About Last Year

Several of the bloggers that I read regularly did a year-end round-up type post.  They talked about the things that happened in 2015 - their projects, their accomplishments, their feelings.  I thought I wanted do the same thing.  I thought I could write a post about all the 2015 things, and someday come back this post and remember the year in one brilliant essay.  You know, get it all down in words so I don't forget.  But, now that I'm sitting here with my fingers on the keyboard, I'm drawing a blank.  What to say?  

2015 was an eventful year for Brandon and I.  We hiked the machu picchu trail and spent weeks in Peru, and we moved to the farm after working on the house for nearly two years!  Surely, I have something wise to say about all that... Surely, something profound....

Nah.  I think I have the winter doldrums.  All the things in my brain right now are so... well, so mundane, I guess.  Tonight, leftovers for dinner in front of the television.   Whoop.      

Maybe I'll wash some laundry, too.  Sigh.  Oh, that reminds me of something about 2015!  I went an entire year without a clothes dryer, and I don't even miss it.  Except every time I realize I have nothing to wear and no time to get something dry!  Doh!

I find myself standing in the yard a lot lately, gazing at the garden spot while I'm huddled in my ugly green coat and Yoda hat.  Not that it's really a garden yet, but I can see it, in my minds eye, how it will look at some point in the future.  Not the specifics, since I know the garden design will come about organically as I find the time and materials.  I don't actually do anything to make the garden happen, but I stand there and think about it and watch the birds.  Do you know that I have forty-one birds in my care right now?     

We recently met some of new our neighbors.  A mother and a daughter stopped by to introduce themselves and to ask us if we wanted a stray dog they found (apparently, our other neighbor told them we only had one dog (gasp!), so we might be willing to take it in).  The little girl had a confidence that I found startling in someone so young.  She was precocious, and I felt like she was a kindred spirit in just the few minutes we spent together as I showed her the chicken coop and the guineas.  She told me that they had only lived on their little neighboring farm for two weeks, and "already had three times as many animals as before!".  Her parents got her a horse, her grandmother gave her a cat, they adopted a dog, and they were getting chickens in the spring.  She has the exact same blue water bucket I use for the chickens, only she uses hers for her horse.  And, her middle name was Lluvia, which is Spanish for Rain!    

Someone asked me today if we had moved to the farm yet, and when I said yes, they asked how we liked it.  We love it.  It feels comfortable, and cozy, and the land management possibilities are exciting.  There's so many things still on our to-do list.  But, we did get two of the hanging cabinets painted and hung in the kitchen.  No handles yet, but we're inching toward a fully functioning kitchen some day soon.  

I'm sure you are tired of reading about the rocket mass heater by now.  I'm almost tired of thinking about it.  Almost.  

Bock, bock?  

Puck, we're getting a reputation as not having enough dog on our farm!  Puck packs a lot of dog into one small frame.  And sheds enough hair for an entire pack!