My Steemians of Inspiration - Ecotrain's Question of the Week

When I saw this week's QOTW, I knew immediately the answer was going to be easy... Then I realized it was going to be harder than ever, if I didn't extend the someone into several ones.

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First Inspirations of Successful Homestead Bloggers

At this point I'd like to mention the first people that have inspired me when I arrived on this platform more than two years ago. The guy who I immediately knew I wanted to be like him when I grew up, is the one-and-only @papa-pepper! He had been here for a lot longer than me, and his wallet was full of Steem, and what's more SP. To make it even better, he would engage and interact with others, including myself, which surprised me positively. I wanted to be like that! Blogging about my everyday doings (catching snakes and eating wild flowers), while supporting interesting bloggers.

Another steemian that I felt I had a really good vibe with was @farmstead. She arrived just a little bit before me, but was always online. She helped me out with the most basic things to get my bearings, but then went on to inspire me about making the mundane world interesting. She would blog about her chickens, and life in Central Oregon. Unfortunately she hasn't been active for more than a year. :-(

Today, I'd say my favorite and most inspiring homestead bloggers are @mountainjewel. Not only are their lives infused with permaculture, growing a perennial forest garden in the Ozarks, but they are also into natural building (the two go hand-in-hand), as they are constructing their straw-bale home at the moment.

Organizers Making Things Happen

On a whole nother front are a different bunch of inspiring steemians. These are the movers and shakers who come up with an idea, and turn it into a network or a community. Among these, I'd like to mention first and foremost @eco-alex, driver of our @ecotrain, who comes up with interesting prompts for a question to answer each week. There is of course a whole lot more than that to the @ecotrain, but just like on an actual train, the people riding it get to know each other eventually, forming a unique community. And to remain with this analogy, all the passengers tend to be the most different people, coming from all walks of life, where the only thing they have in common is their destination. So where is the @ecotrain going? We're going to make the world better!

Another organizer I got to know here, and immediately fell in love with his organization, is @sagescrub, who brought us the @homesteaderscoop. Although my experimentation with the local shipping options have showed me that Mexico City (and probably Mexico Country in its entirety) is less than an ideal place to send and receive things by mail from around the world (this includes postcards), I just love the idea that he created a market place where producers can sell their goods directly, for dollars, for steem, or even gift / barter them.

Favorite Steemian, especially after meeting in person

I'm not done yet with my list of inspiring steemians! At least I should give a shout-out to a super inspiring guy, I had the pleasure to meet in person when I was up in Canada last summer. It's none other than the famous @ecoknowme, a source of so much great information. At first I didn't even think there could be just one dude behind this account, as it always blew my mind how well researched and well presented the info was. All these doubts vanished when I actually sat down and talked with him. Wow... talking about a walking encyclopedia! Unfortunately he has also been rather absent lately.

Latest Inspiration to Working for Free

Finally, I'd like to close this list of great inspirations with the few really amazing people who have gotten an idea rumbling around in my mind. It has to do with working for free, that is without monetary compensation, but something else in exchange. Something that fosters freedom, personally as well as interpersonally. In my last post where I discussed this issue, I mentioned a few steemians who provided inspiration for this. One of them is many people's favorite @kennyskitchen, who also created @tribesteemup. The other major influence on this mental journey is @notconvinced, a guy who is actually living precisely that life: traveling around this great land on his bicycle, salvaging things from being wasted, and lending a hand whenever he can with awesome projects. If I had to pick one, just one inspiring steemian, I'd pick him. Even though he hasn't created any cool networks, or even been online in two months, those couple of posts I've read of his were enough get my mind rolling.