Our oldest son and his family are homesteaders in the mountains near Priest Lake. I would never have imagined this would be the lifestyle he would choose, but they are amazing and thriving. Everytime we visit, we have such fun helping to build things, clean up things, chase things, and laugh about things. For their anniversary, they wanted to take a weekend away and asked if we could take care of the farm for them. I jumped at the chance, hubby didn‘t jump, but agreed to come along.

Day 1 - we arrived around noon, refilled the feed box, let the chickens out to roam, and then decided to go exploring. We took off in the side-by-side to go see the river and then find the top of Mt. Jasper. I say ‘find’ because it wasn’t as easy as we expected. The river was so beautiful and one could easily walk across it as the water was so low. What a difference from full spring run off. Then to Mt. Jasper - first mistake, we had identified a landmark for the first turn that was removeable, and yup, you guessed it, it had been removed. We went 30+ minutes out of our way before we found it and made the first turn. Second mistake, make sure everyone is talking the same language. I heard “go about 20 minutes” and thought that meant to the second turn. It actually meant to the top of the mountain. So we went another 45 minutes out of our way. On our way back, I just happened to look down a road and thought I saw the second landmark. “Stop the train!”… we turned around and sure enough, there it was, and it was a quick 15 minutes to the top of the mountain. Wow, what an amazing view.

The evening chores were somewhat uneventful as we put the chickens in, milked the goat and put them to bed. One of the roosters didn’t like me so that was a bit of a challenge but we got him in. In the second chicken run, one of the roosters was being picked on badly and it took Keith a bit to get him into the coop. He eventually succumbed to the inevitable and went inside.

Day 2 - We didn’t have to start too very early, but it was definitely earlier then hubby typically gets up. So I thought I’d let him sleep and go start chores on my own. Milking the goat was easy peasy. The two goats don’t like being separated but are a handful for me to manage together, so I decided to take them one at a time down to the day pen. That was a mistake. The first goat kept trying to go back to the barn and when I was moving the second goat, she wanted to run. It was all I could do to keep up with them and get them both in the same spot. I won’t do that again.

Keith finished off the morning chores and we took off to visit and explore Sandpoint. What a great little town, and found the best bbq we’ve had in a long while. It was Apple Festival and the town was full of people, looking for the hidden apples to win big prizes. After several hours of wandering, we decided it was time to head home.

The evening chores started out ok, until we had to encounter Mr. Mean Rooster again. This time he wasn’t going to go easily and came at me with talons raised. Keith had a shovel nearby and was able to fend him off and then Mr. Mean took off after him. That was an interesting event but we finally got him in. We knew this one was a challenge and had it on good authority he was going to be the first one butchered because of it. That may be sooner then was first planned.

Day 3 - Morning chores was a lot easier with both of us. It is very cold in the morning but sunny and beautiful. When the sun gets above the trees, it warms up quickly, which means a quick nap in the sun with Fitz.

The kids arrive home mid-afternoon and we all enjoy the stories. We survived the farming life, everything was still alive and life was good. Time to head back down to the trailer.