Watching bread rise, one year later...

Winter skies can be beautiful too. 

We have a wind chill of approximately ten degrees today.   

Not a comfortable temperature to do some of the spring prep chores that I'd like to be doing outside--pruning, raking off flower beds, and starting some seeds. 

So, I decided to tidy up my neglected desk area, then I remembered I have a blog, covered in dust deep in the interwebs, I reckon.  

I dug it up, figuratively speaking, and when I saw my last post, I couldn't help but smile.  That happened exactly a year ago!  

I had titled my post "Watching Bread Rise," or something brilliant like that.  (I was referring to my new hobby of making sourdough bread.)  

Well, let me tell you about that.  I baked bread for a couple of months, my thighs got thick(er), springtime arrived (I moved outdoors), and I quit. Baking bread, that is.    

I also wrote in my last post that I was a burgeoning forager.  

Ha!  When I discovered fruit fly larva squirming among the pristine white gills of the winter oyster 'shrooms that are quite plentiful in the woods in these parts, I lost my appetite 'fer em.  

I'd rather watch a roach crawl across my plate than knowingly consume worms.  That's just me.  I cannot stomach the squirmy little fellers.  

I know, they are most likely in lots of foods I consume--wild berries, cultivated mushrooms, greens--but ignorance is bliss. I haven't seen them in those foods--yet!! 

When I blogged last, I was about six weeks post-newspaper closing, and I was digging into dusty corners, organizing, etc., with great zeal.  

Fast forward a year, and I still have tons of stuff, piles of disorganization, and plenty of dust!  

What the heck have I been doing all year?! 

I can tell you that I have been busy--working hard even, probably as hard as I've ever worked in my life.  

It's been exhausting, honestly.  

Besides the usual rhythms of planting, tending, and harvesting produce, taking care of a big yard, putting up hay, celebrating the birthdays and milestones (Hubby and I both turned 60!) of a big ol' growing family, we had some big projects to attend to.  

For one, we continued to work on our rental cabin/cottage.  

The green door of our country cottage really pops when there's snow on the ground.  

We also had a MAJOR overhaul of our old farmhouse, the foundation of which was about to crumble into the dirt, due to rot and termite damage.  That involved months of fretting to the point of losing sleep (because it took forever to find someone who would tackle the job), then months more of the actual de-construction and re-construction. It also cost a whole heck of a lot.  

We were able to squeeze in our annual family reunion before we had to move out of the front part of our farmhouse so renovations could begin.  We packed up and moved the day after the reunion.  

This was taken on the deck of our cabin.  We lived in it while our farmhouse was being renovated!  

In addition, our grandson Clay had a major, major, CDH surgery in Florida, which added layers of anxiety and activity to our lives.  Thank the Good Lord, Clay recovered yet again and is now thriving.  He's a middle-schooler now, and he is beginning to look like a teenager, a very handsome one at that.  

We celebrated little Miles and Pops' birthdays at the zoo! We also threw a family reunion/birthday party for Pops here at the farm.  

Throw in a few extra challenges,  like helping a daughter move back out to the country and prep her house for sale, and I remember now why last year was tiring at times.  

The girls threw a surprise party for my 60th! This happened in the middle of our farmhouse remodel.  

I'm not complaining.  

I'm thankful we were able to do all that we did, and I'm thankful for all the people in our lives that we get to love on. 

So far, this year has been a time of settling.  Or re-settling.  I'm playing catch-up on dozens of "small" tasks, the kind that tend to sift through the cracks when one is in the middle of a major upset in their routine.  

I have enjoyed the quiet of winter, although I do feel deprived of sunshine at times.  

I'm so ready for spring now, and all the work involved with that.

There you have it--an update on my life on the farm--a homespun labor of love! 

Pops and I have five beautiful grandchildren.  This pic was taken at church during the Christmas season. 

We could not ask for more!