Hello and Welcome!

This is Simon, one of the Forrest family dogs! He is a 1.5 year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Hello! Welcome to the Cultivate The Village Blog. My name is Vee Forrest, and I hope we can make some magic together here.  Let’s get into it.

Who am I? 

I am a Colorado-based social work student, devoted pet mom to four pups and two cats, fiber artist, and a (rookie) urban homesteader. I love to crochet, knit, and weave, and I am hoping to expand my knowledge to sewing soon too! My husband and I have four dogs: Winnie, a senior German Shepherd-esque supermutt, Mickey, a Golden Retriever, Simon, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and Trouble, an English Springer Spaniel. We also have two cats: Milo, a very normal tabby, and Cabbie, a very abnormal creature that should be studied in the science textbooks (she has bowed legs, half a tail, extra toes, and a constant flow of goop from her eyes and nose that comes as a result of chronic upper respiratory infections from her shelter cat days. She is gross, weird, and extremely loved). You’ll see pictures of everyone scattered throughout the website– they sure are pretty! 

My husband and I were fortunate enough to purchase our first home in December of 2024, and we are planning to turn our backyard into a mini urban homestead. We are adding many raised garden beds to grow our own fruits and veggies, and a chicken coop to farm our own eggs (especially since they’re currently running about $13/dozen in our local grocery stores). Our goal is to produce enough from the garden to help support our chosen family who lives in the area, too! I have never had chickens before, but I grew up around some family that had a large flock, and I am really excited to learn all of the ins and outs of chicken husbandry!

Why “Cultivate The Village”? 

We all know the proverb that goes “it takes a village to raise a child”, but what happens when you aren’t a child anymore? Does becoming an adult mean that you no longer need your village? 

No, of course not! We all still need people to not only survive, but to go beyond just surviving and actually begin to thrive. My goal with this blog is to share content and information, and to build a community, to help you–and I– cultivate our own villages so that we can all thrive. 

Another reason I chose the name “Cultivate The Village” is because of a song that is very near and dear to my heart. “The Village”, written and performed by Wrabel, is a song that discusses the feelings of isolation that many queer* people experience due to the ostracization we receive from the dominant culture. When this song was released in 2019, I was having a difficult time accepting my queerness. I grew up in the church, and I felt unforgivable for the “sin” of loving another person. When I first listened to Wrabel’s song, something clicked in my brain and maybe also in my soul. Hearing the lines “there’s nothing wrong with you… there’s something wrong in the village” moved the blame and shame I was holding from being on my shoulders to being on the shoulders of the church and the community I was living in. I was finally able to internalize that: There was nothing wrong with me. There was something wrong with my village. From that moment forward, my goal was to cultivate the village that is wanted, needed, and deserved for myself and anyone else interested. 

*Please note: I use the word “queer” often when referring to people within the LGBTQIA+ community. This word was historically used as a slur used to harm my community, but many of us have chosen to reclaim it and make it ours again. I love the word queer, and I love being queer even more. In my experience, identifying as queer allows for a certain amount of ambiguity and privacy that other identities do not. However, I acknowledge that many LGBTQIA+ people may not be comfortable with this word, for a myriad of reasons. In your personal life, be sure to ask people how they would like to be referred to in advance, to avoid causing or perpetuating any harm. 

So, what’s next? 

Who knows! I guess we’ll all have to stick around and find out. You can expect me to post on a variety of topics, including (but definitely not limited to) animals, politics, social work, urban homesteading, books and other media, and maybe even some silly stories and satire sprinkled in for good measure. Since recently reigniting my passion for writing, my interests have widened significantly. I can’t wait to see where this journey takes us together! 

I have a professor this semester that always ends our class in the same way (Professor Williams, if you’re out there, please know that you are one of my greatest inspirations and I’m your biggest fan), and find it to be quite comforting and grounding, so I’m going to steal part of her closing for my blog posts: 

Be SO well, be gentle with yourself, and don’t talk to shitty people. Love you, bye!