Life has been throwing me lots of punches lately. So, I just put certain things on the back burner for awhile. I have missed my blog, but the need to focus on family, finances, and sanity were a stronger pull. My friend Cinnamon has pulled me back. She and her husband have a project - Purple States and invited me to be their blogger from North Carolina. So, I'm thinking and planning and will be posting soon. North Carolina is coming up awfully fast!
Life on the farm keeps chugging along with the seasons. As long as we can make that mortgage payment we should be ok. I'm getting used to not really working and not finding a job. It really sucks to have to close a small business. Being laid off by your spouse is the worst. (I'm not bitter at all...) Charlie is loving his new job, although he did take a 10% pay cut along with everyone else this fall. Times are tough when you are even remotely connected to real estate. We have been making lots of cuts here at Little Creek Farm. Monkey will be leaving her private Montessori school at Christmas Break and will start the second semester of first grade in the world of public education. Right now we are working on getting her into the elementary school of our choice. You see, we sit right on the wrong side of a district dividing line. We are closer to one school (the one we want) than the other one, but such are the vagaries of the county system. Keep your fingers crossed for the Monkey.
We finished our root cellar earlier this fall and it is stocked with potatoes,sweet potatoes, beets, cans of tomatoes, tomato sauce, apple sauce, apple jam, apple butter, strawberry jam and way too many green beans. Who needs money for groceries??? It's not that bad, yet. Really.
We managed to put together some great row cover/cold frames and have a huge crop of greens, lettuce and beets thriving under cover. Gardening is easy this time of year... And the seed catalogs have started to arrive and make us a little more optimistic about things. The thought of new things growing in the spring, even though it is far off, can't help but make us happy.
The animals are all hunkered down for the winter. I'm saving up for a new batch of hens this spring. My old girls are not laying. I haven't seen an egg in weeks. For the last couple of years we kept the henhouse lighted. That meant by fooling the hens we got more eggs. They didn't really get to rest though. So this year no artificial light means no eggs.
O.K. Everyone caught up? Charlie has a job. Maggie doesn't. Maggie needs one (or will accept winning the lottery in place of gainful employment...). The farm is ok. The bears are hibernating. The goats are fat and wooly and the chickens are lazy. Monkey will learn about standarized testing this year. And everyone is receiving jars of jam and barbeque sauce for Christmas.
I'm back, I promise.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
What can I say? It's been awhile.
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Cool site your friend is putting together. I had to go watch Alaska's ;-) I didn't learn much new--but that's good, it means even though it's been 9 years I'm still plugged in to what's going down up north!
ReplyDeleteMake sure you post here to let us know when your turn is up!
Nice to hear from you - I just thought I'd have a look and there you were. I'm sorry about the job/business. I hope things pick up.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you remember me requesting fiddle information, but I've taken the plunge and joined a Scottish fiddle group - child no 1 and I are both learning. It's great fun and thank you for your information and encouragement a while back.
Best of luck with everything.
I am so glad that you are back. We have missed your blog. How are we to keep up with all of you? Tell Monkey that public school is not so bad. Hope you get the school that you want.
ReplyDeleteJams, Jellies, BBQ Sauce, what about Dilly Relish? It was the best!!
Thanks everyone. It's good to be back.
ReplyDeleteBezzie - I will post when it's my day on purple states.
agaless - I'm taking a break from fiddle lessons (no money...), but am still playing. Isn't it fun to learn something new!
Delaware - No dilly relish this year, but we're saving you some pickles! We want to get together and the sooner the better!
It is fun - I'm not getting formal lessons, just going to a group where they lend a fiddle, show you how to hold it and get you going. For the princely sum of £1 per adult and 50p per child per week, which seems like v good value. It might be worth seeing if there is something similar near you. In our group the experienced help the less experienced along, but they do say it's no good if you want to do classical violin, grade exams etc. It's all v friendly and informal.
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