This schedule is still subject to change, please check back!
30-40 minute presentations with 5-10 minute Q&As
-
What Do I Do? – A Conversation with Two Homesteaders
3 The past two years have seen unprecedented changes in our world and the tenuous threads of an unsustainable food supply and support system that have frayed, and at times, broken. Given the current socioeconomic upheaval in our country, you may be seriously considering how you can provide a more stable food supply and lifestyle for your family. However, you may not know what to do or where to begin. During this question and answer forum, two homesteaders share key insights from their many years of experience that may help you successfully begin a small family homestead.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 1:00
-
Culture – The Incarnation of Religion
35a Sociologists insist that invisible ideas and beliefs shape every visible society. Thus, we may discern a people’s true religion by tracing backward from their way of life. It’s been said, “Culture is a people’s lived religion.” In this seminar, we’ll seek to identify modernity’s unexamined assumptions that shape the lives of millions.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 10:00
-
A Day in the Life of a Home-schooling Family
20 Explore how to make family life a classroom with Amanda Lancaster, home-schooling mother of eight. Take a look at the “nuts and bolts” of home-schooling using the unique, Bible-based curriculum published by the Homestead community. Discover how home-schooling and “learning to learn” are an integral part of our community life.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 1:00
-
Left, Right or Upward
35a In a country sometimes called “the Christian nation,” what should be the role of believers in politics? Do they have any real choice but to simply vote for “the lesser of two evils”? What does it mean to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”? Since the New Testament seems to endorse political government as being “ordained by God,” should believers seek to hold governmental office? This seminar will address these questions and more as we explore the proper relationship of Christians to the State.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 1:00
-
Getting Started with Chickens – Part 2 Housing and Equipment
18 To start raising chickens, you’ll need housing for them and a few pieces of equipment. There are many different sizes and styles of chicken housing, which can make it difficult to choose. I’ll go over the choices and considerations involved in order to help you know what will be a good fit for your flock and land. We’ll also discuss equipment and other structures, including feeders, waterers and nest boxes.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 5:00
-
Hand Milking – Farm Experience
11 Have you ever wanted to hand milk
a dairy cow? Join us each morning
during the Fair to learn “hands-on”
how to hand milk and what it takes to
care for a family milk cow.
Highlights
• The Basics of Dairy Cows
• Feeding a Dairy Cow and Calf
• The Basic Procedures of Hand Milking
• Milking Parlor and Equipment Needs
• Sanitation, Handling and StorageSchedule: Friday and Saturday at 7:00
-
Unplugging from the Matrix – Can We Solve the Social Dilemma
35b Drawn largely from a series of books written by Homestead community founder Blair Adams, this seminar will explore how a postmodern, consumer culture focused on entertainment and technology has contributed to an unprecedented shift in human values, relationships and ways of thinking. Is there any escape from the pulls of such a culture with its endless promises and enticements? Is such an escape even necessary?
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 1:00
-
Questions & Answers on Christian Community
35b Join members of the Homestead Heritage community for a highly interactive
question-and-answer session about their way of life. This open forum will be
hosted by a diverse and cross-generational panel featuring long-time members
of the community as well as those who have just recently joined. Bring your
questions!Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 4:00
-
Cheese Making Seminar — Mozzarella
18 Watch a gallon of milk become mozzarella in this one-hour session as you learn
what it takes to make your own soft and hard cheeses at home, with either cow
or goat milk.Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 1:00
-
The Roots of Industrialism and a Return to Sustainability
35a Beginning with the banking revolution of the early 1700’s, this seminar reviews the major historic developments of the modern industrial era. It will then present steps that everyone can take to achieve a practical, sustainable alternative model.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 12:00
-
Keynote Address – A City On a Hill
35b The Church as a Bastion of Hope in Troubled Times
Second American President and Constitutional framer, John Adams, famously stated: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
For a century, the architects of tyranny have systematically removed the restraining hand of conscience and conviction from society, knowing that apart from these, the liberties enshrined in the constitution would ultimately collapse.In this seminar, we examine how communities of restraint may become bastions of liberty against tyranny’s onslaught.
Do troubling times call for radical solutions? Is it time for a twenty-first-century exodus in Christianity—not to the shores of a natural homeland, but to an alternative culture of wholeness and life to build a refuge of hope amid surrounding chaos?
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 11:00
-
Sustainable Gardening & Soil Restoration
3 An introduction to producing your own healthy food in your own backyard or on your own farm, naturally and sustainably.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 10:00
-
Getting Started with Chickens – Part 1 Basics
18 Chickens are easy, enjoyable and rewarding to raise and can provide farm fresh eggs for you and your family right from your own yard. I’ll go over the basics of what you’ll need to know in order to start raising and caring for your first flock. If you’ve never raised chickens before, this seminar is a good place place to start. The presentation will last about 25 minutes, followed with time for questions and answers about raising poultry.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 4:00
-
Changing Our Minds – The Impact of Digital Technology
35b Each year there is an exponential increase in the availability of digital technology. We will share research on how these technologies are changing the way people think and radically altering our relationship with nature, with reality and with each other. In considering the effects of these unprecedented changes, we will share some of the ways our community has re-envisioned our relationship with technology and the benefits we have gained from this approach.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 10:00
-
Foundation Stones for Child Training and Building Character
35b Why has my child’s behavior and character not developed along with their mental and physical capabilities? Take a look into the practices and assumptions that stunt the development of your child’s character. Look into the windows of opportunity to establish the foundation stones of good behavior and close-knit relationships.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 12:00
-
Sourdough Bread Making
18 Come learn the particular steps in baking sourdough bread from your own kitchen with your own utensils and ingredients.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 11:00
-
Bread Making
18 An inspiring seminar on the ease of baking bread from whole grains-in your own kitchen, using utensils and ingredients you already have.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 10:00
-
Seed Sustainability and Food Waste
18 In this seminar, we will discuss the importance of open-pollinated seed, how to save seed, and a real solution to the problem of food waste.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 12:00
-
Basic Soap Making
18 Discover how to create creamy homemade soap in your own kitchen. We will
introduce the basics of soap making with a few simple ingredients.Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 2:00
-
Beekeeping Seminar
3 A seminar on the need for keeping bees as an essential part of a homestead, as a source for both honey and pollination.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 11:00
-
Purifying Water Using Sustainable Methods
3 This seminar continues the introduction to sustainable water essentials with an emphasis on water purification. Methods covered include the slow sand filter, ozonation powered by solar energy, boiling, distillation and pasteurization.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 5:00
-
A Culture of Healing— Meeting the Challenges of Disability in the Context of Community
35a Lifetime member of Homestead Heritage and home-schooling mother of an autistic child shares her experiences and explores how an integrated community life can bring wholeness, meaning and healing to special-needs children—and to us all.
Schedule: Friday and Saturday at 11:00