Wow! 2 posts in a year. Go, Me!
I usually find the holidays to be a frustrating time of year. As someone that still considers Alaska home yet lives in the lower 48, the fact the temperatures fluctuate between 18F and 76F in November and December is downright depressing. It’s also rough on the critters.
I *want* to like the holidays. Really, I do. This year, for the first time in forever, I want to decorate and bake and celebrate with family and friends. And yet, while temps in the 50s to 70s make animal chores easier with not having to break ice or haul water or trip over frozen cow pies, they are not conducive to this Alaskan gal feeling the holiday spirit.
Since July, we’ve been painting and scraping and fencing and hanging gates and milking and re piping the house and replacing the well pump and trimming trees and weeding and transplanting and picking cherries and repairing the tractor, and raising pigs and chickens and ducks and turkeys and peafowl and goats… OH, and added a Jersey milk cow, 3 longhorn cows, and a longhorn bull calf. Which hopefully means we will have poultry, pork, and goats for sale next year. And calves on the ground for future beef.
We even managed to squeeze a quick trip to Iowa in, and took Iggy along for his 15th birthday. He got spoiled rotten eating nothing but people food, playing in the Mississippi River, taking long walks and longer naps, and not having to share anything with the other dogs or cats for the whole trip. I got to geek out as a Trekkie at heart.
Somewhere, in between all the animal chores and never ending work on property and buildings, I have been working on new designs, new products, and trying to squeeze in time to read. It’s been a busy few months with getting inventory back up and attending craft fairs most weekends. And I can’t remember being happier.