Returning to Roots: Local author inspires readers to connect with nature

CHIPPEWA COUNTY, Wis. (WEAU) - For the past 4 months we have all been at home or at least close to home. One local author hopes her new collection of poems gets you connected to the nature that surrounds your home.

Property in Chippewa County has belonged to Jessi Peterson's family for more than 100 years, even after all this time, she is uncovering new beauty that lies on the land and hoping to inspire you to do the same.

“From the time I was a kid, I was out and about in the woods, in the fields,” said local author, Jessi Peterson. Jessi loves to surround herself in nature, which is the inspiration for her latest collection of poems titled “Century Farm”. Her goal of the book is to get people reconnected with nature. “Appreciate the intricacies of the world around us,” she said.

Nature isn’t far for Jessi, given where she lives, in a hobbit house. “It’s as close to Hobbitan as we can get in the Chippewa Valley,” she said. The majority of the house is built using wood from trees on their Chippewa County property. “You cut them into 16 inch lengths and set them in beaded mortar inside and out so from a distance it looks like its stone but it’s actually a very thick log wall,” Jessi added.

The 16 sided home is rooted in nature, from the bottom all the way to the top. “The roof here is covered in lots of different kinds of sedum and prairie plants,” Jessi said. She might have taken her nature theme to the extreme, but her message is that a return to nature can be simple. “You don’t have to go on vacation somewhere spectacular, you don’t have to visit the Grand Canyon, you can stay right at home go down to your neighborhood park and be just as surrounded by the wonders of nature,” she added.

The book is forming the foundation for the next chapter in her life. “Noticing, appreciating and sometimes mourning the changes that modern life has brought to the space we live in,” Jessi said.

Her new book titled "Century Farm" is available now for pre-order and will be in stories locally at Dotters Books and the Local Store by late August or early September.