2019 in Review

It seems like 2019 has been a rough year, and I got to thinking about the old days when I actually used to link to blog hops and visit lots of blogs.  One of my favorite posts was always the year in review post, so I thought I’d go back and find the list and do one for this year.  Here is 2019 in review.

1. Me. This one comes from last March.  I try to avoid the front side of a camera, but I can’t help but take a picture of Aurora checking out the kids.  She does adore the babies, and I’m glad she’s willing to be close to me.  We’ve come a long way in the area of trust.

2.  I love you.  It was scary to have Leo go through surgery this fall.  He’s been my snuggle buddy for a long time.  I do love him.

Leo

3.  Still Laughing.  These girls crack me up.  I really did laugh at them following the hay wagon to eat while we were baling.  It’s not like they didn’t have a whole pasture of fresh grass.  Silly girls.

4. Winter Wonderland. Last winter was one of those years that saw record numbers of snow/cold days off school.  I definitely got in practice shoveling with all the paths I had to make for the goats. But it was beautiful.  I don’t actually mind winter horribly bad as long as I have electricity for water and can manage to get my chores done.  Although, I did get a bit tired of climbing over the bottom of the dutch doors and taking alternate routes to be able to feed everyone.

5.  Birthday.  We have so many birthdays around here, but we don’t do much in the way of celebrating.  I will say, one birthday I wasn’t sure we’d make in 2019 was actually a hatch anniversary. Mama Phoenix turned five in May.  We’ll see if she makes it to six-years-old.  She has certainly had quite the unusual year.

Mama Phoenix

6.  Friends.  These two make the strangest friends.  But they seem happy with each other’s company.

Sky and Bob

7. I Was Inspired.  This past year was certainly one that inspired me to try new things with knitting–hats, scarves, rugs, dishcloths, and all kinds of things.  It has been a lot of fun.  I do think my round rug that I knit with cored yarn from Maybeline is my favorite so far.

8. Spring Fever.  For me spring fever means spring break kidding.  Although, this last year, I was horribly sick while we were kidding, and it didn’t work out well.  Here’s to a better kidding for 2020.  Although, I am also celebrating having healthy kids.  The copper has made all the difference in the world.

Joani’s triplets: Peter Pan, Wendy, Tink

9. Travel or Vacation.  This one is hard.  I don’t travel or take vacation really.  My whole life on the farm is one giant staycation. Maybe I should try to leave the farm at least once next year.

10. Summer Days.  This year, my summer days seemed to be dominated by gardening and scooping manure.  That was a job that I was quite happy to have done.

Dahlia (with Aphrodite below)

11. A Day in My Life. The perfect day in my life is a day in pasture with the animals.

Penelope front (Pepe behind)

12. All Smiles.  I love when the goats smile.  It makes me smile too.

Zinnia

13.  Autumn Harvest.  Farming has been rough the last few years, but I am lucky with how my beans turned out this fall.  But it is the tomatoes that gave me a record harvest. I filled my pantry and gave away a ton of tomatoes and canned goods.

14.  Family or Home.  I did a lot of work on my home this year, but there’s still a lot more to come.  I have to say, I am enjoying the new windows this winter.

15. Celebrate.  One thing I got to celebrate late this month was paying off my garage!  It is all mine.  However, I refuse to call it a barn no matter what.  Even if there is a llama and a goat in it right now.

Haley, Wanda, Cinnamon, Bonnie, Blaze and Tony peeking over

16. Let’s Do It Again!  I had so much fun taking classes at C&M Acres that I plan to do more of them.

17. I Miss You.  Obviously, Snickers is at the top of my list for those I miss this year.  This image is from April.

Snickers Doodle McWhiner

18.  Beautiful.  I need to spend more time wandering with my camera this next year.  I enjoy all the natural beauty out there.

19.  Dress Up.  I am pretty pleased with how my llama coat turned out.  It’s probably not what dress up is supposed to be, but we haven’t played dress up for quite some time around here.  We might have to do that again this coming summer.

Tony

20.  Macro.  I didn’t actually do a lot of fun photography this year.  It was just too busy, but I was really thrilled to do the newborn shoot for my great-nephew, Grady.  I love the way this macro collage turned out.  I actually have it hanging on my wall.

21.  Holidays.  I’ve pretty much already decided this will be the image of my calendar next December (2021).

Penelope

22. My Favorite.  My favorite pasture birds are the bobolinks.  It really makes me happy that they nest back there, especially since our songbirds are in decline.

23.  Don’t Ever Change.  Well, everything changes, but if I could truly pick something not to change, it would be my beautiful farm.  I love the life I have here.

24.  Just Because…So There!  I can’t help it. Pluto is cute and sweet, and I do adore him.

Pluto

25. Hopes and Dreams.  I really do want to keep making soap and expand my artistic endeavors.  I think getting my soaps and a few other items in the store was a good start.

I guess we’ll see what happens in 2020.

I Quit

The second reason I did not take many pictures this past weekend is tomatoes and milk.  Seriously.  I’m not getting much milk from the girls right now, but it still adds up.

That means, I started Saturday by making three batches of mozzarella.  I also had to deep fry the mozzarella sticks that we made last weekend.  They’ve been in the freezer all week taunting me.

Then I switched to tomatoes.

This is my canning total for Saturday: 13 pints and 2 half-pints of roasted sauce; two pints and four quarts of cold pack tomatoes; and six pints and three quarts of tomato juice.

My basement is full. I’ve already given away two dozen pints of sauce/salsa.  I quit.  I refuse to do any more tomatoes this year!

That means I moved on to other garden items!  I chopped and froze some okra.

I started preparing and freezing butternut squash.  I did some for me and some for my uncle.

Someone had to check out the squash after I put the skins in the birds’ bucket.

Sky and Snickers

Snickers decided that it tasted yummy.

I pulled the last of the beets and shared them with my nephew.  I roasted and froze mine. Since my peppers didn’t do well, my sister sent me a bucket.

I’m still working on getting the peppers done.  I did take a break though, and made three batches of soap Sunday afternoon.

That includes a new fragrance–crisp apple rose.

Just to Make Things More Fun

Tuesday after work, my mom and I went and picked several more buckets of tomatoes from the garden.

When I got home, I drove the Ranger in the garage.

When I went to start unloading the tomatoes, I tripped.  Seriously.  I tripped walking in the garage, and I thought I was going to die.  Mostly because the toe I tripped with was the one I had surgery on several years ago.  It really doesn’t move well, and it was bent farther than it has bent in probably twenty years.

I decided I should have it checked out because I couldn’t bear any weight on the toe.  Luckily, I didn’t break it, but I am in a fun shoe for the next three weeks.

Of course, that makes it a challenge.  Insurance companies don’t issue one shoe for the barnyard and one for the rest of my life.  That means I had to get creative.

It worked.

(Fuzzy photo because Betty Lou was trying for seconds on her peanut butter cracker.)

Actually, it worked better than I thought it might.

I even managed to climb over the gate with Penny’s meds.