A living story.

Eleanor wanted a forest that she could steward, where she could see the results of her work in her lifetime. Paul had long dreamed of a place in the woods that was self-sufficient. In 1995, we found an abandoned old farm homestead, a place of failed dreams in centuries past, carved out of the mixed forest in a place they call ‘the land between.’ We would bring it back to life with dreams of our own.

I won’t say we bought it, because that implies to possess it, but we did hand over the asking price—and the deed we acquired gave us the responsibility to exercise stewardship of the place. 

 Arriving for the first time we pulled aside the broken gate, spread a tarp on the ground upon which the children could safely play, and cut a path along the overgrown lane to start clearing a building site. A year later we were living in our self-built off grid home, had rebuilt the barn, cleared a field, planted 10,000 trees, and were raising a happy, healthy family. 

Today, we call this place Rainbow Woods. Come in the fall and you might presume that it takes its name from the splash of colour in the forest canopy. For us, there is a deeper understanding—in which the rainbow is a symbol of new beginnings, of hope, of peace, of equality.

It has been 25 years since that first day. Much has changed, but not that dream.

— Paul Reed, 2021