Big Changes Are Coming
Dear friends of Mindful Living Sanctuary,
It's been far too long since our last newsletter — the first and only one we ever sent, back in the spring of 2023, was about a bare-root plant sale. We owe you more than an apology for the silence. We owe you the real story of what's kept us quiet.
The short version is that the last couple of years handed us some real challenges. In February of 2025, our workshop building collapsed. What followed was a long, frustrating stretch of working through the claim with our insurance company, and then a careful, time-consuming process of demolishing what was left and rebuilding the workshop from the ground up. That process pulled our attention away from a lot of the everyday property work — so some of the earthworks, drainage, and land projects that usually get steady attention fell behind. We're catching up on that now, and there's a lot of earthworks underway on the property this year as we work through what got neglected during the demolition and rebuild.
We're also thinking ahead about how we keep doing this work long-term. We're not as young as we used to be, and one of the changes we're planning is leaning more on automation — irrigation, equipment, systems that take some of the physical load off us — so we can keep this place going for years to come without wearing ourselves out.
And one more piece of news: we've purchased property in Northeast Tennessee. We'll have a lot more to share about our plans there in future newsletters — for now, just know it's part of where things are headed.
So here's what else we're up to.
We're in the process of reorganizing the website. If you've visited mindfullivingsanctuary.com over the years, you know it's grown into a lot more than a plant nursery page — there are articles on permaculture, soil health, homesteading, and just plain reflections on this life we've built out here. The problem is, all of that had been sitting in one long, undifferentiated list. If you wanted to find something specific, you had to scroll and hope. We're fixing that.
We've settled on five clear categories and we're working through the site now sorting every article into them, so you'll soon be able to go straight to what you're actually looking for:
Growing Guides — plant-by-plant, how-to-grow information straight from our own nursery experience (we're adding chestnuts, persimmons, pawpaws, and hazelnuts this round, with more on the way).
Pollinators & Wildlife — the bees, beneficial insects, and other creatures doing the quiet work in our food forests and gardens.
Permaculture Practices & Soil Health — hugelkultur, water systems, composting, soil restoration — the techniques behind everything else we grow.
Homesteading & Preparedness — the bigger-picture homestead life: energy-efficient building, root cellars, estate planning, and thinking ahead.
Homestead Life & Reflections — the more personal side of this journey, the things we've learned and noticed along the way.
We're also cleaning up the navigation, fixing broken links, and making sure the site actually looks and reads the way we want it to. There's more still to do — new photos, a few more plant guides we haven't finished writing yet, and eventually a page for the book I've been working on — but we wanted you to know the reorganizing is underway, because it changes how the whole site will work once it's done. We're also working on getting our Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts properly set up — those are coming, and we'll let you know as soon as they're live.
Here's the part that matters most to us: we're doing this for you, the people who've supported this place from the start, some of you since before we even had a website. So we'd genuinely like your suggestions. Is there a plant you wish we covered? A topic you'd like to see more of? Something about the site that's confusing or hard to find? Just reply to this email, or mention it next time you're out picking up plants — we read everything, and we'd rather hear it from you now than guess.
As always, plants are available by appointment for local pickup — reply to this email to schedule a time, and check the Growing Guides on the site for what's ready.
Thank you for sticking with us through a rough stretch, and for being part of this. More to come soon — including the Tennessee news.
Warmly,
Kevin & Thea Wallace
Mindful Living Sanctuary
P.S. — Keep an eye on the About page. There's a small teaser up now for a book I've been writing about my own path — more on that when it's closer to ready.
