I'm terrified. You might be able to help!

I'm terrified.  No, I don't have a hurricane barreling down on me, nor an earthquake shaking my house.

But I'm still super nervous.  Why? Technology.

You might be able to help me, actually.

I'm teaching a free live webinar on Thursday, November 2nd, and I would like you to be there if you can.  I really could use the emotional support while I do this, for the first time ever.

I'm going to teach people how to make Chevre cheese on live streaming video, for about 35 minutes, and although I love, love, love teaching and being in front of people, I'm a wreck.

What if things go wrong with the technology?  What if I stumble over my words and talk way too fast?  What if there's a power outage and I can't even live stream?  What if nobody shows up?

That's why it would be nice for you to be there.  No pressure.  And you'll learn how to make Chevre, and you'll get a special bonus gift at the end.

Will you join me?  The info is here - click to sign up for the webinar.

I hope you can be there!

PS: Can you forward the link to sign up to your friends who like to make and eat food?  This is a FREE webinar, where people learn how to make their own cheese!

PPS: When you forward it, you could copy and paste this:

If you like eating food, and if you like making food, here's a great opportunity to get inspired:

Learn how to make Chevre cheese!

My favorite homesteading blogger Corina Sahlin is teaching a free webinar, where she shows you step-by-step how to make this mouth-watering soft cheese.

Corina is the real deal.  She has taught thousands of people how to make cheese, both on her beautiful homestead in the wild Pacific Northwest, and also online.  She raises goats and has made their milk into cheese for over 15 years.

But you don't need goat milk to make Chevre! You can make it quickly and easily at home with store-bought cow milk. 

You can make such awesome recipes with Chevre (Think cheesecake! Think salad with caramelized peaches! Think lasagne!).  And it saves money making Chevre at home instead of buying it.  You probably have all the equipment you need in your kitchen already.

Making cheese is so much fun and so much easier than you think! Let Corina teach you step-by-step how to make Chevre in her free webinar.

DURING THIS FREE WEBINAR YOU WILL LEARN:

•Why cheese making is so much easier than you might think

•What equipment you need (You already have it in your kitchen)

•What ingredients you need (It's not complicated)

•The proven step-by-step instructions and recipe

•How to avoid the most common mistakes

•Discover tips and tricks to make a successful batch of Chevre every single time

•What delicious recipes you can make with Chevre 

So what are you waiting for?

The webinar will last about 35 minutes, and a little longer if people have a bunch of questions for Corina. If you can't make it in person, there will be a replay afterwards.

This webinar is scheduled for November 2, noon Pacific Time (that's 1pm Mountain Time, 2pm Central Time, and 3pm Eastern Time)

I do encourage you to be there live, since you get to interact with Corina, the expert!

Hope to see you soon!

PPS: If you want to see the little promotional video I made, click here!

https://vimeo.com/240235702

Completely and utterly glorious

The old timers in our neck of the woods have never seen a fall like this.  The colors are outrageous - completely and utterly glorious.  We think it might be because of the months-long drought, some chemical reactions.  If you know if prolonged dry weather causes an explosion of color, let me know.  The dork in me wants to know.

I don't want to write much in this moment.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Our mini vacation - because we deserve it

This spring and summer, when Steve and I worked our butts off, we kept our spirits up by knowing that a carrot was dangling in front of our noses.

When you work as hard as we do, you need a dangling carrot as a reward.

This is the carrot, and we consumed it last week.

In other words: we went to Mexico on a mini vacation.  Steve's amazing parents flew to our homestead to take care of our kids and animals, so we two lovebirds could enjoy some major, well deserved R and R.  

And we sure did.

Time together in the sun, waterfalls, Pina Colatas by the beach, magical sunrises and sunsets... we had it all for five days.

We flew to Nueva Puerto Vallarta and stayed in a gorgeous place by the ocean.  We bought this super inexpensive deal from Costco, and it was all-inclusive: a great hotel room, and we could eat and drink as much as we wanted, which is insane, because the food alone would have cost as much as the price of the whole package.

It blew our minds.  It's not something we usually do - usually we spend very little money on our vacations: backpacking up a mountain, going somewhere cheap where we can cook our own meals...

But this?  This?  

Wow!

We spent plenty of time relaxing on the beach (I brought my knitting), playing in the waves, dunking in the pool, but we also did some active stuff.  One day, we rented a car and went exploring, finding many colorful places.

One of my favorites: a dog in a butcher shop, looking kind of guilty amidst all the roasting chickens...

And the pretty church with its white washed walls, brick ceilings and wooden floors...

Pelicans begging for food from the fish vendor...

Now we're back home in the cold Pacific Northwest.  It rained 2 and a half inches the day we got back.  It's all good, though, because we need the rain.  And the fall colors!!!! Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post, because the fall pictures will blow your mind!

Are you enjoying fall?

Totally fall

One sign that it's fall are the bushels of autumnal food we harvest from our garden: squashes and apples.

Also: bear poop under the apple tree.  I am so very sorry to assault your senses with pictures of bear shit, especially if you read this early in the morning while eating breakfast.

But I thought it was so impressive to see these huge piles of droppings right underneath the tree where the bear gorged on our apples.  It was so thoughtful of him/her to fertilize the tree for us, don't you think?

Talking of apples: we've been making apple cider.  One of our trees (the one with all the bear poop, the one under which we planted our first born's placenta almost 15 years ago), produced 150 pounds of apples this year.

We put Steve's Dad (his parents are visiting) to work, and he helped pick enough apples to press into cider.  We went to our neighbors', who have an antique cider press, and produced eight gallons of apple juice, which we will drink, freeze and make into hard cider.

More signs of autumn: 

• fires in the wood stove, 

• walking in the woods with crunchy leaves underfoot, 

• rotting salmon by the river,

• dogs in front of the wood stove,

• homemade buttermilk biscuits

We've been driving across our mountain pass to collect more elderberries.  So far, I've made seven gallons of elderberry syrup.  We're making wine with some of it, and I can't wait to tell you how it turns out.  We have to wait a few months to taste it...

We had a great time with Steve's parents enjoying the fall colors, mountain views and excellent coffee on the other side of the mountains.

Another important fall event is Luke's birthday.  He turned 13, which means he's a teenager, which means we now have two teenagers in the house, which means we are getting old.

It's okay, though.  The teenage dudes are great.  It's our little daughter that worries me, because she is already acting like a teenager at almost eight years old.

Luke is awesome.  He's turning into a thoughtful, funny, considerate, but-still- with-plenty-of-fire young man.  One of the examples to illustrate this was when a girl in his class asked him out.  Luke, not wanting to hurt the girl's feelings while being terrified at the chick's proposition responded: "No offense to you at all, but I'm only in seventh grade, and I'm not ready to date anyone."

How sweet is that?

I will leave you with pictures of fingerless mittens I knitted last year.  I teach how to knit fingerless mittens in one of my online courses.  They are different and more fancy in the pictures below, but it's a step-by-step video tutorial on how to make some amazing Christmas presents!

And I'm gonna throw a picture of our house in after something very rare happened: the living room was cleaned up.

What's going on in your neck of the woods?