Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Our New Year's letter, reflecting on 2015...

Like any respectable country person, I am going to begin this letter by talking about the weather. Thanks to El Nino, we have had quite an unusual winter.  Christmas was almost tropical with rain showers and mud puddles galore—which our new ducks thoroughly enjoyed. The world seemed completely topsy-turvy when I was harvesting cabbage two days after Christmas. Now, however, we are officially snowed in.  Looks like we might have a real winter after all.

With the weather bit taken care of, I’ll continue with more “personal” news:

This year has been eventful for all of us here at Walnut Grove.  In April, Lance returned from Afghanistan and has since shifted to inactive reserve duty in the Navy.  He has also taken on a more administrative role at the VA and continues to take pride in serving the veterans.

In addition to running the farm (and running after Thomas), I still play in the symphony and volunteer at Exchange Place.  My family recently co-sponsored a symphony concert that featured “Appalachian Spring” (one of my favorite pieces) and brought Bela Fleck to the stage to perform his “Impostor” banjo concerto—a real treat and challenge for all involved.  At Exchange Place, I continue to expand my Junior Apprentice and hearth cooking programs, and this year, I helped construct a new hog lot, which will house two male Guinea hogs come spring.  (Guinea hogs are not the same thing as guinea pigs, mind you.)

In September, my dear Aunt Betty passed away after suffering from severe dementia. Over the years, I have gotten much gardening advice from her, and I take joy in the fact that zinnias—from seeds she gave me over a decade ago—continue to bloom each year in my own garden.  Next month (February) my (step) grandfather turns 100, and we’ll be traveling down to west Tennessee to celebrate the special occasion with him—and maybe get some advice about raising those hogs.

Thomas began his homeschooling journey in the fall and enjoys being a student at “Walnut Grove Kindergarten.”  He spends most of his “free” time building with Legos (or “Lego bricks” as the company claims is the proper plural term), carrying sticks, and showering our cat Ollie with attention (as you can see from the picture on the card). He has lost two teeth since his 6^th birthday in November, yet he still enjoys eating apples and other crunchy foods (like bacon when Mamaw sneaks him a piece).  Just a few weeks ago, he saw the new Star Wars movie—his first movie in a theater.  His favorite character is C3P0—no surprise because he likes all things golden and shiny.

In June, we all traveled to Colonial Williamsburg.  I participated in a “Farmer’s Boot Camp” at a living history conference there, and Lance and Thomas joined me at the end for a family vacation.  The temperatures reached 107 during the day, but that didn’t stop the learning process.  Thomas especially enjoyed getting tips on muzzle loading and growing cucumbers from folks well versed in the ways of the past.

In animal news, Marley, our new dog who showed up at the farm last Christmas, has proven quite the guardian of the farm.  My worry about her digging up tomatoes (that I mentioned in last year’s letter) proved unwarranted (probably because we keep her out of the garden!); but she does have a nasty habit of killing chickens when they fly over the fence.  Recently, she killed my favorite hen, Hoecake, which makes me wonder if we should resort to the “old time” remedy of beating her with the dead chicken and then tying the corpse around her neck and leaving it there until it rots off—a drastic measure we have so far avoided. I don’t know, though, she’s an awfully sweet “dawg.” As mentioned earlier, we have new ducks—four White Pekins that were a gift from my father. Named “The Puddle-Ducks” after favorite Beatrix Potter characters, they are charming, but messy. Over the summer, we had to put our goat Lily down, as she was suffering from chronic bloat.  She was one of the triplets born to Iris, one of the goats that my uncle gave us as a wedding present.  We have since added a new goat to the herd, though—Marjorie, a tri-color Nubian, who my mother says looks like a spotted heifer. Hmm…maybe a milk cow will be next!

And now, I’ll return to the weather: Time to shovel snow!