My last post was all about our adventures traveling around what I like to call the "bottom left" of BC. This time I wanted to update you all on some of the local fun we managed to squeeze in between all the road trips. This first one came about because Little Forager is in love with all the chickens and other farm animals we watch almost every day in the Instagram Stories of the farmer and homesteader accounts I follow. As soon as he sees chickens (or any largish bird, actually) he starts crowing like a rooster, and when he notices a cow he'll be mooing nonstop for at least the next five minutes straight. Five minutes might not seem very long, but you appreciate the full length of the time when the background music is a toddler mooing. Clearly this kid needed to visit a farm in real life, so we were grateful that our friends were more than happy to have us come visit.

I'm happy to report that he enjoyed seeing the animals as much in real life as he does in Instagram. I also have to say that we are so lucky in our friends. These are the same that we bought our pork from. It's a pretty small operation they are running almost as a hobby while they both work other jobs, so there isn't a website or anything I can point you to, but if you are local and interested let me know and I can pass some information along. When we got there - lucky again - we found out that a calf had just been born that morning, and while the mother cow was occupied with eating they took us up to see it. They had also delayed collection the eggs so that Little Forager could have a crack at it (no literal cracks were had - he was actually a very careful egg collector).

One of the other fun things we got to experience was the Easter festival at our Church. This was the first year we put it on, and it was a lot of fun. The bean bag toss was a big hit with Little Forager.

The Collective is a relatively new space in our neighbourhood that houses some photography operations, MakeShift, and is also available for private rentals. A while back they put on a pop-up shop event with lots of local vendors, as well as offering a "DIY succulent bar" where visitors could pick a container and pot it up with succulents of their choosing.

I was so glad that I had time to visit and make up a little planter of my own. They supplied really beautiful, unique containers, and the quality supplies and posted instructions made the process basically foolproof.

MakeShift is something really special, and I will be posting on Monday about one of the workshops I attended there. Please come back and read all about it and - better yet - sign up to attend one of the many workshops yourself!

Being that we live on the outskirts where the properties slowly start turning into bigger and bigger ranches, there aren't very many local businesses around. Those that are here are quite special, and another local gem is The Pond Country Market.

This place is one part garden centre, one part antique store, one part unique gift shop, one part restaurant, and all of these parts come together to in a place that is beautiful enough to be - and in fact has been - a wedding venue.

I am always so happy when we have a reason to stop here. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, the food is delicious, and the atmosphere is beautiful and easy to let Little Forager stretch his legs (under supervision) and explore.

A couple other things our town boasts is amazing pizza and breathtaking fishing spots. Both of these photos were from this past (incredible) Mother's Day.

I've got lots more waiting in the queue to write about, but until next time I'll leave you with this insanely cute photo of Little Forager chasing bubbles!