I'm a newbi here by way of a facebook community. My name is Kathy and I'm from Western Massachusetts. My DH and I have 7 kids, bio and adopted. 5 are grown and on their own but we still have two daughters at home. We have about 2 acres of land. We have been concentrating on a permaculture design for a few years and at last count had 47 varieties of perennial food plants. We also have two small greenhouses, bees, chickens and we raise a couple of pigs each year. I have a great summer kitchen that's used for everything from boiling syrup to candle making to honey processing to canning and dehydrating. I love having a place to keep the mess of homesteading out of the kitchen. I teach food preservation classes and I write when I can carve out the time. I'm the author of Just In Case: How To Be Self Sufficient When The Unexpected Happens. I have written a couple of other books on foster care and adoption. My little town is wonderful. When have a great little food co-op/grocery, a well-stocked sustainability library, a perennial food group and a seed saving group. We have a raw milk dairy and lots of places where you can get goat milk for your dog as it's not legal to sell it to humans without certification. I buy it for my dog. Oh wait. I don't have a dog. I'm a little afraid to admit that I was featured on the Doomsday Preppers show. I said yes as I thought I would get a book mention. That didn't happen. We were the people with the great cider press but no guns. I have been told I could admit that here without fear of getting flamed. I do hope that's true.