Life is busy! But it's a fun kind of busy. We have a list of never ending projects, but God has been very good to us, and we love this life!

Our garden is coming along nicely (except for the corn and peas). Our tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, blueberries, strawberries, lettuce and beans are all growing very well. We should get a good crop this year. 

We got a good amount of rain over the past couple days. It was very much needed! We weren't in drought conditions like a lot of the country, but it was still pretty dry out. It was nice to get a nice day of soaking rain. Our plants loved it. One of these days I'm going to have to do a video of before and after rain. They grown so fast after a good rain. 

We also got our meat chickens in this past week (see video below). We will be butchering them in about 8 weeks. Love raising our own food. Nothing better. We will be doing a video on chick to freezer on how to raise pasture raised chickens. It should be pretty good. Our last video on how to raise meat chickens from chick to freezer has over 2 million views on YouTube! 

Summer is in full swing here at the homestead. It is beautiful. It hasn't been too hot and has been very pleasant. We are looking forward to harvest and canning season as well as breeding our animals this fall. It's a wonderful time of year here. 

Archery season will be starting soon and I'm starting to get excited. I have a new stand that my dad gave me. It is a little taller than my other two stands. I will be doing a video on putting it up in the next couple of weeks. I've been getting a lot of videos of deer on my game cameras. I will definitely get a doe, but I'm going to be picky on shooting a buck. I was last year as well. Looking for a wall mounter! 

On a sad note, we had to put down one of our lambs as he was really hurt. It was very sad, but is part of raising animals on a farm. This one was particularly hard as it was something that shouldn't of happened. It was a fluke accident shortly after he was born and it just got worse. Unfortunately we let him go as long as we could. He was really suffering. 

Check out our new store page! Hit the SHOP tab above. We only have a handful of merch, but soon it will be full. Every purchase helps us out at the Homestead! 

Finally, if you haven't yet....give us a follow on our social media pages! We would love to have you along on the journey with us. Just hit one of the Icons on the top of the page and it will take you to our page. Thank you in advance! 

Check out our update video below and our baby chick video!

​Thanks for checking in and God bless Y'all! -Steve

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“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” - Matthew 10:28

I love that Scripture. That verse is in the middle of a passage where Jesus is instructing His disciples on how to go about preaching the Gospel. He warns them of the persecution they will endure. And in the face of that, Jesus says the above verse. It is a reminder that we are to focus on Him and not man. 

We live in an unprecedented time in history. We have been extremely blessed. There is not much need in our land. Even among the poor in our country. Technology, medicine, food and money is abundant. We have much. Our generation has lived in much peace and prosperity, and haven't had to experience much war. 

This abundance has produced an entitled people. We feel we are "owed" everything that we have, or that we deserve it. We have forgotten where this abundance has come from. It is from the Creator of the universe. He has blessed this nation. But we have squandered it. 

We flaunt our wickedness and don't even hide it anymore. It is disgusting. We mock God. We laugh at His commands. We make fun of those who stand for righteousness. Churches are empty. Bibles collect dust on our shelves. 

In doing so, we have brought judgement upon ourselves. It is deserved. 

So what do we do now? 

First, we repent. We need to repent and turn to the Most High God and ask for His mercy. In our homes first, then in the church and then society. 

Unfortunately, I believe that part of the Most High God's righteous judgement is that He has given our society over to a reprobate or debased mind. He has lifted His restraint on evil and allowed us to sink into depravity. That is a sign of His judgement. (Read Romans 1)

As for me, I will never fear man. Never. I have chosen to serve the King of Kings. My life is His. 

We will prepare the best we can for the hard times coming. And they are coming. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5:8:

"But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."

We have to provide for our families. The signs are everywhere. Get your households ready. Here is some practical advice. Prepare your hearts first, and then for the needs of your family. START NOW! 

We have been preparing for years. But most haven't. When you start your preparedness journey, think of the three "B's"...Beans, Bullets and Bandaids!

Focus on food, protection and medical supplies.

Part of medical supplies are your hygiene products. Hygiene is the best defense against disease and sickness. Soaps, cleaning products, toiletries, sanitation, etc.  

Get at least a weeks worth of food for your whole family immediately. And then build from there. It is easy to quickly build up some food over time. Put away grains. Sugars. Salts. Rice. Oats. Beans. These things can be purchased in bulk for decent prices and can be stored easily. Have a water source. This is critical. 

Protection/self defense. This is a Biblical principle and don't let anyone ever tell you it isn't. I may blog about the Biblical case for self defense someday. (Read a good article on the subject HERE.) I believe it is sinful for a man NOT to defend his family. But that is for another day. Guns are also good for many other things such as hunting, varmint control, and butchering. 

As we see society crumbling around us morally, don't fear! Do what you can and leave the rest to our Awesome God! He is in control. 

Fear God, Not Man! 

Thanks for checking in and God bless! -Steve

As winter winds down here at the Homestead, we are looking forward to spring. It is beautiful here when spring rolls around. Seeing everything come alive again is amazing. Getting ready for growing season is always exciting!

Lately I've been doing a lot of reflection on life. For the past few years I have had such contentment and peace that it is hard to explain. God has given me the desires of my heart. I have a beautiful marriage and lots of children. 

As some of you know, almost 10 years ago we had decided to get some land and live a more simpler life. We wanted to produce a lot of our own food, work the land and raise a bunch of animals. The Lord miraculously provided our property that we have. We moved to our Homestead and started out with pretty much nothing. 

Fast forward to today and it has been an amazing ride. To see how the Good Lord has provided everything we needed and given us so much. It is from His hand. We owe it all to Him. What an awesome God we serve!

One of the things we wanted to commit to this year is to give more of ourselves to help others. We see a lot of hurting people out there and want to give, both financially and of our time, to others. This life is all about serving not being served. The Bible says in Acts 20:35:

 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

Those words of Jesus ring true. Giving is such a blessing. 

Below is our new channel trailer for 2022. I'm thankful for my friend Brandon for letting me use his amazing music for our video. Check out his Facebook page here. Great worship music. 

We thank the Most High God for this beautiful life he has given us. If you're reading this, seek after Him. Leave this world behind. Get out of the rat race and seek the simple things in life. Enjoy the land. There is a peace that surpasses all understanding. A peace that can only be found in Jesus. 

Thanks for following us on our journey! Check out our new channel trailer below and God bless! -Steve

Snow came to the Homestead late this year. We didn't get our usual amount in November in December, but January is sure making up for it! And it has been very cold as well. 

Dealing with the bitter cold can be challenging when raising animals. You have to make sure you're on top of getting eggs from the chickens. As you can see from the picture of the egg I'm holding, it doesn't take long for them to freeze and crack when its in the single digits! I went out late in the evening a couple weeks ago and had to throw away a half dozen frozen eggs. 

Frozen water is also an issue. Below is a video I did on how we deal with frozen water issues here at the Homestead. When you have chickens, rabbits, sheep and goats, water is a big issue. 

I invested in a new snow plow for my truck and it has been amazing. For those of you who don't know, I totaled my 2005 Toyota Tacoma last spring. I hit a deer on the highway. I had a smaller plow that I had for the Tacoma that had been awesome over the past 6 years. 

After searching for a truck for over a month after my truck was totaled, I purchased a 2010 Nissan Titan off of a private seller. It was a good deal, but the plow off my Tacoma was too small for the Titan. So I had to invest in a new plow. I went with a Snow Dogg. I have been very happy with it. There is a huge difference plowing with a full sized truck and plow. I will be doing a video review on the plow this weekend. 

On another note, I'm getting over my second bout of Covid. The first time I got it back in May of 2021, it was rough. I don't ever remember being that sick in my life. It put me down for 9 days and took a couple months to fully recover. 

This last bout wasn't near as bad. Basically like a bad cold. I'm still dealing with the cough, but the worst was losing my taste and smell for the second time. I got it back after about a week, but that is horrible! 

Janel and I both got it twice. The good thing is it got us to concentrate more on our health. One of the reasons we wanted to get into modern homesteading was to raise a lot of our own food. We want to raise and grow a good portion of our vegetables and meat. Knowing how your food is raised/grown is priceless. There is nothing better than eating food that you raised. 

Including more fruits and vegetables in our diet is something we have really started to do and I have noticed the difference quickly. I've already dropped a few pounds (my goal is 25 lbs) and I just feel better. It's amazing what a small change can do. 

Finally, we are looking forward to spring as we have some excited projects here at the Homestead. Janel is already getting into gardening mode. I love the garden. We are expanding it this year for a couple reasons. First, we love gardening! Secondly, we want to give a bunch away this year to some who may not be able to garden or have the space we have. 

I will be finally fencing in all my corn. The deer have totally destroyed it every year for the past few years. I'm done with that. We fenced in all of our garden boxes (see video below) and it kept out the deer this year. But any of our gardens outside our fenced in area get hammered by the deer and rabbits. 

Thanks for checking in and reading our latest blog. Check out the videos below. 

Stay warm and God bless!  -Steve

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About 9 years ago my wife and I went out in faith and put our home up for sale. We lived on a cul-de-sac in a nice neighborhood. But we longed for land and a simpler way of life. To be more self sufficient. Check out the "Our Story" tab to read more about it. 

Over these past 9 years we have slowly built up our Homestead. I remember the excitement of getting our first chickens! Or planting our first little garden....and it was little! But it was amazing. The joy and contentment of those moments are hard to put into words. There is something spiritual that God has instilled in us when we work the land or raise/harvest our own food. You can't find that peace anywhere else. 

Next week we are butchering one of our sheep. It made me reflect on how far the Most High God has brought us. I thought about 9 years ago when we went out in faith and put our trust in Him for this move. How He provided this land (it was a miracle). How He has sustained us through the tough financial times. How we have always had enough and been provided for. Always. 

We are humbled to be butchering our first sheep that we have raised right here on our own land. It may not be that big of a deal to some. But this is a goal of ours being realized. 

We have butchered hundreds of chickens. We have collected thousands of eggs. We have planted, grown, and harvested tons of vegetables over these past 9 years. But raising sheep has been something I have wanted to do for many years. 

And to see it come to fruition is humbling.

Years and years of planning. Hours and hours of research. Tons of work to prepare pastures, pens, and to expand the barn. The expense to become a Finnsheep Breeder. All the failures and successes of breeding.

​Yet the Most High has been so gracious and merciful to us. We are thankful. We are blessed. 

You see, this lifestyle brings so much contentment and joy. It is hard to look back and not get emotional. The blessings are incredible. The hard work is so rewarding. The joy is unexplainable. 

We get a lot of comments on our YouTube channel from people who are longing to live a more simpler way of life. They don't want the things this world offers. There is something missing. 

To those people longing to leave the empty promises of this world, let our story be an encouragement to you. We are not special. There is no magical formula or luck that is involved. There is only faith in the Creator of this world. He can accomplish anything. He can give you the desires of your heart. Trust in Him.

Write down your goals. Pray over them. 

Do you want land? Pray fervently for it. Do you want to live more simply? Pray fervently for it. The Most High is merciful and gracious. Live for Him and be free! The Bible says in James 5:16:

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

As we wrap up 2021, I am looking back at what the Most High has done for us. It has been a beautiful 9 years. I have learned to enjoy the ride. There is a peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). That verse has come alive to me over the past years. 

I'm looking forward to what's in store for 2022! We have big plans. But everything is in His hands. We are trusting in that and can't wait to share this journey with you'all!

Thanks for following along and blessing us with the kind comments and all the prayers. We love you all! 

Many blessings in the name of Yeshua and Happy New Year!  -Steve

We were doing an inventory on our canning supplies and seeds for the upcoming gardening season and decided to shoot a quick video! From all the reading I've been doing, the expectation is that there will be a seed and canning supply shortage again this year. Right now there are tons of inventory in stock, but that is expected to shrink over the next couple of months! Hope the video inspires you to get started now before it's too late!
 
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​God bless ~ Steve
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January is flying by! It has gone by quickly. We have definitely gotten a lot of snow this month (Erie is number one in total snow fall), but we had a break at the beginning of the month and we were able to get a total barn cleaning done! Check out the videos below. 

We are looking forward to spring here at the Homestead. One of our major projects this year is to expand our garden. Last year we had an incredible garden. The Most High blessed us with an abundance of vegetables. But the deer and other animals got their fair share as well!

So this year we will be installing a fence around the entire garden. It will be a big project as we have a HUGE garden. We will also be adding more garden boxes and growing a bunch of different stuff this year. One of the things that I missed last year was our corn. It got completely hammered by the deer. I also want to do some potatoes as well. 

We will be making an investment in a rototiller for the back of the tractor. We have a nice rototiller that has served us well, but it is a lot of work to put in a big plot. Especially when the dirt is untilled. We are planning to expand our ground plots this year and we also have a lot of manure that we want to rototill in. Last year it was a lot of work to work the manure into the ground with our old rototiller.

This year we will also be adding more pasture for our sheep and goats as we will be expanding the herd. We are looking to begin our years long dream of selling goats milk products and sheep spun wool products. It is an exciting time! 

The Most High has blessed us so much and we praise His name! We have some more VERY exciting news we will be sharing soon. Stay tuned! 

Thanks for stopping by and check out a couple of our videos from the past few weeks! God bless!  -Steve
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As I look back on the past year, I have to say it was one of the most blessed years of my life. Elections, Covid and civil unrest were the stories that surrounded us. But that wasn't our story.

Our story was one of peace and love. A story that only God could of wrote. As I reflect back over the past year, I am humbled at the work of our Lord in our lives. I'm reminded of the passage of Scripture of when Jesus was preparing his disciples for His death on the Cross:

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” — John 14:27

It is from His hand that he has provided. It is from His hand that our Homestead has grown. It is from His hand that he has chosen to bless us....not only with earthly treasures, but with love and peace.

Our journey has been a pursuit to live more simply. To focus on loving one another and living for Jesus. As one person put it....to be old fashioned on purpose. And God has blessed us in this pursuit.

As the new year begins, I usually make a New Years resolution. Last year I had made the resolution to slow down and enjoy the ride. I was always focusing on our end goal and not enjoying getting there! I think I held pretty good to that resolution. This year's resolution is different.

This year I want to serve Jesus more. To help others more. To give more, both of myself and financially. I want to spend more time in the Scriptures with my family. I want to pray more. These are my resolutions for 2021.

So Happy New Year from the Homestead! We have been blessed from the many, many kind words from those who have joined us on our journey through our YouTube, FB and Website. May you seek the peace of our Lord Jesus as you journey through 2021!

What a busy time it is around the Homestead! The cold weather is here and soon the snow will be here. It takes a lot to get everything ready for the winter. Vehicles, barn and garage all have to be "winterized". With all of our animals, we have to be ready for the cold out in the barn. See the video below of how we prepare our barn for winter.

This is my favorite time of year! I love the fall weather....hunting and harvest time. It is such a blessing to have such a rich land full of game and able to grow lots of food. God has been so good to us. Archery season is here and I was able to get a buck. It was a big deer, but a small 8 point rack. See the video of the hunt below.

My daughter Abby is also in her first year of archery hunting. She has had a couple chances, but froze on a nice buck. I got a video of the whole thing and it is incredible. I will include that video below as well. Nothing better than hunting with your children. My son got his first deer last year and it was a blessing to be there. 

It looks like it will be a rough election cycle this year. It has been sad to see the way our country has been divided. There is so much hatred. This is what happens when we kick God out of our lives. Whoever wins, the Most High God is still on His Throne and He is in control and I am content with that! Praise His name!

I will be doing another video on preparedness today. It is on food storage mainly but will include some other stuff as well. We have been telling everyone for years to store up while times are good because when things get bad, the shelves get cleared out! We have all seen that over the past few months. We were at the store the other day and there are still many products that haven't been restocked due to shortages. The supply chain was pushed to the brink and in many cases couldn't keep up with the demand. If something were to happen again, it would be way worse. I will post the video this week. 

In other news around the Homestead...our canning season is done! We canned a bunch of stuff from salsa to apple sauce. And if you can food like we do, you probably noticed a shortage of jars and lids. These are another example of products that weren't ready for the demand of the shutdown. Thankful we had tons of them already stored up! 

Our garden was a HUGE success this year. We had so much produce and we were able to give a ton of it away to people as well. God was so gracious to us this year. We butchered a total of 62 chickens and our egg layers are producing up to 2 dozen of eggs a day! It has been amazing. We sell our eggs and that in turn helps us pay for our feed for them. Works out great. 

We will be breeding our sheep this month! This is a first for me. I became a member of the Finnsheep Breeders Association and will be breeding purebred Finnsheep. I am excited! I've been wanting to do this for years and the Lord opened the door for me and it has been a blessing to raise these sheep. 

Our New Zealand rabbits will be having babies soon as well. We will be selling them as well as raising meat rabbits. It is something that I have wanted to try for a while as they produce lots of babies. We love our animals and it has been such a joy to raise all of our beautiful animals. 

Finally, my daughter Hannah has her first book officially published! We are so proud of this beautiful girl. You can pick it up at any book outlet or order HERE on Amazon. You can also read more about it HERE. Please consider picking one up....it would be such a blessing to her and to us! 

Thanks for stopping by and check out the videos below! God bless!  -Steve
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Wow is this year flying by. Even with all this turmoil in the world, we have been blessed! Life is good and we are loving life and loving each other!

Many of you know our story, but for those of you who don't....about 7 years ago we set out to live a more simpler lifestyle. We wanted to grow and raise a lot of our own food. We wanted land and to get rid of a bunch of debt that was weighing us down. And through MUCH prayer, the Most High God gave us a beautiful property and has led us to where we are now. We are truly living our dream. 

It has been an amazing journey, one filled with ups and downs (a lot more ups than downs). We have a beautiful marriage, a house full of children, a barn full of animals and gardens filled with food! We are blessed with wonderful family and friends and we have 20 acres of land full of wildlife! God is so good. 

When we started out into this life of modern homesteading seven years ago, we had no idea what we were doing or where to start. We just knew we wanted out of the rat race. Life was passing us by and we were chasing the almighty dollar as well as success. But a funny thing about success...it doesn't satisfy. There is no contentment. We had almost everything we wanted. A nice house in a beautiful neighborhood. New cars. Lots of "toys". But it was a temporary satisfaction. It didn't bring peace.

We made the move and boy has it been a beautiful story! God has opened door after door. He has provided abundantly. Last year I was able to leave my job. It was a tough decision. I was making incredible money. But we wanted to fully move into this incredible lifestyle of simplicity. And it has been a blessing. We are truly living our dream! 

When Janel and I look around at what the Most High has provided we are humbled. We can take no credit as all we have is from His hands. There is a peace and contentment that we both have that can only come from our Heavenly Father. If you are feeling the urge to give up chasing the things of this world, pray for direction. Give it to the Creator to provide. He truly gives us the desires of our hearts. 

In other news....We have been so busy over this summer. It has been a very joyous summer. Last weekend we had a big Praise and Worship Shindig here at our Homestead sponsored by our church. We had a wonderful worship leader, Brandon Fox Worship, lead us in worship and it was amazing. 

We have also entered harvest/canning season. This is my favorite time of year! I love the cooler temps, harvesting our garden, canning, hunting....everything about this time of year! Below are a couple of our recent canning videos! We still have to do applesauce, peaches and pears but we have a good jump on our canning season already. Our garden was absolutely amazing this year. We thank God for His abundant provision. 

A couple more weeks until archery season starts! I am beyond excited. This year will be my daughter Abby's first year archery hunting. I can't wait. I LOVE being out in the woods. It is a blessing to hunt with my children. 

I'm hoping to get back on track with blogging. I love to blog but the busyness of life really took a lot of my time. I will put some of our canning videos below as well as our new trailer for our YouTube channel!  Thanks for checking in and God bless!   -Steve

Just a quick garden update! We are having a great year of growing other than my corn which got crushed by the deer! Check out our garden tour vlog below! 
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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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It has been a very busy time in life! Even with the COVID19 virus that has shut down the world, I have been extremely busy here at the Homestead. God has blessed us! 

I have been planning to build a new barn for the past couple years and I have finally had the time to do it. It is almost complete. We added on to our existing barn and it doubled the size! Check out the videos below of the first two parts of the build. 

We purchased 2 baby goats a few weeks back and they will be ready for pick up in about 2 weeks. We also have ordered our first batch of meat chickens for the year and they will be here in about a week. Right now with all the food issues due to the virus, everyone is ordering meat chickens! That is why there was a waiting period.

We also got our first couple of bunnies! The kiddos were excited. We got a male and female New Zealand breed of rabbits. Check out the video below. 

Our house is full of plants that my wife started from seed. We will be planting our raised beds soon if the weather would cooperate! It has been a horrible spring so far. Snow, cold temps and lots of rain as well. Hopefully we will be planting in about a week or so. 

It has been so exciting to see the Homestead expanding. This has been our dream for so long. We have lived here for over 6 years and to see it all coming together has been a true blessing. The Most High has been so good to us and we give Him all the glory! 

Our baby girl Payton turned 8 months old! What a blessing she is to us! Time goes by so fast and she is growing up quick. She is crawling around and is hard to keep contained. We have entered gate stage! Gates everywhere! She also has more hair than any of our other kids had at her age. She is beautiful and a true blessing from the Lord!

Hopefully I will be able to get back on track with blogging and with the website. I have been so busy! And it isn't going to slow down. I love doing projects around the Homestead....it doesn't even feel like work! 

Thanks for stopping by and check out the videos below. Take care and God bless!  -Steve

We have been busy! With all the stuff going on in this world, I am thankful that we live in the country and have a bunch of land. God has been good. I will post an update in the next few days here on our blog. But for now I wanted to show you some fun projects I did here at the Homestead! Thanks for checking in and stay safe!  -Steve
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As most of you know, we had a mink get into our chicken coop and kill all of our egg laying chickens a few weeks ago. I have since "mink proofed" the chicken coop and we ordered new chicks. They arrived this morning! Check out the video below!  -Steve
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Well that was a quick February! That month seemed to fly by here at the Homestead. We had a lot going on from weather to sickness! But the good Lord brought us through.

A few weeks ago, we had a mink get into our chicken coop and kill all 28 of our egg laying chickens. It was terrible. (see video below). I have since done a bunch of work on the coop (video below) and "mink proofed" the coop. We ordered 24 chicks that are due to arrive on this coming Thursday, March 5th. We are excited. We order our chicks from Mt. Healthy Hatchery in Ohio. We have been very happy with the chicks we have received from them over the years. 

I'm actually surprised that we haven't lost chickens over the past six years. We have a lot of predators up here on the Homestead. We have coyotes, fox, fishers, minks, and hawks. I'm sure I have had weasels and other things in the barn, they just couldn't find a way into the coop. Check out the video below and see how small of a hole that mink got into. Mark my words....I will avenge the chickens and get those minks!  (I put a video below from my game camera of one of the minks. I have a bunch of videos of them) 

In other news....Payton turns 6 months old today! Wow does time fly. She is growing fast and we love her so much. She really completes our family. Children are a true blessing from the Most High! 

Sickness has struck the Homestead! I have not gotten sick yet, but 4 out of the 6 kiddo's have and so has Janel. I'm hoping to avoid it. I have had a pretty healthy winter so far. I usually have a couple colds during the winter, but so far, so good. I'm hoping to keep it that way. Hopefully we are at the tail end of this thing. 

Although we have had a pretty mild winter so far this year, we got hammered with a good storm this past weekend. Lot's of snow and very cold temps. With the lake not freezing, we get dumped on with lake effect snow. Looking at the forecast for this coming week, it looks like it will be melting as temps will be in the 40's.. I'm ready for spring and outdoor activities! Tired of being all cooped up in the house. Ready for fires and outdoor movies! Who's with me??

Stay tuned this week and I will post an update when the new chicks arrive. But until then check out the videos below.

Thanks for checking in and God bless!  -Steve
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I am out in the welding shop this morning and I just finished my devotions. I love starting my mornings off with the Lord (and a nice cup of coffee)!! It really gives you perspective. I have noticed in my own life how easy it is to get off track and try to figure things out on your own when you get away from being in the Bible and prayer. Morning devotions is a great way to prepare you for the day ahead!

Just a couple quick updates from around the Homestead. 

Our little Payton just turned 5 months old! Wow does time fly. Last night I was looking through some of my hard drives trying to find something from 6 years ago and I came across a bunch of my older videos of the kids. Janel and I watched a few of them and it makes you realize how fast time goes by. We need to make every moment count as time is something that we can never get back. I am so thankful for my beautiful kiddo's!

Job update....I had an interview last Monday (see previous blog post). I didn't get the position. I was bummed at first, but after I thought about it, I am totally at peace with it. It was the good Lord leading! When the recruiter had called me first to set up the interview, he told me a bunch of information about the position and we even agreed on compensation. When I arrived at the interview, the job was completely different than what the recruiter had told me! I was very disappointed, but I didn't rule the job out. When I got home, I talked with Janel and we were debating turning it down if I was offered it. I was one of 5 candidates, and they went with someone else. 

This was only the second time in my life that I went for an interview and didn't get offered the position. I always pray that the Lord would shut doors in my life to make it clear, so when that happens I am at peace. In this case I am totally at peace and thankful for the leading of the Lord!

My long term goal is to get to the point of being 100% self employed. We have money coming in, but just not enough to live comfortably. My goal is to get the welding shop to bring in some income and to homestead full time. That has always been what I wanted to do. That is what brings me the most joy! Praying the Most High opens the door for that to happen. 

Other updates around the Homestead....we are having a very mild winter. Very odd for us. This has got to be one of the lowest snow totals we've had in a long time. The temperatures have been milder as well. It seems we will get a snow storm and then in a week it melts. Then we'll get more and it melts. We haven't had a long spell of cold to keep the ground frozen so it turns into a muddy mess. Usually it is cold out and the ground is frozen for the winter. We've been dealing with a mud pit here at the Homestead! 

Thanks for checking in! Let us know if we could pray for you, we would love to! Check out the picture below I took of God's beautiful Creation here at the Homestead! 

If you haven't yet, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on our journey to live life to the fullest! Click HERE to subscribe! Take care and God bless!  -Steve