Good morning from the homestead—January 14th, 2026, and we’re kicking off Season 4 with a no-warning sit-down. We start with what’s actually happening here: cold mornings, frost prep, and the kind of winter routines that keep a place running. I talk through what I’m doing in “limbing season”—pruning dormant fruit trees to keep them manageable and productive, then treating them at the right time with dormant/horticultural oil to smother overwintering pests. We also cover why I’m spraying copper as a broad-spectrum fungicide/bactericide for problems like peach leaf curl and other diseases that like to show up when spring hits. From there it’s real-life homestead stuff: comfort-food dinners that burn through our canned goods (and somehow create an endless need for more mason jars), too many chickens, and the reality that thinning a flock is part of the deal. We’ve also been doing the Frosty Fun Runs—cheap local races that get us moving, build community, and remind you how much faster you run when other people are watching. Then we shift into the political hot-take portion: a year into Trump’s administration, we start a “report card” conversation—wins, fails, and the messy reality that most of us are forming opinions with incomplete information. Venezuela comes up, government truthfulness comes up, propaganda comes up, and we’re honest about the tension between “leave people alone” and “what if there are strategic reasons we’re not being told.”