Today I'm talking with Susan at Momma Dragon's Homestead.   www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead Muck Boots  Calendars.Com If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Susan at Mama Dragon's Homestead in Maryland, of all places. Good morning, Susan, how are you?  Good morning, I'm doing well. How are you? Well, let's be honest, you and I are both coming off of a two-week sickness. And if I sound rough, it's because I have had the most 00:26ridiculously miserable head cold upper respiratory thing  since two Tuesdays ago. And  how long have you had it? It's been about the same. I'm on week three and  doing so much better than I was before.  My tonsils decided that they were going to  get huge on me. So  but it's something that my kids brought home for sure.  Yeah, my kid went to see his girlfriend and she had been sick and I didn't know she'd been sick. 00:54And I think he brought it home from her place. So I'm kind of  mildly displeased with him,  but I love him. And so I'm just like, eh, it could have been my husband bringing it home from work. can't find anybody to blame. I just have to be miserable.  So  if  Susan sounds snorky or I sound snorky, that's why.  And listener, if you are smart, 01:19try to make sure you wash your hands and if you feel okay about it wear a mask when you go out in public because it is going around. Yeah it is. It's gross you do not want this. It has been so bad.  Okay so first off I'm so happy that you're you're well enough to chat with me  and second off why is it mama dragons homestead? um I  really really love dragons. um 01:47I was definitely uh kind of a horse girl growing up.  But then like in middle school, was like, you know what? I'm going to just make these look like dragons now. dragons  have just been something that  I've  loved for most of my life.  And I'm an artist as well. So I draw a lot of dragons. uh I  didn't want uh my homestead to be uh 02:17a name that I already have online elsewhere or anything. I tried to make it kind of, well, I love dragons. So I'm a mama. Here's dragons. Mama dragon.  Well, it's attention getting because I saw it on Facebook and I was like, hmm, what is this? Does she raise dragons? Do they exist?  My kids, my kids are all grown. But if you had figured out a way to find dragon eggs, hatch them and raise dragons, they would have been all over that.  Oh, if I 02:46you'll be the first to know because I'm all about that.  Yeah, the book that got my youngest hooked on reading  was Aragon and he talked about dragon eggs incessantly for months after he read that book.  I actually have read that one too. think I was um in middle school as well when I read that one. ah But my first uh big dragon series book was Anna Caffrey's Dragon Riders of Fern.  Mine too. 03:14love that series. Absolutely love it.  Me too. And what I didn't know when I started, the first one I read, we're going to get into books for a minute, was The White Dragon because I didn't know there were other books before that one. And that's the one that got me sucked in. And then  as a young adult, I learned that there were so many more. And then I think she's died now. think  Emma Caffrey has passed. So there will be no more Pern books. And I'm kind of sad about it. 03:44She did collaborate with her son. So her son has, they've got books that they've done together and some that he's done. So there's still some Anne McCaffrey magic out there. I may have to dig into it. I haven't read one in a long time. Okay. Well, anyone who's a reader and loves dragons and loves words, go find the Pern series because it is fabulous. So I don't want to get into books too much because I am a word nerd a