E58: A Generational Perspective on the Call to Homesteading | Hazel Nieves

Hazel shares her story of an unstable childhood, raising six kids (including triplets) on her own, and how those experiences shaped the way she views home and family today. We talk about why so many people feel pulled toward homesteading right now— not just for land or animals, but for a more hands-on, intentional way of living. This conversation is a reminder that homesteading is less about having the perfect setup and more about building a life centered around home, faith, family, practical skills, and what matters most to you.

In this episode, we cover:

Hazel’s story of growing up in instability, leaving home young, and raising six children largely on her own
How early experiences with gardening, canning, and livestock planted a lifelong love for self-sufficiency
A homesteading dream that never fully materialized into a farm but is still lived out through everyday skills and mindset
Why so many feel “something is missing” in modern life and how homesteading speaks to that gap
The idea that homesteading isn’t just land, but it’s a way of life rooted in purpose and responsibility
A return to God’s timeless design: family first, meaningful work, skills, and intentional rhythms
How the Industrial Revolution shifted families away from the home, pulling fathers off the land and reshaping the family unit
Encouragement for single moms: stand on faith, know your strengths, build community
A reminder that purpose, fulfillment, and calling aren’t “out there”, but are often already in your hands

Thank you to our sponsors!

NutriMill.com | High-quality small kitchen appliance products that function well, are easy to use, and promote healthy eating

MittySupply.com | Portable milking machines designed for small and medium-sized farms to save you time and simplify your daily routine

Earthley.com | Clean, natural, and affordable herbal remedies and body care that support health and wellness naturally

HarvestHousePublishers.com | Trusted, biblically grounded resources and homesteading books to help you navigate real life with real faith

About Hazel

Hazel Nieves is a speaker and writer who focuses on homesteading, faith, and restoring traditional values. She’s passionate about helping people find meaning and purpose in their lives by returning to the basics of family, community, and responsibility. Her work emphasizes the importance of stewardship, hard work, and faith in building strong homes and communities.

Resources Mentioned

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A Generational Perspective on the call to homesteading transcript

Amy Fewell Welcome to the Homesteaders of America Podcast, where we encourage simple living, hard work, natural healthcare, real food, and building an agrarian society. If you’re pioneering your way through modern noise and conveniences, and you’re an advocate for living a more sustainable and quiet life, this podcast is for you. Welcome to this week’s podcast. I’m your host, Amy Fewell, and I’m the founder of the Homesteaders of America organization and annual events. If you’re not familiar with us, we are a resource for homesteading education and online support. And we even host a couple of in-person events each year with our biggest annual event happening right outside the nation’s capital here in Virginia every October. Check us out online at HomesteadersofAmerica.com. Follow us on all of our social media platforms and subscribe to our newsletter so that you can be the first to know about all things HOA (that’s short for Homesteaders of America). Don’t forget that we have an online membership that gives you access to thousands—yes, literally thousands—of hours worth of information and videos. It also gets you discount codes, an HOA decal sticker when you sign up, and access to event tickets before anyone else. All right. Let’s dive into this week’s episode.

Amy Fewell Welcome back to the Homesteaders of America podcast. I’m your host, Amy Fewell. This week, I have a unique guest with me. We’re not necessarily talking about how-to or anything like that, but one of the things I love to talk about on the HOA podcast is just sharing people’s hearts, and why they do what they do, and maybe she can speak into your mission today too. So today I’m welcoming Hazel Nieves. I don’t know if I got that right, but you’re going to say it for me, Hazel. Welcome to the podcast.

Hazel Nieves Thank you so much, that was really good. I’m very excited to be here.

Amy Fewell Yeah, so most people won’t know who you are yet. You are making your way into the homesteading, you know, speaker lineups, which, by the way, I’ll grab you when we get off here about that. But why don’t you tell our audience who you are and what you do?

Hazel Nieves Yeah, thank you for that. I live in Tennessee, middle Tennessee. A little nutshell on who I am: I have six grown children, three boys and three girls, and my youngest are triplets. And they’re 43 years old, if that tells you anything about my age. Yeah, they’re triplets. And I have 13 amazing grandchildren. I’ve done everything from flipping burgers, driving a school bus, to having my own blues band. I’ve also been in business for myself with a digital marketing consulting agency; I’ve served as a city elected official here in Tennessee, and I’m also part-owner of a family business, Local Edge—a “Love Where You Live” apparel brand. And I’ve done a little bit of everything else in between. I’m a person who came from a pretty traumatic childhood background. I grew up with lots of instability, cultural isolation, and hardship. I mean, just really dysfunctional and chaotic—that was primarily what I lived through. My mother was from Cuba and my father from Oklahoma, and later as I grew up, I realized that they were both really about themselves—not so much family or their children. I did have a younger brother who’s since passed. After my mother’s fifth marriage, I left home at 15 on purpose. And I went out to try to make my own way. I felt like that was going to be better for me. As an adult, I married, and my marriage unfortunately ended in divorce, so I raised my family largely on my own. The triplets were about a year old at that time, and I really didn’t have any extended family. I didn’t know my mother’s family from Cuba; they were still in Cuba. My father left the scene when I was about three or four, so really didn’t know his family either. And as you can imagine, I had very limited financial resources with so many children, and I was determined to work and take care of my family. I didn’t want to be on public assistance, although there were times I had to have some assistance for sure. But through my journey, I learned what it meant to be misunderstood, and to carry the weight of decisions that would shape not only my life, but the life of six others. And so I tried to fill the shoes of a mother and a father for my children—which I did not know how, really, to be either one of those. I felt very unqualified. I’m sure there are people out here that can relate to what I’m saying, coming from broken homes and not really knowing who they are, not knowing their purpose, or those kinds of things. And, you know, you feel pretty alone in the world. At least, I did. I felt pretty alone out there and that was pretty difficult for me. Would you like me to—I don’t know if you want me to keep going.

Amy Fewell So, what brought you to homesteading? What is your heart on homesteading? Through that journey, through all of your family experiences and just living, you know, having to take control of your life, how did that lead you to the heart of homesteading?

Hazel Nieves Well, such a good question. As I was growing up, for a good period of time, we lived way out in the country. I mean, red dirt roads in Oklahoma, way out the country. Folks out there had no running water; they drew water from the well. And, I mean, they grew their own food. They raised their own livestock. And that was something that I have taken with me all my life: that even though I didn’t have that kind of setting and experience in my own home, my friends’ families did. And I was just fascinated with it. I got the chance to help—you know, sit out on the porch with other adults during the summer peeling bushels of peaches, and helping can them, the smokehouse… all of those things taught me a lot about being self-sufficient. I thought that’s really kind of how everybody did things. So I’ve always had that in my heart. Even the smell—sometimes I’m going down the road and I’ll smell wood burning or something like that reminds me of my childhood when I was in those environments. And then as I got older—I mean, my dream was to have my own farm. I went to certification to become a Christmas tree grower, blueberries… You know, I’ve just always looked toward that. And still to this day I can, I freeze-dry, I grow a garden; I do all those things even though I never did get the ranch or the farm, so to speak, but that has just been something in my heart. And then where I ended up in my adult journey—where it was really a turning point for myself—is that I eventually met the Lord. And what he showed me had so much to do, and was so lined up with the whole principles of homesteading, that it just blew me away. Because, you know, really I discovered that all these things that I was looking for—validation, purpose, all that—was already in my hands. And really, I believe that’s the case with everybody.

Amy Fewell Yeah. So, why do you think people are turning to homesteading now? You said before, “There’s a reason people are feeling that pull.” What do you think that reason is?

Hazel Nieves I think that, personally, it’s something in their own heart that’s missing, and that is that wooing—that God has given mankind something bigger, something greater, something where there’s what I call a blueprint, a design, a plan that we are not having to figure everything out ourselves. And modern society has basically, I think they’ve turned us… I don’t think they turned us, but it has led the way to move us from being producers to consumers, and trading convenience for skills and confidence. And I think that on top of that, there’s just been this great awakening with people that a lot of the things that we thought were a certain way—or they started out that way in our society—have completely changed, and they don’t have the meanings or they don’t hold the values and the principles. And I think people are becoming very fed up with that. I also believe that COVID had a lot to do with it; during that period, people were sheltered down and got the opportunity to experience being with their families or their homes. And that was life-changing for so many people, because our society really does not promote that or encourage that, in many cases.

Amy Fewell Yeah. So, you said you don’t have a farm—yet. That could still happen; you never know. How do your children live? Are your children interested in this lifestyle at all?

Hazel Nieves You know, yes. I have a few of them that are. I think the other ones are still, you know—they’ve done what most of us have done. We’ve been told: you get your kids graduating high school, get them in college, let them find a good career so they can be financially set, raise a family and blah, blah, blah—which, there’s nothing wrong with that. However, it’s a system. It’s a system. And I will say that some of my children have definitely moved in that—in fact, I will say all of them have. However, they grew up with having to do the things that I grew up with: having a garden, learning common sense skills, doing things yourself instead of outsourcing everything, being frugal—all those kinds of things—and they still carry those things now. And I have one daughter in particular; her and her husband are backyard homesteaders. I mean, they have gone gung ho.

Amy Fewell That’s amazing. So how much property do they live on?

Hazel Nieves You know, they live in a subdivision. And that is what’s so amazing. We don’t have a lot of folks talking about that. I know that that cottage homesteading trend is beginning to take more notice and talked about more, but there are a lot of people who do live in modern suburban America, or even in downtown urban areas, who are, in some way, practicing some of the things that are associated with homesteading, for sure. And I think that’s exciting.

Amy Fewell That is exciting. You know, we homesteaded on a half acre for 14 years, and we did all kinds of things on that property. I mean, we couldn’t have a milk cow or anything, but we had chickens, and quail, and rabbits. And we did have a bottle baby calf at one point that we raised for a project for my son. But there’s just so much that you can do, even on a small property. You know, that’s one thing that we teach in some of our classes at the conference and our membership. Some of those recordings are on there.

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Amy Fewell But let’s talk about homesteading a little bit more. You know, you actually reached out to me a while ago—I think it’s been maybe almost a year ago now. And I loved your heart on just the blueprint and the draw of homesteading. The way that you framed it was just so beautiful—about how it’s a call back to timeless values. It produces resilience, and peace, and, you know, creating neighbor-centered communities. It’s a calling. So, why don’t you talk to our audience a little bit more about that and what that looks like.

Hazel Nieves Sure, sure. You know, I will say this: that the thing that is so exciting to me is what God showed me through this journey of mine—that I wasn’t just dealing with motherhood (although, I certainly was); I was trying to be a mother and a father to my children. And I saw that God really used those circumstances to teach me, really, the precious value of home, because I grew up not really feeling a sense or learning a sense of the value of home. And I’m not saying that’s what everybody else has to do—is be a mother and a father, or take on roles that were really maybe not meant for them. But, what I found is that, in it, that God has this blueprint, okay? He’s the master architect and he created that blueprint for us to build our families on. So when you say “home,” I found that you’re talking really about a place—you’re talking about a place where identity is formed. When you say “stead,” you’re really talking about something that’s established, rooted, and anchored. And it’s not necessarily just about land and raising chickens and food security. I mean, you’re talking about a way of life and a return, in my opinion, to his design, that blueprint. And so I realized that God is so amazing. He did not start, really, with systems or government. When you read the Bible, he started with a garden. You know, I believe, in Genesis 2.15, it says that, you know, that “the Lord took the man and put him in the garden to work it and tend it and keep it.” Well, the garden came first; and then after that came the family, came community, society. And so I believe what we’re seeing here today is this—really, what I call the “great American shift”— and it’s being realized through the homesteading movement. And it’s playing a major role to return us back to God’s design, his original design. Like you said, it’s a return, and that everything actually flows from the home. That’s why homesteading is so important, and families are so important. And homesteading is about families. And this was mind blowing to me: I realized that God didn’t just, you know, suggest us having a family. People say, you know, the scripture where it tells us to “be fruitful and multiply.” He didn’t just tell us to do that; he designed it. He gave us a blueprint. And homesteading at its core is really about returning to the home, and about recentering life around family, and responsibility, work that matters, skills, confidence, and time, really, that means something. So this “great American shift” that I’m calling is really, I believe, one of the most important cultural shifts that’s happening in America today.

Amy Fewell Yeah, at our very first Homesteaders of America conference, Joel Salatin actually did a lecture about this. And it was pretty inspirational because I think a lot of people have this aha-moment when they hear what you just said. It’s not necessarily about the land, and the cows, and the garden, and all of that. It’s actually, truly, the foundational piece of a nation and of a community. You know, when you are in communion with your family, with your kids, with your siblings, with, you know, close relatives that you might have, you are vulnerable with one another, or at least you should be. You know each other in and out, and God created the church to be that way too, right? Literally, the home mirrors the church, and the church should mirror the home; and you should be in constant relationship—you should know each other in and out, you should be in fellowship with one another constantly, you should be laboring with one another, not just spiritually, but physically. Because there’s something that happens… It’s the restoration of all things, right? There’s something that happens when you’re stewarding the earth really, really well, and you’re seeing the earth become fruitful, and the earth start multiplying. There’s just so many incredible things in nature that God has set in place, and all of it mirrors each other—nature, the family unit, the church unit. All of these things were by design, and it’s the same design over and over and again. And so, I think it’s really neat because even people who may not be believers, they are seeing that there is an intelligent design system created here. And I just love that for people who are kind of thinking, “Okay, this is a little bit different.” But one of the things that you said that really resonated with me, is something I talk about a lot, is the industrial revolution. You know, the industrial revolution took away dad from the homestead, right? He had to go out, and he decided he wanted to get rich quick and make a lot of money, and that was guaranteed money. And before that, we had both mom and dad at home, and they had a farm or they had homestead. They provided for themselves. You provided for others. You know, my grandma, she lived not too far from here growing up, and she used to talk about that a lot—how they would have a milk cow, and honey, and rabbits, and pigs, or something. And then the neighbor next to them would have something totally different. Maybe they would grow an orchard, and wheat, and have a few beef cows. And she would always tell me, like, you had villages. Truly, you have villages where you were bartering, you were trading, you were taking care of each other. And then they would send a truck down from the big city on the weekends that would come and purchase their goods—their honey, or their milk, or their butter, or whatever they were making. That was just regular life. And then when we saw the industrialization of America happen, it took everyone off of the farm and now society shifted. And so, it’s interesting when people start hearing that because, you know, in America, it’s been like the 1950s set up of family, right? Like mom stays home and the house is clean. She’s not gardening or anything. She’s just taking care of it. But in the shift that’s happening now in America it’s very much, okay… I know so many women who are like, “How do I get my husband home?” And that doesn’t mean that he’s not working. That means he’s home providing for his family, and then he’s also taking on odd and end jobs. Like my husband has his own HVAC and electrical business, and everyone always asks him, “Well, you’re not working today. Is business slow?” And he’s like, “No, business isn’t slow. I just get to do what I want to do. You know, I get to be home when I want to be home, and I have things to do at home.” And that’s a true measure of wealth, right? Like you have wealth in your field on four hooves, and you have the monetary value of wealth, but true wealth is your family being provided for and taken care of, and homesteading lends very well to that.

Hazel Nieves Wow, you said that so beautifully. And really, that’s the key for me—that God, just through all these things, he showed me I already had all this in my hands: the family. I guess, because I grew up without it, it was so much more magnified in my heart, in my life. But I realize now—I mean, that is really what has happened in our country—is the destruction almost of the family or the disorganization, the way things have played out, that the family has become very minute in daily living. Everything else is elevated. And that is not the way it should be. It’s not the way God designed it. And I mean, how can you have homesteading if you don’t have a home, if you don’t have family, and don’t understand that your efforts and your purpose is your family first. Besides God. Your relationship, of course, with God. And this whole movement is restoring, in my opinion. This is what’s so exciting to me about homesteading. Because I’ve seen a lot of trends come along—I’m 72 years old, and so I’ve seen a few things. And this movement is restoring order. That’s what this movement can do. It’s restoring the idea and championing personal responsibility, purpose. People are finding that spiritual connection within their heart—that there has to be something more to life—and it is restoring the opportunities for community, patriotism, and I believe it’s going to help our nation like nothing else, personally. And I know that’s kind of idealistic, but I’d rather be looking in that direction than feel like, you know, we really have a bad future ahead of us. And my passion now is really helping people to recognize that this is really big. It’s more than a life choice—this is really God’s original blueprint and we are to return to it. And that’s how we were meant to live, and it’s so good.

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Amy Fewell Yeah, it is so good. Okay, the last part of this—you know, I actually get this question sometimes. I have a girl on my HOA team, actually, who is a single mom. And I wonder if you could speak to that. Could you speak to the single mothers who want to live this lifestyle, or who want to focus more on their home, and they’re raising all these babies with no help? What is your advice to them?

Hazel Nieves Oh boy. I listen to your podcast all the time, but there have been a couple of them where I’ve heard these conversations about, you know, the role of the mom, the motherhood. And I certainly have a heart for single parents because I always get people saying to me, “I can’t believe you raised six kids by yourself.” Well, I can’t believe it either. And I will have to admit, before I get started with this, I cried probably for the first two years. And afterwards, I just got on with it and like, “This is it. You’ve got to do this.” But I will say that number one—and that’s not to sound mushy or anything like that—but really my life did not really start taking shape, and I felt stability in my life, until I got really serious with my relationship with God. I mean, I grew up not even knowing who God was. I was a heathen for sure. But that is number one because through that, not only did I begin to realize that there was something greater out there, there was someone who cared about me, but I began to see this instruction that was made available to me as a parent, as a mother. And you look at the Bible, all through the Bible, God is wooing mankind back to him. He’s always reaching out to us for relationship, for family. He is the father. And so I encourage, especially single parent moms, to rely heavily on that relationship, and to rely on the fact that you can read books and go to workshops and seminars and all those things on how to be a good parent—I did that—but the ultimate instruction and wise advice and direction comes from the Bible, comes from the Lord. So that’s number one. Number two is: know your personality type. I’m very big into that because I tend to be a very organized person, a perfectionist—which I have my downfalls with. But I learned about why I act the way I do. You know, I started a long time ago—you probably don’t know this Amy, because you’re a lot younger than me—but I don’t if you remember the LaHayes, but they wrote books on the four temperaments and the Holy Spirit. And I jumped in that. And the reason I think that’s important is because when you learn more about your personality type, and you have greater understanding of yourself, then you’re able to improve in how you approach creating systems for yourself and your family based on what’s really going to work for you. Because I have my set and my approach to it, but that works for my personality type. And so I think that that’s important, and in the process, you also discover how absolutely amazing you are. You are just precious. There’s not going to be another one like you. There’s no substitute for you. You are a jewel in this life. And once you begin to understand your personality, then you can begin to approach the management of your home, motherhood, and certainly staying close to the principles and values of teaching Godly character to your children. And standing up for that—not going with the flow, but standing up for the things that you know are right for your family. So I encourage any mom, but certainly single moms, to have community. And a lot of the time you’ll find that through associations in your church. But I’m also someone who has been in the Kiwanis; I’ve been in a lot of community things that I’ve championed in my own community. I’ve served as an alderman, which is like a city councilwoman locally, and that civic side of being involved in your community—you meet a lot of people. And you have a sense of accomplishment that you are—it’s outside of your home somewhat—but that you’re contributing. And I think that’s very important and will help you as well.

Amy Fewell Yeah, so good. I know that’ll help so many women, even women who aren’t single moms. But Hazel, this has been a great conversation. I know that people will resonate really well with this because so many people are feeling exactly what you’re talking about, exactly what you are teaching your children and your grandchildren and, you know, seeing you do it, right? Like you were a single mom and—did you ever remarry?

Hazel Nieves I never remarried. I was so busy raising my family, I never did. And I’m okay with that.

Amy Fewell I know, right? Look at all the things that you have done, that you’ve accomplished, and you’ve been blessed with. And I love that little tidbit where you said that “you have to realize how amazing you are.” It’s true. And I say that for every mom: you have to realize how much stuff you accomplish in a day that most people who don’t have kids aren’t accomplishing, or even if your husband’s away, like he’s accomplishing that during the day, you know? And so giving ourselves so much grace in the process, and knowing that kids are not little for forever, right? They do grow up. They do become adults. And that’s a whole ‘nother story when they start, you know, leaving the nest. And so, I really appreciate this conversation. Okay, so at the end of every podcast, I open it up and say, “What do you want to share with our audience? What has been on your heart? It could be pertaining to this conversation or something else.” If you could tell them anything, what would you tell them?

Hazel Nieves That’s such a good question. Thank you for that opportunity. I would say, as I said earlier, that both young and old are in an era right now where we’re re-examining the quality of our life, our beliefs, our priorities, and purpose. And I think that what I see is that a lot of people feel like something is off, you know, that they’re missing something—they can’t maybe quite even name it what it is. But I found in my journey that the pivot of being able to understand that there’s just so much more to life than this daily grind. And that being able to get yourself back in alignment—that’s what I call it, alighnment—with really the blueprint, or the plan, that was designed for us specifically will give you such enjoyment and fulfillment in life. And honestly, isn’t that what most people want? I know it’s certainly what I wanted and still want. And I just encourage you to understand that you are so much more than just somebody who’s been born in this world. You know what, I go to Psalms 139. That whole chapter of Psalms 139 is just amazing. But there are two verses there, and I kept them here so that I could read those to you guys. This is just proof to anyone that you are so special, and such a purpose for your life—that it’s so important that you fulfill it, that you find it, that you work it. And it’s just one of the scriptures in Psalms 139, or two verses, and it says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book all the days of my life were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are your thoughts to me, O God? How vast is the sum of them.” That just says that God already knew me, you, all of us before we were even formed. And that God has a plan. He knew our end before we began. How amazing is that? How can we live going through our life and just going through the motions? Being in a homesteading environment, in a homesteading mindset, I believe wakes up our senses, wakes up our spiritual heart to recognize, again, that we make a difference. We are important. We have a mission. We all have a purpose. And it is our job to live that out. And for the most part, it’s already in your hands. You just haven’t looked there. You’ve looked somewhere else. So I just really would like to encourage everyone to have the enjoyment in that. God enjoys us to enjoy being who we are. And look at what you are doing as much bigger than just surviving as the word says, “You were made for a time like this.”

Amy Fewell Yeah. Awesome. Amen. Well, Hazel, thank you for joining me on this week’s podcast. It’s been lovely. I’ve loved this, and loved hearing from you and the wisdom that you have that you’re sharing with my generation. And we need more mothers in the faith and mothers in homesteading that are speaking these things and sharing with our generations your experience, and just your hope, and your encouragement, and all of these things. So thank you for joining me this week, Hazel.

Hazel Nieves Absolutely, my pleasure, Amy. And thank you so much for the wonderful work you and your team are doing out here. It’s just, gosh, it’s so wonderful. I’m so happy I came across you guys a couple of years ago, and I just encourage you to keep up the good work with that.

Amy Fewell Yeah, thank you so much. We love hearing that encouragement, and I’ll surely pass it on. Okay, guys, thanks for listening to this week’s episode of the Homesteaders of America podcast. If there’s anything that you need to reference back to, it’ll all be in the show notes. You can find the transcript of this podcast on our website. And don’t forget to check out our membership where we do private live streams for our members once a month with some of your favorite speakers about more in-depth topics. We’ll link all that information below too. Thanks guys and have a great day.

Amy Fewell Hey, thanks for taking the time to listen to this week’s Homesteaders of America episode. We really enjoyed having you here. We welcome questions and you can find the transcript and all the show notes below or on our Homesteaders of America blog post that we have up for this podcast episode. Don’t forget to join us online with a membership or just to read blog posts and find out more information about our events at HomesteadersofAmerica.com. We also have a YouTube channel and follow us on all of our social media accounts to find out more about homesteading during this time in American history. All right, have a great day and happy homesteading.