The Breathitt County ANR Agent and Wolfe County ANR Agent teamed up to present an 11 part series, "Homesteading, Learning to Live off Your Land." The series began in March 2017 and ended in January 2018. Topics covered included: raised bed gardening; composting; rain barrel workshop; foraging; canning/preserving; cheese making; home butchering; salt preservation; bread/butter making; honeybees; and backyard poultry. The series was met with a lot of community enthusiasm. The most popular classes were foraging; rain barrel workshop; raised bed gardening; canning/preserving; and cheese making. We averaged 19 people between those 5 classes. Several attendees had never come to an Extension program, or hadn't been in a number of years. Since the series has ended, we have been requested to have repeat classes (especially bread making and rain barrel workshop) as well as to have new classes (ie, soap making, candle making, etc.).

With the Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge at our back door, Wolfe County has seen an increase in new residents from out of the state. These new community members have a desire to live off of the land with a minimal carbon footprint. The Homesteading Series was, and will continue to be, a way to reach these new residents.