Well, Substack, did you miss me?

6 months since I left Substack, and I must say I have greatly missed it! So much has happened since I have been gone, and I was so tempted to start sharing all the happenings again on multiple occasions, but I truly needed a break.

Without further ado… let’s learn what shenanigans Briar was up to over the past half a year.

December

I got a job at a feed store where I was almost instantly put in charge of the baby chick orders. It has been a lot of fun getting to do things with that over the spring.

I ran the 5-mile Sleighbell run with my bestie, Addie, and we both got medals for being 2nd and 3rd place for our age group! Yes, she got 2nd, and I was 3rd, but I’m okay with her being faster🤣. This race kills me every year.

My family took a sort of unplanned trip to lower Michigan before Christmas to visit my mom’s side of the family and go to my cousin’s bridal shower.

Christmas happened! I went up north to spend time with my dad’s side of the family.

January

2026 started, and I went to the SALT conference in Chicago. It was so much fun but very cold. We took a day trip to see the Bean!

I was asked to dog-sit for two weeks, and I got to stay in a cool house and watch their funny Bernedoodle… who loved stealing my food when I wasn’t looking. Seriously, it was ridiculous.

One day, I ate a bagel and didn’t give her any. She decided that was completely unacceptable behavior, so while I was gone, she grabbed the entire bag of 5 bagels off the counter, ate all of them, and left the torn-up plastic bag all over the floor. All the other food was untouched 🤣 She taught me a lesson. Hide the bagels better😆.

Additionally, I cooked raw chicken for the first time without supervision and had way too much fun🤣

I had started my YouTube channel back up right away because I could only stay away from it for so long XD.

February

I started an antique booth with Addie and I have been having a delightful time picking out inventory at various garage sales.

I totally fell through the ice while I was hiking with my friend Abigail on a river, and she had to save me by pulling me out… ahhh, good times. You have no idea how badly I wished I was still doing My Miscellany that day🤣. I still hiked a good 2 miles afterward, too! 💪

March

I went on a spring break mission trip to the local Native American reservation. I had a great time with my friends while serving that community in several ways (mostly by shoveling people out after Blizzard Elsa trapped us in for days).

I babysat for a family from church, and while I was leaving their driveway, I accidentally hit one of their landscaping rocks. Yep, now an embarrassingly sized chunk of Mia the Kia’s bumper is no more.

UPDATE: I finally got it fixed… over two months later XD.

I nearly passed out in my car while driving on the highway. Twice in one day!

Thankfully, I was able to pull over the second time, and my mom drove me to urgent care. They told me I was fine🤷‍♀️; last I checked, not being able to stay conscious isn’t normal(this has been happening to me more frequently). I had really bad headaches for a whole week afterward, too. Not fun.

My health has been a huge struggle for me lately(mentally and physically), however, I am looking for ways to combat it. I may start trying the Mediterranean diet once I have a kitchen again. It is very intriguing to me, and supposedly it will help.

Hey, being an ag major does come in handy! Hopefully growing some of my own food will also prove beneficial.

For school, I had to interview someone over 80 years old about their childhood food experiences and how they have changed over time.

Most of my classmates did their great-grandmothers, but I decided to take a risk and interview my intimidating but super nice 83-year-old coworker named Snuffy, whom I had never spoken to before.

After our interview, Snuffy and I became great pals, and I sorted through thousands of his pennies(or cents😌) at work over a couple of weeks in order to complete my coin collection. We had a lot of fun doing that, and he had some awesome coins!

April

It was announced that my beloved Sustainable Agriculture program is getting cut, or “sunset,” as the college likes to put it.

We’re going to try our best to convince the college to continue, and it feels so cool to be a part of the team that is trying. Never underestimate a bunch of homesteaders when they get upset about something 🤣.

I went on a 10-day road trip with my family to multiple national parks in Arizona and Utah. Hiking the Narrows at Zion was easily one of the hardest but coolest things I have ever done.

The photo below was taken at the Red Rocks in Sedona, Arizona!

Matching my outfits to the scenery each day was… easily the peak of my entire fashion career.

I got summoned for jury duty and ACTUALLY MADE THE JURY! I learned so much about how the justice system works, and I got to help convict somebody.

The whole process took us about 8 hours. My dreams of becoming a humane officer might have resurfaced for an afternoon🫣, and I learned that bailiffs are pretty awesome too!

Not to mention I got paid $32!! 🤩🤣

I desperately wanted to go to a community event where they were having a Booyah Battle, but by the time I got there(after being excited for 48 hours), all the soup was gone, so I was really sad. Then, by chance, we accidentally drove past a little restaurant that sold Booyah! It was a fulfillment of my Booyah dreams!

In case you are not aware of what Booyah is, I had learned about it during the Miscellany days. Here’s a throwback post from February 2025 if you wish to know more!

I learned I have to get all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed, so my first surgery is now scheduled. Yikes! I am not looking forward to it in the slightest.

, maybe you have some advice for me😅 I decided not to do the anesthetic and be awake during the procedure, so hopefully that doesn’t come back to haunt me XD.

May

I decided I wanted to move out on my own, so I applied for a small one-bedroom apartment… and I was accepted! 🎉

However, I decided not to sign the lease because the place turned out to be a little too sketchy for my liking. The hunt continues!

I took a shot in the dark and impulsively applied for the cat of my dreams and got denied by the shelter because I haven’t moved out yet.

He was a Devon Rex mix white kitten with blue eyes, entirely deaf, extra toes(polydactyl), fearless, from Oklahoma, and he already loved his cat harness and was ready to go hiking.

Literally my dream. Still disappointed about that one, not gonna lie. I was going to name him Junaluska for the sake of little Briar and her affinity for naming cats after heirloom apple varieties.

Oh well, I’m bound to fall in love with another cat sometime 😭💔

I graduated from college on May 19th, 2026. My Sustainable Agriculture Associate’s degree has been acquired!

Fun fact: Only 1.6% of 18- 19-year-olds have an Associate’s Degree, so I thought that was pretty awesome.

I had done a lot of back-and-forth about whether I should go for a bachelor’s degree. After much deliberation and several meetings with transfer counselors, I opted against transferring. The option is still on the table if I should choose to take it, but I am done with school for now.

Speaking of being done with school… I’m actually signed up to take a college class in the fall! No joke, the day after graduation I got a $1,000 scholarship in the mail. At the end of the day, free college is free college.

My plan is to take a class called Intro to World Religions. It should be a good one!

June

My hive had died this winter and I got a surge of motivation on Monday and decided it was time to clean up the dead bees and set up my first swarm trap! It was a lot of work scraping old gross frames, but we got ‘er done!

Life is full of transitions, and as summer comes around, I find myself in the midst of another one. Pretty soon, I’ll start my 20s, and who knows what God has in store for that decade of my life.

Whew! A long post after a long break. I am so glad to be back so that I can write about this new time in my life. Thank you all for being here for the ride!

My plan is to find a new job, move to a new place, and do some new things, so there is much to write about…especially as I begin the escapades of “Briar and her Adventure Cat😏.” Of course, I need to find another cat first XD.

Let me know if you have questions about any of the silly and crazy situations I recently found myself in. I’d be happy to elaborate. ❤️

-Briar Albaugh