Monday morning again....this time with just 14 days until Christmas! Lots to say, so let's just jump in!
This past Saturday, we had our Christmas Open House. For those that don't know, we began this tradition in 2012. Each year, usually the second Saturday of December, we open our home to neighbors, friends and family to come in and enjoy so treats and visiting. It is always family friendly. I spend the week before cooking, baking and making candy. My husband makes a couple types of soups, and we have several types of dips. It is an old-fashioned type of Christmas gathering. It's not formal, and gets kind of chaotic and loud...but it seems to be enjoyed by everyone. Our early years usually brought out 15-25 people. This year, we had 56 people come into our home, from 4 states(Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Texas). My girls and I made: 12 types of cookies(over 1000 actual cookies), 7 types of fudge, 3 types of bread, 6 types of dips, 2 types of soup, 2 types of meat & cheese trays, and a dessert salad. We went through 7 gallons of tea, a gallon of eggnog, 3 pots of coffee, a case of bottled water, some hot chocolate and some Russian tea. We had people in and out from 4pm through about 10 pm. So came to visit the entire time, and others came in and left after a short visit. It's a lot of work to put together, but it is absolutely worth every effort!!! We all really enjoyed it!
We had a really busy weekend. The open house Saturday, and Sunday we ended up with a house full again to have Christmas with my Dad. This meant most of my siblings, us, my Dad and step-Mom, my niece and her husband, my nephew and my great niece. That was a spur of the moment gathering but it was so much fun to have everyone here. I am always thrilled to get time family, and my great niece! I have gotten to spend so much more time with my brothers in the past year, and that has been amazing. Having most of my extended family fairly close now, has allowed for more time together.
Around the farm, everything is always in motion. Yes, we are just a couple weeks from Christmas and New Year's...but those are just a few days. After the first of January, we begin our lambing season. The times for the lambs to start arriving is within 2 weeks of the 19th of January. So, that means anytime after January 4th...we could start having baby sheep. With 70 head of them, the breeding program has 2 groups to help stagger the births. The first group should be done by the start of March, and the second group should be about 6 weeks behind them in start and finish dates. With such a big group this year, it means my husband and I will be on barn duty 24/7 for several months. We have had 1-3 babies per sheep each year, so that means a LOT of "baby sitting" and several possibilities of raising babies indoors. This is just on the livestock end of the farm. Beginning in January, will also be the start of garden planning, complete inventory of the farm/house/food/stuff, repair/maintenance planning, and a very large shift in dynamics for my family/home(more on this later). While December means finishing out a year...January begins the planning for a new year. I have a new large garden, the original garden and plans for another pollinator garden to go along with the one from last year.
I am finishing out all the paperwork for this year, over the next few weeks. Our farm stuff, the business stuff, and the veteran hunt paperwork. It's been a real challenge to stay on top of things this year. I have found a serious lack of motivation and concern for a lot. I have struggled to stay positive, and keep too much negativity from seeping into my own soul. That has been a full time job, in and of itself. Attitudes, personal interactions with people not matching my own drive, and those who lack integrity has really put some major bumps in my road. I am determined to overcome these dark clouds that have found me this year!
The 2024 Disabled Veteran Deer is in planning mode. The date has been set and the lodge has been reserved already. The hunt will be held Sept. 26 - 29, 2024. We are planning for 6-8 veterans once again. We have had so much interest that we have had to start having a random draw of names to attend the hunt. We have determined that keeping this hunt smaller is the best way to keep it personal. If it got too much bigger, we could not maintain the interactions that make this hunt great. We have some great volunteers that are working hard to get raffle tickets sold for our drawing, that will help cover the expenses for the 2024 hunt. Each raffle ticket is $10, with only 500 tickets being sold. We will continue to sell these until they are gone. We will be visiting with local businesses also, to help make sure this hunt continues. Donations are always welcome.
I want to finish this blog with some thoughts. I have personally had a few weeks of really impactful thoughts. As I said earlier, there have been some pretty dark clouds over me this year. While I firmly believe in facing issues head-on, educating myself instead of being fearful, having a plan for everything; I would rather fix problems than whine about them. The past few weeks, I have had a few dreams that left me scratching my head. Things that have come up in them, have been resurfaced issues for many years. I believe when we remember our dreams, it's because we are supposed to learn from them or prepare. So, what has occurred to me is there are several areas of issue that I have either not learned my lessons from or the issues are recurring issues that I need to deal with - so I can move on. Allowing myself to get too stressed, is one area that is recurring. I worry about people more than I should most of the time. I allow my empathy for others to override the logic that giving too many chances to behave with grace, class and integrity; only causes me stress because many others don't care or don't recognize their poor behaviors. I have allowed too many excuses for my own actions and that is disturbing to me. So, moving forward from here, there are some massive dynamic shifts coming. For my own peace of mind, it's time to get back to being the fixer instead of whiner. It's time to make my own way out from under the dark clouds. I am too strong willed for this nonsense.
Have a great day!
No comments:
Post a Comment