Welcome back and apologies for show hiatus over the past few days, my studio was unavailable during the early morning hours when I usually record. Today I reflect on the quiet power of grandmothers, how missing maternal guidance shaped our first year as parents, and why elder presence still matters. I also weigh in on the perversion of motherhood through surrogacy and the ethics of surrogacy versus adoption and close with a winter homestead update and the duty it demands.

• elder motherhood as practical family wisdom
• early parenting without a maternal guide
• modern pressures that thin extended family support
• surrogacy contrasted with adoption and attachment
• homestead resilience, chickens, storms, and duty

closing words of advice: “Get some chickens.”