Hey there, darlings, welcome back to the Roots and Refuge podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Sauerz. My friends

call me Jess, and I hope you will too. And here on my podcast, we talk about all things homesteading,

growing food by gardening, raising animals, preserving, preparing,

enjoying that food as well as just trying to live a little more mindfully in relationship with

each other and with the earth. Now, I've covered all kinds of topics here on my podcast over

the last couple of years that I've been doing it. You know, I talk about practical stuff like dairy animals

and planting a garden. I talk about maybe a little bit more philosophical stuff and, and the lessons

that I'm applying to my life really as I've learned to rest and as I've learned to slow down and

really grappling with what stewardship actually looks like. And I think all of these are very relevant

topics to homesteading. You know, I open every podcast saying, here we talk about all things

homesteading. And of course, I know many of you may never plan on milking a goat or having a farm,

but my hope is to be able to share things that can be applied.

I love thinking about things.

Like I love, I don't know how to say this without sounding incredibly simple, but I just love

being alive.

I really do.

It's an incredible thing to just be

alive and I know that that sounds so simple that we might not even really think about it but

what a miraculous opportunity to think and to have relationship and to be able to have an impact on other people's life.

I don't ever want to take for granted this life that I have because I do truly view it as a gift.

With that being said, this last season for me has been, I mean, probably one of the more important ones in my life.

I think that when you look back over your life, you'll have like these periods of time that

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