Welcome to the All In One Breath Newsletter on Substack
Stories of awakening, unlearning, and {human} rewilding to support our collective recovery from Western civilization šæ
Weāre about to get Gritty & Graciousā¦
The above video was filmed & edited in the West Kootenays by my ex, back when he was, you knowā¦ still in love with me or whatever.
Yes, I found my way, and so did he; just in different directions.
We travelled over 200 kms to hit over 10 shooting locations throughout the West Kootenay region, pugs-in-tow, to make this short video possible.
It was also filmed at a time when my heart & soul dog, Jonas, was still alive.
Oh, how quickly life can changeā¦
Of all the creative work my ex and I brought to life while we were together, this video remains my favourite.
Everything is still so fresh, but so far, hereās what I know to be true:
Throughout this pivotal chapter, this man helped guide me back to myself.
Itās time to continue my journey with her, now.
āHealing is not the same as curing, after all; healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to bring us closer to God.ā ~ Ram Dass
Iām Brandy, and Iām In Recovery from Western Civilization
Ten years ago, when I was just 29 years old, I received a cancer diagnoses that marked the beginning of many awakenings.
To find true healing, I knew I had to escape the system that had made me so sickāso I quit my job, sold everything I owned, packed up my three little pugs and left the city for the West Kootenays with nothing but a dream of finding a peaceful little farm to call my very own. I named this dream Grumble Farm, because three or more pugs together in a pack is called a grumble.
Itās been 5 years since then. Now, I write, podcast & vlog about how rewilding the fuck out of all aspects of my life has healed my mind from depression and anxiety, my body from cancer, and my spirit from losing the will to live.
Who I Am & Where Iām At (In the World, and in Life)
My name is Brandy, but I go by Gritty Gracious on the internet.
I write and create from a small part of the worldās only inland temperate rainforestāthe West Kootenaysānestled in a weird and beautiful mountain valley located in southeastern interior British Columbia, Canada.
I am:
A once-sleepy city girl turned semi-feral and wide-awake Kootenay girl
A child-free (by choice) elder millennial dog mom
A rabidly conscientious + omnivorous locavore & farm-and-forest-to-table foodie
A relatively anti-establishment neāer-do-well with a willful disregard for convention
My academic background is an alchemical blend of evolutionary anthropology (with a concentration in primatology) and communication and media studies, and my story is one of profound personal inner & outer rewilding and nature reconnection.
I have two little pugs, senior littermate sisters Fern & Ivy, who are my daughters and are with me wherever I go, 24/7. I also have three beloved pugs-in-spirit named Newman, Chloe, and Jonas that I remain closely connected to through my belief in signs & the afterlife.
Why pugs? Well, the reasons in the beginning were different from the reasons Iāve uncovered, because I was a different person when the pug life first chose me, many moons ago. Throughout my journey, Iāve walked alongside hundreds of pugs through rescue and holistic guardianship while slowly finding my way back to the wild. These funny little dogs have served as my companions, guides, and teachers along the wayātheir severely altered, fragile, dependent little bodies accurately mirroring our own speciesā physical degeneration under the largely corrupt and unsustainable systems of civilization. Bred for sedentary domestication and obedience, yet carrying ancient wolf memory in their weird little bonesā¦ my pugs remind me daily of what domestication has cost us, and how honouring their distant, wild lineage can be a profound way of remembering our own.
Iām passionate about self-responsibility, medical autonomy, food sovereignty, and the decentralization of our profit-driven and grossly disconnected modern industrial food systems. I live these passions through a continual journey of self-reliance, deepening my connection to nature and food by learning about and practicing wild foraging, subsistence hunting, traditional and ancestral cooking skills, food preservation, and regenerative & biodynamic farming & animal husbandry practices.
The pursuit of truth and freedom are at the core of my personal ethos, and my big, stupid dream is transitioning into living more and more off-grid on my own weird, fringy little farm one day.
The Real Grumble Farm.
What This Is (and What It Isnāt)
All In One Breath is a memoir-in-motion chronicling my very unconventional midlife on the fringes of society in pursuit of sovereignty, self-reliance, and sacred sisterhood.
The sovereignty and self-reliance part come from my disdain for the government and itās associated corporate monoliths and industrial complexes.
The sacred sisterhood part is new, as I am recently single and plan on devoting my 40th decade of life on Earth to deepening my female friendships while exploring my independence and solitude as a reborn woman-of-the-woods.
My workāwhether writing, speaking into a microphone, or gazing into a camera lensāchronicles the ups and downs of my ongoing (seemingly never ending) search for the ārealā Grumble Farm, all on my ownāsingle, no financial supports, and nothing to my nameāwhile I continuously learn and gather inspiration as a semi-nomadic farm, ranch, and homestead sitter.
It is my hope that by finally sharing my story, what has always been meant for me will finally reveal itself.
It is also my hope that others may find the courage and clarity it takes to forge their own path back to right relationship with nature, their food, and themselves.
This is not a performative, fairytale, homesteading, back-to-the-land, soft-language, simple-living, frock-wearing, chicken-tending influencer dreamscape.
Itās also not an aspirational story of someone who has āescaped the rat raceā by selling their home and moving to the country with their loving husband to homeschool their children from the kitchen table, study the bible, and romanticize a nostalgic return to tradwifery.
Nay.
Itās actually the bittersweet story of a 39-year old cancer survivor and newly self-appointed spinster who, by forging through fire and rising from the ashes, somehow found herself in the middle of the rainforest to begin anew.
Whoās Invited (and Whoās Not)
Fellow truth seekers, awakened ones, rebels, revolutionaries, rural anarchists, regenerative farmers, subsistence hunters, modern homesteaders, wild food foragers and all freedom-minded humans in fearless pursuit of radical sovereignty and self-reliance are so very welcome here.
Closed-minded armchair skeptics, bureaucratic compliance bots, and evangelical vegans, however, are not.
How to Support my Work
I canāt do this without your help. If my work resonates and you would like to see it continue, please show your support by sending tips and donations of any amount via Ko-fi, PayPal, or e-transfer (in Canada) to brandy@grumblefarm.ca.
To offer long-term and continuous support, please consider becoming a Patron on Patreon, and/or joining my paid membership community on Skool. This helps give me a small sense of financial security each month to continue writing, researching, recording, filming, creating, editing, and showing up.
You can also hire me for professional rural pet, farm, ranch & homestead sitting services (will travelāread more here). While not required, I would love to collaborate with other rural homesteaders, farmers, and ranchers who also create content for an audience and maintain an active online presence.
Here is my mailing address for sending shade-grown artisanal coffee beans, handcrafted bean-to-bar chocolate, raw fireweed honey, open pollinated & heirloom seeds, tallow lotion, psychedelic contraband etc:
Branden W. Chalmers
P.O. Box 731
Nakusp, B.C. V0G 1R0
CANADA
Final (Honest) Words
After 15 years of sharing so much of my life online, I am exhausted from trying to control how I am perceived by strangers on the internet.
Iām tired of over-explaining myself, of being misunderstood, and of screaming endlessly into the void of Instagram and YouTube.
Iām also extremely burnt out from trying to āmake it workā as an āonline entrepreneurā.
Iām not a coach.
Iām not an expert in anything (except maybe pugs).
Iām not a business woman.
What I am is a creative. A courageous and resilient pathfinder, lifelong seeker, and slow-burn storyteller of all the things I discover and learn along the way.
So as we head into the 2026 year, Iāve chosen Substack as my online home to share my lived truth, no holds barred.
I hope it leads me and everyone following along to the answers weāve been looking for.
