Happy New Year everyone! I hope this update finds you well and 2022 off to a good start.
Every new year, Jeremy and I take time to review the past year and make plans for the upcoming year. We always review our "plans" from the prior year to see how many things we accomplished and how things changed. Sometimes we make a plan in January and then things change in such a way that we realize a particular to-do won't ever happen. Plans change! Somehow we made a very attainable list of goals for 2021 because we did almost all of them. Wow! We were pretty impressed with ourselves. Ha!
After reviewing that, we reviewed 2021 and talked about the things that went well and the things that didn't go so well.
Some of the good things were:
The hiring of our two current employees. They're both great. =)
Getting chickens on the farm again.
Finishing our Fruiting Chamber, 2.0.
Making our way through some good planning for the future.
Some of the not-so-good things were:
Vehicle, equipment, and technology breakdowns.
Drought!
It was a major burnout year. =(
To that last point, pretty much every farmer we've talked to felt the same way. Somehow it made us feel better to know many others experienced this. If you think you're the only one struggling, you figure you must be doing something wrong. But if everyone is struggling, you realize you're doing the best you can and it's hard for everyone. So, we breathe and keep taking one day at a time. And that's what we did!
After reviewing the year, we made our plans for the new year and wrote those all down. We did not take our advice from 2021's small list - our list for 2022 seems a bit large! I can't help feeling optimistic at the start of the year though. And I'm pretty comfortable that some of these things just won't happen. But I still like to set some intentions.
After the bigger-picture goals were laid out, we dug into the nitty-gritty plans for the next several months. Logging will be starting this week and we have to figure out how that works with us still doing deliveries into the cities twice a week. And then inoculations start in March - and that changes the schedule again. We've got a lot to do and our goal is to do it all AND have some time for resting - and being patient and flexible as plans change.
Spore was, of course, a big part of this planning bonanza:
We did manage to get a bit more done on the milk house before the holidays.
Windows and insulation in! There were holes and trenches in the floor and the floor was uneven. Craig filled in the various areas with concrete, then built a new floor over the concrete, shimmed up to be level.
New door as well! And the house is all wrapped up - just in need of new siding.
Look how beautiful this is!! We need to finish installing electrical, trim, the ceiling hatch, and finish the floor. It is already so much warmer and cozier than before. Such a cute little building! We have an intern coming in March, so hopefully we'll be done by then so she can be the first person to stay there. Fingers crossed!
We've been having a bit more relaxing couch time - which Spore adores. We think it's great too! He does love to snuggle with his people.
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