I stumbled upon Steemit just this last October. I was made aware of this crazy platform from a friend @themyrrhmaid. At first, I was hesitant to jump in. It was an intriguing concept but I couldn't quite grasp its depth and potential on my initial inspection. I had plans to attempt building an audience on YouTube and Medium revolving around my homestead and permaculture work. But once the weight, power, and potential of Steem hit me, I chose to abandon everything else and dive all in here. It took some time to learn the ropes and plug into the amazing homesteading community, Homesteaders Online, but once I did, everything started clicking. I found so many great people doing amazing things all over the world. @mountainjewel being one of them, who nominated me to participate in @rocking-dave's challenge your-2017-top-5.

Here are my personal top 5 posts from 2017!

5. Why I am an Atheist

In this post I walk readers through my spiritual journey of leaving Christianity and highlight the thoughts and conflicts that were monumental in shifting my spirituality.

4. Building a raised bed, hugelkultur keyhole garden

Building this raised bed was quite the undertaking, I'm glad I was able to share the unique experience and design with all of you, and that it was received so well.

3. Why I am a vegetarian

The vegan/vegetarian/omnivore/herbivore debate has been so heated the past few years. There was so much zeal and exaggeration, I wanted to speak to the issue from a levelheaded perspective and confront all the facts without inflating data to prove my point. This was my first post that gained any recognition, and the one that got me addicted to Steem. I still remember the moment I went to my blog and saw it at $70.00. At first, I was so excited thinking it was $0.70, I did a double take and nearly lost my lid.

2. Field Guide to Steemit: How it works and how to survive your first 30 days

It took me quite a bit of time to understand all the layers of Steem, and there wasn't a single source I could find that contained all the essential knowledge in human-readable form. So I created this giant post as a single resource to onboard new users. I had a lot of fun designing the graphics for this as well.

1. A system for growing 100% of your food: Part 1

Starting a garden from scratch can be overwhelming. With so many tools, methods, systems, and ideologies flowing around everywhere, I wanted to offer a consolidated plan that would aid homesteaders, gardeners, and market gardeners in planning, organizing, and structuring their food production. I gathered yields, calories, and protein data of all sorts of vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and fruit, and designed a model that can start from a small backyard garden and scale up almost infinitely without much change in the system. This will continue to be the central concept that I work through for years to come, as I trial, improve and build upon it.

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Thanks again @mountainjewel for the nomination! I'm looking forward to a great year, and following you all on your journeys!

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I nominate

@soulturtle
@elew
@aunt-deb
@buttcoins
@pensif