Main fundraiser photo

The Farmstay

Welcome to The Chittle Homestead, a small modern homestead in the Pacific Northwest...

Our little family of three recently transformed ourselves from academic urban dwellers to homesteaders and are committed to living a sustainable lifestyle of real food, land preservation, and community collaboration.

As a coach-counselor husband wife team, we believe that our farm is the perfect setting to take a time out from life to create your life with intention.

That's why we are creating THE FARMSTAY....a place for people to come out to the homestead for an intentional vacation of their choosing.

We are not asking for donations to make this dream happen. Using the CSA model that farmers use these days to sell veggies, we are asking folks to pre-pay for their Farmstay ahead of time (no exact vacation dates needed!) as a way to help fund the project which will be completed and ready for visitors Summer 2017.

If you prefer to just make a donation to The Homestead without a Farmstay visit, we won't stop you! YOU choose the amount you want to contribute to support sustainability, community,  real food, and creative life design!

Or become a yearly member of the Farm ("The VIP Local" donation level) and get free access to all our 2017 events including our sustainable easter egg hunt, summer campout, harvest dinner, and homesteading workshops!

We secured a loan to fund the Tiny House build to the point of being ready for Farmstay visitors. Our builders at Brett Marlo Design in Gig Harbor focus on green sustainable building using local materials which means that our money and that of our visitors is going towards people and products that support a sustainable planet.

At this point in the process we are hoping to raise $10,000 in Farmstay pre-bookings to put in the rain water catchment system, solar panels and other features that will make this home fully unplugged and off grid so it can truly be an experience of sustainable building AND LIVING.


By pre-booking your farmstay with us, you not only get an awesome intentional vacation at our sustainable homestead, but you also get to be a part of creating a ongoing funding source that will allow The Chittle Homestead to become truly a space of learning, collaboration, sustainability, family connection, and creative life & business design! {Think farm dinners, permaculture wokshops, cheesemaking/cooking/crafting classes, mass yoga gatherings in the meadow, summer campouts for families, and anything else we can dream up together to promote healthy lives, families, communities, and planet.

Plus. there are special perks for those who pre-book...such as gourmet farm dinners, homestead breakfasts, picnic lunches, and smores campfires as well as extra farmstay nights for free!

Which vacation will you choose?

"The Bed & Breakfast" Farmstay
is for those who simply want a peaceful place to lay their head, a farm setting to be inspired, the nourishment of farm fresh food, and easy access to all the adventures the Pacific NW has to offer...


"The Homestead" Farmstay focuses on learning a new homesteading skill of your choosing ...like cheesemaking, food preserving or making all your own natural kitchen and bath products...


"The Craft" Farmstay provides all the materials and guidance for indulging your creativity for a weekend, make all those things you have been pinning on pinterest...maybe all your wedding decorations or christmas presents....


"The Food Revolution" Farmstay is all about mindful eating and slow meal preparation to calm those food battles you have with yourself or your kiddos...


"The Bold" Farmstay takes advantage of your hosts' skills as coaches and strategists as they hold space for your creation and provide guidance in writing a Family Manifesto with your kiddos or partner, designing a Bold Life Project, or launching your own business.


The Location:
All of these unique opportunities take place on a small homestead just outside a historic fishing village 1 hour south of Seattle Wa. and within easy reach of endless state parks, beaches, hiking trails, antique shops, and quaint towns as you head out to the Olympic Peninsula.

The Food:
Farm fresh gourmet breakfasts are normally the only meals included in all the packages.  However, when you pre-book your Farmstay here on the Go-Fund me site, we are including 2 meals a day during your stay! In addition to breakfasts, choose from farm dinners in the orchard, picnic basket lunches, smores campfires, appetizer/cocktail hour, and other fun ways to feed!). We believe in REAL food from the earth that is indulgent, delicious, & gluten-free. We promise gourmet food that will make your tastebuds dance....you know, the kind you salivate over in your instagram feed and interest boards! Imagine it: Check out our Farmstay Meal Inspiration Boards





The Accommodations: My design style is modern farmhouse boho rustic chic if such a thing exists :) and your Farmstay space is designed with intention by me to inspire creativity and offer a fresh breathe of peace! You will have your own tiny house that sleeps up to 5 people in a small but cleverly designed space.  We have both a downstairs bedroom/office plus large loft bedroom space! Your tiny home will over look the flower gardens and baby goats on one side and the cool forest on the other! Imagine it: Check out our Farmstay Style Inspiration Board

The Activities: See the Farmstay packages above. Choose from crafting, homesteading, manifesto writing, or life and business design. Or just explore the area on your own….Hiking, kayaking, state parks, beach access, stand up paddleboarding, antiquing, cider tasting, winetasting, beer tasting, 4th of july fireworks show, outdoor movies and concerts, farm visiting, waterfalls, hotsprings, Mt Rainier, sailing, ferry boat riding, farmers markets, fishing, good food, fun for the kids, museums, glass blowing, lavender festivals, lighted boat parades, Bluegrass festivals….yeah, we like where we live.  Imagine it: Check out our Things to Do Around Gig Harbor inspiration board.



The Hosts:


Meet Tessa - Revolutionary Life & Business Strategist, Homesteading Mama, lover of upcycled DIY creations and beautiful design, and Visionary of collaborations. She is the farmstay hostess and life coach who will also serve up beautiful farm tables in the orchard, gourmet s'mores around a campfire, and a dose of inspiration for bold, creative, value-based living.


Meet Ian - Solution-Focused & Mindfulness-Based counselor with a Masters in Counseling Psychology, who rocks out to punk rock music each morning with his daughter, is currently obsessed with building an aquaponics system, and makes food taste magical.


Meet Aza - master of the chickens, overseer of seed planting, and resident mixer of all salad dressings or other things in need of mixing. She spends as much time as possible OUTSIDE….carrying chickens around the homestead, running across the meadow, collecting leaves, stuffing berries in her mouth, and munching cucumbers, carrots, beans, or kale from the garden.

The Homestead:

We have 6 acres of meadow, forest, garden, orchard and animal pasture just on the border between residential and rural neighborhoods outside of Gig Harbor Wa. We share our home with 4 goats, 2 pigs, 20 chickens, 15 fruit trees, and an array of perennial bushes and plants; however, we suspect we will soon be adding ducks, sheep and rabbits to the mix :). We have big homesteading plans for food forests, aquaponics systems, and everything else to feed ourselves and our Farmstay guests and foster learning about sustainable ways of living whether you live on 500 acres or in a 500 sq foot apartment.

We do everything in  a way that cultivates the soil and shares the bounty with our natural cohabitants...bees, butterflies, and wildlife...because we believe this farm and the food it produces is not just for us but also an opportunity to save some land for nature.




The WHY:

We believe that farms are the perfect setting for life transformation....from the natural occurring antidepressants in the soil and mood boosting effects of real food, to the sense of purpose we feel when we connect deeply to our creativity and each other in the daily tasks of DIY homesteading, to the peace that nature reveals in our hearts.

Intimate experiences can often shift our lives more than any counseling session in an office.

We see ourselves as a modern homestead, balancing the wisdom of farmers and homesteaders before us with the modern age of technology and our unique skills as a coach and counselor. We are dedicated to sustainable living but instead of focusing on food production as the means for supporting the homesteading projects, we want to focus on utilizing the homestead for creating intimate community and real food experiences, opportunities for learning about sustainability, space for exploring one's creativity and values, and a platform for intentional family connection.

We believe small farms offer more benefit to our planet and our communities than just food production. They preserve homesteading knowledge and crop diversity, provide habitat for animals, create soil and clean water. Small sustainable farms also provide a platform for community, collaboration, purpose, and connection so many of us feel are missing in our busy, urban, and independent lives.

We'd like to open our homestead for people to experience first-hand the reawakening of the feelings of connection and creativity that can truly reset your well-being.

These experiences are exactly what we think our modern world needs right now and what will ultimately lead to shifts in how we all engage with each other, ourselves, our planet and our food.

We want our daughter to grow up connected to the land, real food, and the creative process of living a sustainable, DIY lifestyle...we also want her to grow up in community. We thought maybe YOU could be part of that community :)

We know many of our readers choose to support our local farms through frequenting the local farmers market, participating in a CSA box of veggies, or choosing local organic foods at our grocery stores. Now we can embody our values of sustainability and connecting our children to real food through how we we choose to vacation.

In summary....

Now's your chance to pre-book your Farmstay and be apart of all this from the beginning (with all the special perks that come along with that!)

Bring the whole family or come on your own. Treat it as a vacation, a self care retreat, a work weekend, a connecting moment with someone you love.

With the gentle presence and space holding of your hosts, who are experienced in life transformation, mindfulness, and family dynamics, along with the platform of a sustainable farm, fresh picked food, and the scenery of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, you may just change your life. At the very least you will have a vacation filled with gourmet farm-to-table food served up in the orchard, icecream cones on a pier, water play in the the Puget Sound, picking sweet vine ripened tomatoes, chasing chickens, and feeding baby goats.

We will be finishing up construction of Tiny House Farmstay in June 2017. Your pre-payment for The Farmstay will go directly to the costs of creating the space that will be your home during your visit to The Chittle Homestead!

Organizer

Tessa Graham Chittle
Organizer
Gig Harbor, WA

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