Looking Forward

It's good to have something nice to anticipate, and I'm looking forward to two events this fall: round-up in Montana at the Mountain Sky ranch, this time with the Wrangler instead of the Six-Button Cowgirls, and Jenna Woginrich's Backyard Farming Workshop in Vermont. I just put down a bunch of deposits, so we're all set. It may seem odd to plan for fall before summer has even begun, but that's how I feel about summer--I just wish we could skip it altogether.

The Backyard Farming Workshop is a two-day event that will cover: chicken basics, sheep basics, beekeeping basics, cheese making, lumber-jacking (wood lot management, tree selection, and felling), hand wool processing, canning, bread-making, turkey butchering, winter greens/extended growing, pumpkins, and a field trip to the Merck Forest and Farm Center to observe the sustainability projects and heritage livestock operation. Jenna also promises an autumn campfire with mountain music and home brew.

It also may seem weird that I'm spending my time planning vacations while a certain housing matter looms large. We're moving out of the cottage in the next month, have two sheep on the way, and haven't the faintest clue where we're headed. I'm assuming that, come vacation time this fall, we'll be flying in and out of John Wayne airport. But I decided that it might be a good idea to wait and book our flights in a month--just to be sure.