Although we had been having inches of rain, God smiled on us and we had two days of nice weather for our homesteading seminar. We all met great, like-minded people; learned a lot (including cheesemaking, building a hoop house, setting Wallo’ Waters, and planting tomatoes, seed saving, homestead dairy animals, tools, and much more), and ate great food…much of it right from our homestead, including a home-raised ham.
It was an intense three days with tons of questions to answer and a lot of information flying back and forth.
Will we do it again?
YOU BET!
We’ve already set a date for our next seminar: August 17, 18, and 19, 2012. I’m putting together a flyer now. We are going to limit our slots to 15. Twenty would be too many for personal interaction. Already two of our first seminar folks have said they’re definitely coming to our next one. For more information, just e-mail me at jackie@backwoodshome.com
Loved it, loved it, loved it!!!
I cannot wait to attend another one! I thought I was destined to stay in the city but this totally changed my mind. Now, I can’t wait to get my own property and start homesteading. How wonderful it all was!!!!
Thank you so very much for opening up your homestead to all of us.
It was with both enthusiasm and trepidation that I packed my bag to attend Jackie and Will’s seminar. I was going to meet Jackie Clay!!! Wait a minute. I was going to have to keep up with this powerhouse of a woman for three days…
As we pulled up in the car that first morning, Spencer came racing toward us. The tail-wagging welcoming committee led us straight to Will and Jackie’s front door, bouncing eagerly as he waited for us to catch up to him. I glanced in the window, spotted a familiar face, and hesitated slightly as Jackie waved and said, “Come on in!” Really? We were about twenty minutes early and feeling a bit intrusive. Never-the-less, we sat down in the living room and were immediately drawn into a conversation with Will, Jackie, and two other seminar participants.
The entire three days were like this. Will and Jackie are amazing hosts, considering you family as soon as you cross the threshold. They were prepared with seminar topics and a flexible-due-to-weather schedule that in retrospect seems almost insane to hope to cover. In three days, I got a walking tour of their 120 acres, saw their new lumber mill in action, met their goats, chickens, horses, cows, dog, cat, and pigs. I heard about the never-ending trials and tribulations they experience on that land, saw the frame for their new barn, heard plans for the next projects on the homestead, planted about 40 tomatoes in wall-o-waters, built a hoop house, and saw hundreds of seedlings waiting for the garden. I was shown Will’s 20 most-used, indispensable tools, saw a demonstration of his watering trough heater (featured in the May issue of Backwoods Home), and discovered that Will is an amazing, funny, and inspiring homesteader in his own right. I also milked a goat, petted a calf, held week-old baby goats, and learned about the care of homestead animals, including the most common illnesses for each species, the symptoms, and the way to heal the animal. I pruned trees, learned basics about grafting trees, and learned more about the care of trees in cold climates than I even realized I needed to know. I made cheese, sat on the bulldozer “Old Yeller”, was shown tricks for keeping water lines from freezing in the frigid winter weather, saw Jackie’s seed collection (all 60-80 gallons worth), learned how to save my own seeds, got a tour of the solar energy and plumbing systems, got a tour of Jackie’s infamous pantry, and ate samples of about 5% of the recipes in Jackie’s new cookbook. I met Jackie’s son David, learned where to buy baby animals and what to watch out for, heard about feed, free-range grazing, and which kitchen scraps can be fed to each animal. Finally, between myself and the other participants, we got roughly 1500 questions answered via “Ask Jackie”. I’m not exaggerating. And this was all in three days.
The seminar flyer advertized one meal a day. We expected sandwich fixings or the like for lunch. In our first lunch, we did get sliced turkey, ham, and some cheeses. We also got huge mixed greens salads, sliced veggies, tortilla chips, homemade salsa, pickled eggs, Jackie’s rhubarb compote, spoon rolls (featured in Jackie’s cookbook), five or six different jams, Amish coleslaw, and more. I thought back to the article Jackie wrote about feeding the masses on a tight budget and with a limited amount of meat. That evening, chefs Jeri and Linda made us a turkey dinner complete with stuffing, gravy, canned green beans and corn, baked potatoes with all the fixings, and another huge splay of jams and relishes. Is your mouth watering yet? Jackie and Will even shared their wedding ham with us: ham from the pig that was a wedding gift to them a year ago.
When I said that you shouldn’t spend any more time sitting on the fence about whether or not to go but instead should figure out how to make it happen, I meant it.
Worried about whether or not you’ll fit in? We ranged in age from mid-thirties to late sixties. We live in apartments, in town, and on farms. We came from New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, and California. We all became family once we walked in the door.
Thank you, Jackie and Will.
Absolutely don’t sit on the fence about attending Will and Jackie’s seminar. Instead, figure out how you’re going to save up the money to get there.
I echo Katie’s and Jon’s comments. I attended the seminar and it was like a dream come true. As much as Jackie makes her homestead come alive in her articles, books, and blog, it is so much better to experience it all in person. Plus you get to hear from Will himself and he is another deep font of knowledge. Jackie and Will were so helpful – taking lots of time to answer everyone’s questions, providing in depth practical advice and instruction that I am taking home to use on my urban homestead, and planning for my eventual move out of the city. Inspirational!
It was also great to learn from the other attendees – there was a wide range of demographics and situations – from other urban folks like me, to people already homesteading with animals, etc. And don’t get me started on the food. Jackie and Will’s friends Jeri and Linda outdid themselves meal after meal, preparing tasty wholesome food, including items produced by Will and Jackie.
Jackie and Will’s seminar was SERIOUSLY the best I have ever attended – I learned so much and had so much fun, whether it was meeting like-minded people, learning more about homesteading or eating the fabulous food, there was not one minute I would have changed. I am looking forward to August, and to sharing my progress with everyone! Thanks, Jackie and Will, for allowing us into your world for a while – and thanks also for taking good care of ‘my’ goat :) If anyone out there was sitting on the fence about joining us in August, my advice is to just do it – you definitely won’t regret it, and it could be the turning point in your homesteading adventure!!! Best wishes to all, Katie
Jon,
I’m so glad you had fun! We’re covering such things as canning (jams, jellies, preserves, vegetables and meat), more cheesemaking, harvesting and storing seeds, more tools and chickens on the homestead (raising, incubating and butchering). And, of course, we’ll be serving terrific homestead meals like we did for the recent seminar. I’ll e-mail you a flyer soon. Hope you can come!
Jackie
Had a good time learning. Also, it was good to know that I was doing some things correctly before going.
What will the weekend August cover? Hope to harvest some tomatoes from what we planted.
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