The “us” in “About Us” includes all the nature and the people who live and come to visit this 53 acre spot of land in East Texas.  I, Liz Soutendijk, and my husband Bart are working to learn about this community of plants and animals and all they support. We’ve found that in order to learn about this community, it helps to leave it be and watch. And if we find we need to manipulate it, our footprint is small and for the purpose of benefiting it.

I’m writing to share my conversations, thoughts, ideas and feelings on living here in this rural community in the woods.  Each “Note” page contains a picture of the land along with my writing.

Many people I’ve met and some I’ve gotten to know as friends moved here from the city because of the peaceful scenes and natural beauty.  As they begin to build their places, they see that with the gardens come the insects, with the butterfly come the caterpillar, with the flowers come the bees, with the night come sounds they can’t identify, with the frogs come the snakes, with the woods come the vines and dead trees, with the rains comes erosion, with the pond come the beavers and so on.  They begin see nature as a duality of good things and bad things and they think if they get rid of the bad things they will still have the good things

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To me nature here is one contiguous system of living things with connections that have a history going way way back before our living memory of them began. I’ll write about our getting to know nature here, connecting with it, and partnering with conservation organizations to protect some of the wildlife and plants. 

Liz Soutendijk