It’s fall and the season doesn’t last very long - or at least, the leaves don’t stay on the trees for long, so I’ve been doing my best to get out and soak in the colorful fall foliage before it’s gone. I had never lived in a place like this before, so experiencing fall colors is something that’s so special to me and something I know I’ll never tire of.

In today's video I share about a trip to a local lake that I took with my parents at the end of the summer. I also share some final footage from my summer and then footage from the beginning of fall, with all the beautiful fall foliage. I have more footage of the fall leaves to share in an upcoming video, but this was a beautiful introduction. I love autumn!

I've been in a bit of a funk lately, that's had me very creatively blocked. I can't even tell you how many times I've tried to make this video, and how many versions of it there are floating through space. But although the creative block hasn't magically disappeared, I've decided it was time to force myself through it. Because I've learned over the years, that sometimes, creativity must be forced.

What is your vision for the future? If you take the time to look, there's so much magic and so much beauty all around us in the natural world. We're taught to see the artificial, man-made version of reality as progress and evolution, but this "evolved" way of living causes so much stress, drama and destruction that it makes me question how evolved it actually is.

In today’s video I’m going to take you on a journey with me as I forage for plantain and make a plantain salve for bug bite relief and to help heal scratches. I start by making a plantain infused oil (which is a two day process) and then melt it together with beeswax to create a salve. I’ve been using this along with my Bug Bite Thing, which I discovered this year (I’ve written a review on it, I love it so much.

The beauty of nature in spring is absolutely magical. We’re currently getting close to summer, as berries are starting to come out and the flowers are changing. It’s wild to see how quickly things can change in a week’s time. This week I did some filming of nature, but all of it was from right around the house, as I had to be home with my little dog, Maggie, who was having some health issues. She’s fine now—back to her normal little nutty self—but it was a tough week.

It’s been a beautiful week full of tons of spring rain. I’ve gone on two rainforest hikes this past week—one when my friend Michele visited and the second with the doggies. It’s pretty magical living so close to the rainforest—colorful butterflies and bugs and other critters all around, and gorgeous waterfalls to stumble upon, all within 20 minutes of my house.

Spring is here! It’s been so exciting to see and smell the new blooms, and I’ve been foraging and getting to know new wild edible and medicinal foods. This is a story about that.

If you’re anything like me, you’re a mosquito magnet when the weather warms up. I discovered an amazing tool for bug bites this year and I love it so much that I needed to share. This is a review of The Bug Bite Thing.

Ramps have become my favorite foraged food. I love their tender leaves and pungent flavor. This year I was inspired to create my own butter recipe, because most recipes called for way more ramps than I have available to me. It’s simple and easy and only requires 1 ounce of ramps.

Spring feels like the actual beginning of the year for me, and not January 1st. Because of this, I decided to set my goals for the year in springtime, and I held a little ritual, to celebrate the process.

It was time to expand my worm compost bin! My poor worms had been living in a small 5 gallon bucket for too long, and so I decided to make them a new house! This will also allow me to compost more!

The modern day human only has one speed all throughout the year—rushing! With our modern technologies and the pressures we put on ourselves to always keep up the pace, we no longer pay attention to what each season is asking us to do. Winter is for slowing down.

Adults no longer know how to have fun once they reach a certain age. Everything becomes way too serious and goal oriented. Today I decided to throw all of that aside and have some fun, playing in the snow like a child.

This is a video about my life in North Carolina, and an introduction to my YouTube channel. I came here to grow my own food, and to purchase food locally, to learn to forage and provide for myself. And this is a video about that journey.

Too much technology turns my brain to mush and makes me feel terrible. I get this confused, foggy-headed feeling that I can only clear by going outside and moving my body. So today, when I found myself with a technology hangover, I did just that. I grabbed my dogs and we went to a local park with a beautiful waterfall.

I’m an introvert by nature—I burn out with too much social interaction and require a lot of alone time to recharge, so living alone and working from home suit me really well. Over the past two years, however, I’ve realized that although I love to hermit, there’s a limit to how much hermitting I can handle.

I’ve been in Western North Carolina for almost two months now, and I’ve had a great time exploring my new home. I arrived during the peak of the fall leaves, which was magical, and something I had never seen before. Seeing the hillsides covered in reds and oranges was at the same time beautiful to my eyes and confusing to my brain, as it was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

I moved to Western North Carolina! It was hard to leave my life in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, but deep down inside I knew it was time. 2020's fire season really scared me, and I was done with seven months of winter and snow. I really wanted to move somewhere with more consistent rainfall, where I could buy some land and grow some food, which is how I ended up in Western North Carolina.

I'm raising monarch butterflies! I didn't actually even know it was a thing until I got to California in June. Raising monarchs is a magical and exciting undertaking, but if you're going to do it, you have to be prepared for some potential caterpillar and chrysalis death. I had some of mine die, due to the tachinid fly.