12.29.24
It is snowing once again in these early hours of the morning. A wet, heavy snow that weighs down the tree branches and lays thick and soggy on the backs of the cattle, however a quick shake from them removes the accumulation and they go back to contentedly chewing their cud. For us humans, this type of weather seems to wheedle its way through to your bones no matter how many layers one has on, but I am not complaining! No siree, for I seem to recall during the blast furnace heat of our past arid summer saying you would not find me complaining about rain, or mud, or wet heavy snow! So, each morning I pull on my wellies ready to slosh through the mud and don my ancient wooly hat to keep my head dry and warm, as Darrell and I set off to do morning chores. It is wintertime after all and a soggy one it has been so far!
Today brings us one day closer to the ending of the year. 2024 will be left behind and 2025 will open its doors wide for us to enter and make of it what we will. This past year has definitely been one for the memory books although I would tend to place this particular book on the far back shelf. From devastating wildfires that raged across Oregon to health issues that have touched us and yes, changed us, we have no need to repeat such a year anytime soon. Let it rest there undisturbed for many a year before we pull it down to review, if ever we do.
Yet if I am honest with myself, despite the trials and tribulations 2024 brought us, there have been so many moments of good amongst the bad. For one must always look for that silver lining even on the darkest of days! True, we did not get nearly as much accomplished around the farm as in summers past, in no small part to the wildfires that began in mid-July. For a good month during that conflagration, we more or less just took care of necessary chores, keeping everything well-watered down around our home and outbuildings as well as a weather eye on the fires around us. Thankfully, our farm was spared and not touched by fire even though it came right down to the county road, scorching our neighbouring properties. We have been through many wildfire seasons before, but never one as intense, or as long lasting, as this. It was a relief to finally be able to unload our trucks of all the important things placed in them while we were under threat of evacuation.
Darrell’s garden flourished for the most part with an amazing crop of corn, pumpkins and tomatoes. We would have had a lovely crop of potatoes if the rodents hadn’t invaded and beat us to them. Of course, the hot, dry weather was not what our cabbages and Brussel sprouts appreciated but we still did get a decent crop of those as well as almost enough onions to see us through until spring.
There have been changes on the animal front too. This is one of the first years in I do not know how long that we have not had pigs in our butcher pen. Oh, we had thought about getting some piglets again this year to raise, but with the fires and everything else, we decided to take a year off. A big steer that was destined to be turned into little white packages of hamburger, ended up going to the auction yard instead as the return of my heart arrythmia put a damper on my enthusiasm for butchering for a bit. Lass, our dear old milk cow calved after being dry and in supposed retirement for the past couple of years! Although she was giving me a couple of gallons of milk a day, I recently decided to just let her calf have all the milk and put her 100% in retirement for the remainder of her life… she deserves it! Now, we are patiently waiting for Heidi to have her calf as this drinking of shop bought milk, even a dab in my tea, is just not the same!
Another bright spot this year has been my little Rose’s Creations business. I am so blessed with amazing customers from near and far. In fact, this holiday season saw us shipping soaps and lotions, gift boxes, Christmas cake and peanut brittle to almost every state in the Union! The Christmas bazaar season was a busy one and the flurry of activity has finally subsided. My soap storage boxes are seriously depleted as are my lotion ones, but that is a good thing and something I feel very grateful for.
Sometimes one can talk and talk all one wants about slowing down, taking it easy, stopping to smell the roses, yet it never seems to happen. The return of my heart arrythmia, brought on I am sure in no small part by the major stress factors that hit us this year, has made slowing down a reality for me. When adversity hits one must trust in Fate that there is a reason behind it all. Often that reason is hard to fathom at first. You become disgruntled and cross, wondering why this is happening to you, after all, you have always been healthy, fit and strong and now it exhausts you to walk from the house to the barn! Where on earth is the silver lining in this, one wonders. Yet it is always there if we open our hearts and minds and look for it.
I have found that silver lining. This year has been an awfully challenging one for sure. It has tested my mettle more than once in so many ways, but that is okay. As the year draws to a close, I feel I have become a more accepting person. Accepting that if one does not slow down voluntarily one’s body can intervene and make it happen. Accepting that nothing stays quite the same and we must be gracious and willing to adapt. Accepting that life goes on no matter what. Mother Nature shows us that, for from the blackened, scorched ground green grass is already growing.
I am ready to face the coming New Year. Might there be some major changes ahead? Maybe, but that is okay. Right now, I am content to just sit here in my easy chair, sharing my thoughts as the fire crackles away in the woodstove and the kettle sings merrily on the hob. Darrell sits quietly in his chair beside me, sipping his morning coffee while a cup of tea is on the brew for me. So, with peace in my heart, I say “Cheerio 2024 and welcome 2025!”
