Artistic Deviations: A way of lfe

The seeds of our homestead were sown decades ago in a basement workshop. My grandfather was a mechanic by trade and a master of repair by practice. To him, nothing was ever truly "broken"—it just hadn't been fixed yet. I spent my childhood in the hum of that workshop, watching him breathe life back into forgotten things and create new out of what anyone else might mistake for scrap.

At 18, while studying Industrial Design and Engineering, that basement became my sanctuary—a place to escape the chaos of the college shop and return to the roots of making. During one of those visits, I was fighting with a jewelry box. I had decided to make it round, using whatever wood leftovers my grandfather had on hand. Exhausted by a full course load and the relentless pursuit of "perfect," I was ready to scrap the project. The lid wouldn't set quite right; the circle wasn't perfect. I was ready to trade the circular design for something square, something easy, something "correct."

My grandfather watched me struggle for a while, then simply stopped me. "That box is handmade," he said. "Those aren't mistakes—they’re artistic deviations. When things are made by hand, the materials aren't perfect. The process isn't perfect. Artistic deviations add character."

That moment changed how I looked at my craft and, eventually, how we chose to live our lives. Today, our family is building this homestead by hand. We don't strive for the factory-made illusion of perfect. We strive for the character, the history, and the beautiful deviations that only happen when human hands meet raw material. -Wren

Meet the Makers

For over twenty years, our marriage has been a journey of intentional design and a shared pursuit of independence. What began on the plains of Colorado has evolved into a life built by hand on a fifteen-acre ridge in West Virginia.

Alan is the visionary behind our transition to homesteading. With more than two decades of experience in technical infrastructure through the U.S. Air Force, DoD contracting, and civilian IT companies, he brings a mindset of structural integrity and self-reliance to every project he touches. As the driving force behind our move toward autonomy, Alan brings the same mindset of resilience to our homestead that he applies to his own business, Broadaxe Digital. His goal is to ensure our family and our separate professional ventures are built on foundations we own and maintain ourselves.

Wren leverages her background in Industrial Design to find both beauty and function within raw materials. Her work is anchored by a deep love for natural living and her belief that creativity lies in the unexpected. Whether she is supporting families through sacred transitions as an End of Life Doula with Unbound Spirit, or crafting on the homestead, she translates a signature blend of intention and imagination into every "artistic deviation."

Our Core Values

Self-Reliance: We believe in building our own foundations. From our home to our income streams, we prioritize autonomy so that we are never fully reliant on outside systems for our family’s well-being.
Material Integrity: We honor the raw beauty of natural materials. We don't hide the knots in the wood or the imperfections in the clay; we celebrate them as "artistic deviations" that make every piece one-of-a-kind.
Intentional Quality: We choose small-batch over mass-produced. Every product that leaves our homestead is engineered for resilience and crafted with the goal of becoming a heritage item that lasts for generations.
Stewardship of the Ridge: Our work is inseparable from our land. We harvest with respect, build with care, and aim to leave this mountain better than we found it.