Here's a change of pace, in case you're "homesteaded-out"

Are you homesteaded-out yet?  If you're part of the Modern Homesteading Summit, you have been getting bombarded with homesteading skills and might be sick of them by now.  Or like me, you are even MORE inspired (if you missed signing up, you can still do so HERE <---).

Either way, let's take a break from homesteading and get a dose of beautiful wilderness, shall we?  I took these pictures on various walks straight out of the back door from our homestead.  I love living in the wild!

Feel better?  Good.

Let's walk back to our homestead and look at what's been happing lately.

We've been having lots of bonfires, because the weather has been so summery.  You can see that our dog has to restrain herself to behave around the hot dogs...  

I put this picture on Facebook and told people to give me captions, and I literally snorted coffee out of my nose reading some of them.

Also: chicks.  Sorry, dear vegetarian readers, these guys are for meat.  They are Cornish Crosses, a breed we usually don't raise because they are so weird, since they are bred for one reason only: to put on lots of meat very quickly.  This makes them a little bit grotesque when they are ready to be harvested, but we really wanted to try them out this year. 

Usually we raise groovy heritage meat breeds, and I wish we had done it this year, because these weird Cornish Crosses are not very hardy.  We started with 27, and 7 died.  My heart is breaking every time I find one dead.  I think the hatchery sent us a bad hatch...

Talking of chickens: the ones below are our egg chickens, which we raised from tiny, tiny chicks ourselves, so they are super tame.  

One of them (I call her Princess), jumps on my lap every time I come to feed them.  I adore them, and I can't wait for them to start giving us eggs!

Other news of the week: Last week was my birthday.  I am now officially speeding towards having lived for half a century.  Not quite yet, but I can see that big number looming a few years down the road.

Okay, if you want to know... 4 years from now.  Do the math yourself.

My 13-year-old son Luke baked me a fancy three-layer cake, without any help at all.  That kid is gonna make a woman very happy one day.

In the meantime, I don't have to share him yet, and it's all mine (his love, I mean, not the cake.  I shared the cake with our party guests, I promise).

Other happenings at the homestead: my boys are working away on the cabin.  We all cleared land together, and now my hubby is teaching our teenagers how to actually build a cabin.

They're hard workers, these guys.

I'll leave you with images of last week...

... rose petals from my garden for making rose water, 

... a Tiger Lily I met on a walk, 

... and an art event at our kids' school, where Steve demonstrated how to make traditional wooden bows, and I showed kids (and a bunch of fascinated adults) how to spin wool into yarn.

Life is good.

How are you doin'?

PS: 
~~~ Remember, our kids homesteading and wilderness retreat at our place happens in July ~~~ Learn more HERE <----

~~~ Our homesteading and wilderness retreat for adults happens in August ~~~ Learn more HERE <---