OMG A year has gone by!!!!!

 
 
The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return to better thinking. ~ Phaedrus

I find it funny that I should return to this blog almost a year to the day. Diversion didn't produce any better thinking but I guess it is true that I do love this time of year. Summer keeps me tied to the garden or the stove canning but when September rolls around I know the end is in sight. I have only to do apples

and sauerkraut and then I get a much needed rest.

Unlike last year the temperatures are above normal. The mornings however are wonderful. A cool fog shrouds the mountains.

 

Unexpected visitors were resting in a tree above the chicken coop. 

 

He did not like his picture taken so flew to a fence post,

 

when that didn't stop me he finally flew to a tree on the mountain. While the pigs were too busy doing their pig thing to notice,

the coop residents would not have liked the visit.

Not much has changed since a year ago. I am still working on the genealogy. I missed a family reunion because the car's (7 more payments but no more warranty) engine died. I also missed the Endless Sheep and Wool again but will be at Rhinebeck.

I did get a great deal on a 30 x 100 foot greenhouse frame. While too much space for my growing purposes, we intend to put part by the garden and the rest will be used for housing animals and storage for tractor and implements.

#1 daughter and Sir T are house hunting. They found a great house but the owners will not work with them, to the point that even the homeowners realtor thinks her clients are unreasonable. So the hunt goes on. The grandkids are getting so big. O starts kindergarten next September which seems impossible. B will be lost without him.

#1 son had a horrible snowmobile accident this past winter while riding with A.....seven broken ribs, three were broken multiple times, broken sternum, broken collar bone, two punctured lungs one collapsed, and a concussion. He subsequently sold his snowmobile but when Spring came they bought the fastest side by side quad to ride. He turned 30 this Spring so healing wont be as fast something he should keep in mind.

#2 son had long wanted to join the marines. Unfortunately he is PDQ because of his hearing. He was always getting ear infections as a kid and had ruptured his ear drum multiple times because of them. He tried for a waiver since he is only off by one frequency but the Marines are not offering waivers at this time. So he started working at the same place #1 son and husband work and will celebrate his one year anniversary there in a couple of weeks.

#2 daughter is working as a CNA at an area nursing home. She loves it but being the mom I worry about her driving as she works 3-11 pm and during the winter they don't always work on the roads at night. In a little over a month she turns 21. How time flies.

As with all gardening years, something's grow and something's don't. It was a great year for peas and summer squash but tomatoes were indecisive. They are loaded with buds now that it is time to pull them! A new thing this year is cotton!!!!!

 

I was given three plants and they had gorgeous flowers and then the boles started. I can't wait to harvest and plant more next year.

Even the farm is pretty much the same. We got three pigs to raise again this year.

We got a couple of turkeys.

A friend got chickens and ducks but his landlord nixed the ducks so he gave them to us.

I am in the sporadic funk with knitting but I have been spinning a lot. I washed a fleece today so as the weather gets cooler I will have plenty to card/dye/spin.

And that about wraps up the year! Pretty boring to put on paper but in real time it has had some pretty good moments.