It's Wild!

 I was recently asked why I call our little farm "My Wild Homestead". Simply put because, it's wild here! This is true of both the pets and experiences my children had growing up and homeschooling and  also the land where we live. We're not mega rural but the forest always tries to win back any land we clear for play areas, animals areas, orchard and gardens. And since there is forest all around plenty of wild creatures visit. We share our land with turkeys, bears, coyote, bobcats, foxes, wild rabbits and deer. Very occasionally we see a Moose. Endless small creatures are always around, birds, cats, squirrels, chipmunks.... 

This delightful creature, a young buck deer, was watching us garden today. Must be plotting his future meals based on what we're growing, haha. 

A bit later, when I didn't have my camera the deer was peering over the fence into the chicken yard, well those chickens and ducks were in a major uproar! The deer was so curious but the birds did not understand why it was looking at them so much. Never fear their fence is 6 feet tall at that point and anyway I don't think an herbivorous deer wanted them on his menu. He's just curious.

And these hooligans are always around. KitKat's turkey friends. 

When it came to animals in our lives my husband and I generally tried not to say no too often when the kids wanted to learn about, care for or give a home to animals. Sometimes it had to be a no but more often it was a yes. Dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, a chinchilla, assorted lizards, hamsters, gerbils, rats, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks, tarantulas, turtles, degus all resided here  at various times over the years. Even goats (for a VERY short time, a friend was giving them up so we offered to try but they weren't a good fit for us at that time) were part of our family. For shorter stays there were always salamanders, tadpoles, frogs, toads, snakes, insects that were kept for a short time and then safely released. Occasionally voles, mice, birds, chipmunk and even a flying squirrel needed a little help to get over shock or a small injury (and yes sometimes our cats were at fault). I've probably missed something but that's a good overview. Current in house animal residents are 3 dogs (ages 9, 9 and 10), 6 cats (ages 4-15-ish) , 3 lizards ( ages 9-11) and farmyard animals- chickens, ducks and rabbits. We aren't adding more animals at this point with kids grown and hopefully someday down the line a travel oriented retirement but I expect we have a fair few more years with what we've got and they really are a lovely bunch of creatures.

As for classes in our homeschooling animals often featured and there was that one brilliant year that the kids did "Zoo School" for a year travelling down to MA. for the super cool classes in which they learned to work with many, many types of animals, everything from alligators to wallaby. At home the kids spent a ton of time outdoors, at the lake, in the woods, growing gardens, exploring, building, imagining. Our homeschool/growing up blogs from those years are called Another Nature Walk (younger years) and My Wild Homeschool (older years). 

It's a pretty wild area and a pretty wild life, we like to live close to nature and share our lives with creatures of all sorts in all different ways. I don't always catch pictures, I got a few of the bobcat once but can't find them. I do love the bear pictures from a few years ago too.

So yes that's why I call our little farm My Wild Homestead!