Life is good around here! I have gotten more done around the Homestead this year than the previous few years combined! I think I am getting a severe gardening addiction. I LOVE being out in the garden. 

We have been adding a lot to our garden over the past few weeks and it is really starting to come around. We have had our gardens in the past, but this year we really wanted to expand it and next year we will be adding a green house and a large fence to keep out the deer. We have a ton of deer around here. 

Our meat chickens are already on week five! Three more weeks and it will be time to butcher. Time goes by so fast. When we purchased the meat chickens, we also purchased a single egg layer to raise with them. Check out the video below to see the difference in growth between an egg layer and a meat chicken after five weeks. It is incredible. 

I mentioned this in our last blog, but we are very excited about our online store that we will be opening next month (July). Janel and I have been working hard at building stuff and have already sold some signs. We are so thankful that the good Lord has blessed us with this opportunity. It has always been a dream of ours to live this lifestyle full time. Modern Homesteading is such a wonderful lifestyle that brings much fulfillment and peace. Stay tuned as I will be updating our website in the next couple of weeks. I will be upgrading to add the store. I will blog about some of the items that will be available. What an exciting time here at the Homestead.

In other news, we will be adding some sheep to the Homestead next month. I just built a new stall in the barn for the sheep. We are looking at some purebreds that we can shear and we will be adding those products to our Homestead store online. I can't wait to get into shearing and spinning wool. 

We finished up the homeschool year last week at the Homestead. Janel is such a blessing to me. I love her so much! She is a wonderful wife and mother. The amount of work she puts in homeschooling our children is amazing. She is also a certified evaluator for the state of Pennsylvania, so she does a lot of required evaluations for many other homeschool families. 

Finally....we know a lot of people who are going through hard times. There is a lot of turmoil out there! We count it a privilege to pray for those in need. If you need prayer, please reach out via our contact page. Even in turmoil and tribulation, you can experience peace. It comes through our wonderful Savior Yeshua! Consider this beautiful passage of Scripture from Philippians 4:6-7: 

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

What a wonderful promise from the Most High God! We can have peace in the midst of this crazy world. Trust in Him and lay your burdens at the Cross! 

Thanks for checking in and God bless!  -Steve

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. -Psalm 16:11 KJV

With all the turmoil in this world, I have been filled with much joy! The Most High has been gracious to us. I am so thankful for His wonderful mercy and grace! 

We have been extremely busy, but it has been a fun busy! We have done a ton in our garden. It is something that we have wanted to do for years. There is such a joy in gardening. Preparing, planting and watching it grow is such a blessing. We have put in six large garden boxes this year. That along with our normal garden has been so much fun. I put in another large plot of sweet corn as well. We are going to have a pretty nice harvest this year....as long as the deer don't eat it all! 

We have also finished our barn project. We doubled the size of the barn. I will put a video down below of the new goat pen I put in. It turned out great. One of my passions is building. I love to work with my hands. I am so thankful that the Most High God has allowed me to stay at home and has provided us with an income. He provides so much and we are thankful. 

That brings me to some exciting news to share....we are starting an online store next month! We have been working towards this for months and are almost ready to open it up. We haven't officially named it yet, but it will be on our website. We will be selling many custom items such as home made pictures, frames, wood work, t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and eventually we will be selling home made goat soap (from our goats) and home made knitted products from our own handspun yarn from our sheep. We will have tons of items available over the coming months. We are extremely excited as this has been a dream of ours for many, many years. And to see it start to come to fruition is amazing. God is good!

In other news, our beautiful Hannah just got her drivers license! We are so proud of her. And in a couple of weeks her first book will be published! We will be offering it on our website as well. It will be available on Amazon and most other retail sites. It is a "Christian thriller". She is an amazing 17 year old girl. She is already working on a second book. 

Our little Payton turns 9 months next week! Wow does time fly by. She is motoring around the house and it is a full time job keeping up with her. She is such a wonderful blessing to us. God has truly blessed us with wonderful children! 

Stay tuned for our store opening announcement as well as our many update videos on our YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed, click HERE and subscribe. We would love to have you follow us on our journey. 

Thanks for watching and God bless!  -Steve

WE'VE FORGOTTEN. (My thoughts on our pride)

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. -Galatians 6:7 KJV

One day we will wake up and realize that we blew it. We had everything that people could have asked for. Freedom and liberty were ours. But we couldn't handle it. We didn't realize where it came from and we became prideful.

We started to believe that we were the source of freedom and liberty. In our pridefulness we kicked God out of our lives. It was slowly at first, but then it became rapidly. We were in control This was our world we thought.We didn't need God. We control our destiny.

Standards of morality were pushed so that no boundaries existed. Sex with anyone at anytime. And if an unwanted pregnancy came of it, we just murdered our babies. But not just murdered them, we realized we could make a profit selling the parts of the murdered babies, so we started selling them. Millions upon millions of them. But even that didn't satisfy our pride. We even said we could kill them after they were born.

We stole peoples property and money in the guise of "loving our neighbor". We destroyed the family unit. We shuttered churches. Pastors and people fell away from God and even defended those who hated God. The Bible became a "guide" to life with some good stories, but not to be taken literally.

We blotted out our history. We tore down statues and rewrote our books. We burned the books we didn't like. Judges became corrupt. Justice no longer ruled the land. Guns were confiscated in the ruse of public safety.

We made drugs legal. It helped us suppress the bitter depression. We constantly entertained ourselves with violent and perverse entertainment. Everything revolved around us. Social media was our escape. We found solace and comfort in always having a screen in our faces. It helped us cope with our insecurity and pain.

We became arrogant. Puffed out our chests. We know better. With that pride came hatred for those who we disagree with. Love was not in us. We divided ourselves and fought against our neighbors. We hated each other.

Finally, we devoured each other. We killed those who we disagreed with. Each person did what was right in their own eyes. We had no standards. Law and order was gone. We became a lawless society. The love of many became cold.

God had given us over to our depravity. (See Romans 1) He let us have what our evil hearts desired....a life without Him.

We forgot where freedom and liberty derive from. We had forgotten where our rights come from. They come from our Creator. From the Most High God. And with that freedom comes responsibility and obedience. We had once known that. Nation after nation has forgotten this and has gone down the same path we have. Pride is the downfall of men. It always has, and always will be.

Only God can heal our land. We don't realize how good we could have it. We've forgotten.
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“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.” -John Adams

Please pray for our nation. -Steve

We finished our barn build! It was a fun project and we are blessed to have it finished. God is good! Check out the video tour below. Take care. - Steve
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