since I am allergic to cats. But all three are born and raised here on the homestead.

In day to day life I am a nurse, working within the mental health care system in a hospital. More specific I am a night shift nurse in a secured unit and have been since 2008. I love my job and I hate my job sometimes. Working with in the health care system in Germany is, as most likely it is in other countries too, not the best working environment. But I’m doing the best I can to balance out work and life.

This blog will be a little bit all over the place just like my life is. With the homestead, my Mom, my furfriends and my work I have a crazy day to day schedule and rather complicated life. That combined with a few very time consuming hobbies I am a little bit of that and a little bit of this. So you will find content about Bullet journaling here, which I have done since … 2015 I think and without it I’d be lost, completely and utterly lost. Keeping track of my to dos and appointments is key to keep my life together. I also love to read and recommend books, so you will find that here too. I love crafting, DIYing and creating things. You will find content about flipping furniture, thrifting, budgeting and growing your own food.

But mostly you will find content surrounding the homestead. My Dad passed his passion for wood work, crafting and the homestead on to me. He taught me a lot but I still have a ton of stuff I need to learn if I ever want to really be able to restore the homestead. So, why don’t you accompany me on my quest of learning all those things I am not able to do just yet? I want to take you on the journey to build a huge veggie garden, rebuild the work shops and my apartment and restoring the fruit tree forest back to its former glory. Learn how to put up my own food, get chickens and what ever else the future holds for me. I will post once a week beginning in the first week of January with an overview of the current projects and to give you a better overview about what I am talking about. I would love to have you come along as I learn everything I need to be a good homesteader and work to keep the family tradition up. Come along and learn all those things together with me.

Love, Lela Mael