Hey there, darlands.

Welcome back to the Roots and Refuge podcast.

My name is Jessica Sowers.

My friends call me Jess, and I hope you will too.

I'm so glad to have you here on my podcast today,

where we talk about all things homesteading, raising animals, growing a garden, cooking food, preserving it, enjoying it, sharing it, as well as living more mindfully

in relationship with each other and the earth.

Today's a little bit different than usual, at least for me, in recording this podcast

as I am at home.

I'm not in my office.

I'm actually my RV with a beautiful little panoramic view of my farm.

I decided to bring all of my

recording equipment home because it's Thanksgiving week. And I knew that it was going to be a really,

really busy week. And I also knew I needed to record this podcast. I decided I would make myself,

I guess, a little bit easier task by not having to drive to do this. And as I set all of my stuff up,

I've got a cup of our lovely Bula coffee from our roosting company. I've got my glass of water.

And I'm sitting here looking out at my farm. And I just had this moment of taking a deep breath

and thinking, this is a really good place to talk about homesteading while I have this beautiful view.

I wish I could just snapshot it, show it to you right now.

The leaves are still, I would say, changing, though I think we probably have maybe another week of having leaves on the trees.

But there's still some fall color out there.

Everything's kind of starting to brown.

...