Today, a reason I'm excited for our trip: change. Seasonal change, lifestyle change, a change of scenery.

This evening, I got my copy of "Seasoned" in the mail. I found this great little quarterly recipe/ writing publication over at a great farmy blog I love, Oliver and Abraham's. The back and front cover art as well as some writing is done by McKenzie of Oliver and Abraham's. The goal of "Seasoned" seems to be to give seasonally appropriate recipes, anecdotes, stories, and pictures.

Looking at all the recipes, rich with leeks, onions, potatoes, and other hearty winter vegetables, made me realize how much I miss the change of seasons living here in Florida. When I lived in Pennsylvania, I couldn't wait to be out of the cold, but now I realize how natural and beautiful having seasonal change is, and just how unnatural and odd living in the same season year-round can feel.

All this made me realize how much I'm looking forward to the change this trip will bring in our lives. It will bring changes of seasons, changes of the foods available to us, changes of lifestyle, and changes of attitudes, and all this excites me very much.

As we continue to prepare for our trip to begin (in less than 2 months!), Dave and I have been thinking about what we intend to accomplish during it. Intentions are powerful; by stating you will do something, it very often comes to be. Intention is how this journey began; we decided to do it, began talking about it, and all the puzzle pieces started coming together. So, instead of a list of goals for our year of travels, we have a list of intentions: the things we will do. Some of our intentions are serious, others whimsical. They include both experiences and knowledge. However, they're all open...the last thing we want to do is limit our experience and knowledge with our pre-convieved notions of the things we want. Perhaps our primary intention for the entire trip is to be open to new places, experiences, knowledge, and things.

1. Meet 40 people who know more about farming/sustainability/self-sufficiecy than we do  
Being city or suburb dwellers our whole lives, we're relative novices to lifestyles of farming, sustainability, and self sufficiency, but we know that's what we want our future to look like. This is one of the primary purposes of this trip: to gain the knowledge we need to live the self-sufficient, sustainable, farm-based life we want. We're excited to meet amazing people who can help us learn along our journey.

2. Work on a farm with alpacas
These guys are seriously some of my favorite creatures, and we've decided when we have our farm someday, a few alpacas will be a part of it. We'd love to work at a farm where we can get first hand experience learning about keeping alpacas as part of the farm and family.

Pretty much every farm has chickens, and it is one of the parts of farm life I'm most excited about. I'm interested in learning everything there is to know about keeping a laying flock on the farm. I've read my books on chickens, but it will be great to hang out with them more in person!

3. Work at the Hostel in the Forest
This amazing place in Brunswick, GA really ignited our love for all things farm, forest, and sustainable. Spending some time on staff here would really be a full circle experience. We've got our applications in and our hopes high that they'll have two staff spots open that coincide with our general travel plans.  Check out their website and book a visit if you've never been...you get to stay in a cool tree house, shower in the forest, and wake up to Pepper, the world's best rooster!