Last week I was listening to the Craft Sanity Podcast from April. The episode’s interview was with Jenna Woginrich of Coldantlerfarm.
Jenna was a suburban kid growing up, and when she graduated from design school, she took the plunge that so many of us dream of. She moved out to the country to try live a more self sustainable life off the land, meanwhile still working a regular job as a graphic designer. Jenna has written a book, Made From Scratch, about her adventures.
Her blog is my latest obsession. She raises chickens (ding), gardens (ding) raises rabbits (ding) and sheep (ding) for fiber (ding, ding, ding!). Her blog is one where I go back as far as her archives go and start reading from there to the present.
Another book that I highly recommend on the subject, and that I’ve mentioned before is Back to Basics, that we actually bought for my mom and then I commandeered. The book has recently had a third reprint and can now be found once again back on the shelves. This book was a favorite of mine while fantasizing about moving out to a farm and living more simply. This book contains how-tos on everything from candlemaking, leathering, gardening to furniture making.
One of my fond memories of working at the newspaper during my high school and college years, was that I would get stuck back in the camera room “dungeon” for hours and the whole time I would just day dream about living the life that Jenna is now creating for herself. And while I often daydreamed of living that life and would have jumped at the chance then, I’m not so sure I could handle it now. Recently I purchased a bunch of starter plants to grow in container gardens on the patio, and they are still sitting in their original tiny plastic containers 2 weeks later. I can’t even get moving on a simple container garden.
Now, I can live vicariously through Jenna’s new-to-me blog.
Oh, and she just recently got her first little goat! She’s killing me, soon I’m gonna wanna a goat to follow me around everywhere too.
I found this adorable video (above) of her. Just watch how sweet she is with the animals and how attentive the sheep are to her as she speaks.
