We hit the road right after Easter. Just one road, really. Highway 35, to be exact. We stayed on that road right into Texas for a wonderful weekend at the Homesteading Conference held at Homestead Heritage, an intentional Christian community in Waco.
The first night we arrived we walked around the fair grounds and set up our booth. That gave us a feel for the scale of this conference. Rory was given the stage multiple times in this room, a really incredible opportunity to share on the family economy.
We were there for a full day before the conference began and my kids all had hopes and dreams for their time at Homestead. Hattie wanted to meet the waffle shop owner, since she wants to run a waffle house of her own one day. Elsie wanted to buy fabric and a new dress pattern at the fabric store. Ivar wanted to head back to the woodshop and Alden wanted to see the blacksmith.
The waffle shop owner was a very kind mom who answered all of Hattie’s questions about how to run a waffle house. At the same time, we met the Feek’s for brunch and a big catch up conversation.
That night we had the speakers dinner and Ivar had a chance to meet Joel Salatin and ask him all sorts of farming questions. It was a very, very special night.
The next day the conference began with a panel moderated by Rory Feek with Joel Salatin, Shawn Dougherty, Rory and Butch Tindell talking about “Artisans and Agrarians”. It was really amazing to hear these guys collaborating and building on what the other had just said…there was a lot of unity in the purpose behind homesteading.
Our booth was set up behind the main stage and we had a steady stream of traffic the whole weekend. We have been to a few homeschooling conferences, but this was our first homesteading conference. And we found that the message resonated here too.
Rory moderated a workshop of artisans about their experience of starting home-based businesses in a variety of crafts: blacksmithing, candle making and woodworking.
And while he spoke and I worked the booth, half our kids went down this big slide. So much that we were dealing with motion sickness part of the day—they went down the slide that many times!
But the very best part of the whole conference was getting to go back to visit friends. Abel found his bff, and they watched the waterwheel for a long time. And then every time Abel saw Rory thereafter he would hug his leg and ask him, “you wanna go to the waterwheel!!?”
And Elsie visited one of her favorite places on earth: the fiber arts building. She made some very special friends there and we joked about leaving her behind with a sleeping bag. On this visit they brought out every spinning wheel and let her try each one. The women who work there are very generous, and we left feeling very inspired and loved.
And Ivar got to spend some more time in the woodworking shop catching up with everyone he spent so much time with, back in October.
We left feeling grateful for another opportunity to share the family economy with so many. That is not lost on us for a second. The Lord has opened doors and opportunities at this very time and it is exciting.
