What a Year!

Wow!

What a year hey!?!

I’m pretty sure that we were all hit in some capacity by the storms that flooded in in 2020.

Physically, mentally and emotionally we were all hit.

I’m writing this as a memoir, we all need to remember this bizarre year. Maybe not for what made it bizarre, but for what we accomplished despite of it.

Covid opened my eyes to our everyday blessings. When parks were closed, and stay at home order were in full swing, my kids still got to be outside. I don't write this to boast, but more to say the we realized we have something special. And we got to share these experiences with friends and family, allowing them a break from the sterilized world we now live, to get dirty, and play.

Here are some of our accomplishments this year.

1. We got bees, In fact I drove down 2 hours to colorado springs, (just me and my 3 kids 5 and under) 2 weeks after a cesarean (against doctors orders) to pick them up. Because we were told if we could not get them that day, we'd forfeit them and the money we spent. We were not going to forfeit them! They had worked so hard this summer, we expected not to get any honey at all, but did get a couple jars. A true blessing!

2. Strawberries! About 50 plants. That will be increasing again next year, I worked out quickly that strawberries and chickens don't fare well. So we'll be increasing our security methods. 😂

3. We worked on the entrance for the veggie garden. Again, we quickly discovered that the chickens would love the herbs as much as us, so we had some very tacky looking jerry-rigging going on to keep them out.

4. Our workshop is complete! And will soon be the home to many farm fun classes. Since covid and restrictions we have not hosted any yet, but watch out 2021, here we come!

5. Working with an incredible local company McCord Design CO. making our gorgeous sign in the front!

6. We officially became a Certified Monarch Waystation this year. With the help of www.Monarchwatch.org we applied and were accepted to receive over 100 native milkweed plants. These plants are what feed and sustain the monarch butterfly. We’ve planted these milkweed all over our 4.5acres, and watered daily. We got to take in and watch 3 metamorphosis'. Mind blowing.

7. Sheep: We raised 7 sheep, and processed 4 of them for ourselves and some family. If you know us, you know we eat meat maybe once or twice a week. But we'd prefer to know that out lambs were loved before we said goodbye.

8. Tinkerbell: Shortly after getting sheep and having to save them from foxes multiple times, we ended up investing in a llama. She's not friendly or trusting. I suppose, she's very suspicious because we named her that, when reaLly, she'd want to be named HILDE(said with a dutch accent)!

9. Loss. Soooo much loss. Before May, we had already lost 3 sheep and a baby goat. It was so hard. It was hard enough not being able to save a lamb from dying of fright. thanks mr. fox. But, when a baby goat died in our own trough that i filled, broke my heart. It's a hard lesson I learnt. And a little bit of me broke that day when I found her and had to carry her lifeless body by myself. We also lost 7 chickens, 2 guinea fowl, and two turkeys to raccoons and foxes. :(

10. Lavender: This was our first year of harvesting Lavender, we got some beautiful bouquets, and sold them all really quickly, so this year, we'll have to experiment with drying.

11. We experimented with pumpkins this year, and harvest around 100 of all shapes and sizes. We didn't quite have the infrastructure to bring people on to the farm to pick, (too many thorns!) So we gave them away to friends and family. This year, we'll be have a plan for all our pumpkins.

12. Flowers, we grew many, and I've become better practiced at bouquet making and keeping. We even have a flower fridge now. We will not be joining the farmers market again this year. With my husbands schedule, and my kids ages, it's difficult to commit to days and hours. Instead, we'll be building a cart, that you can visit anytime and pick up your flowers.

13. We learned a lot about Camelids, and what good ideas verse bad ideas are for keeping them. Intact males and females don't mix well.🤣 But we discovered Alpaca are the coolest animal ever, and we want 500, 000. or may just 3 females in the future.

A lot of what was done above, was done while we renovated our house. We ended up living in my parents camper for a couple months because of the asbestos in our house, they tore out the kitchen with the initial demo. So we were out of anything kitchen, and the camper was the best option.

(Before I started writing this down, I thought this list was going to be short, and sad, and not at all feeling accomplishable, and now after finishing, wow! I say wow! We worked hard!)