A different pace

We would like to wish everyone of our readers a very happy new year, that you may achieve all you need to find happiness and a sense of fulfillment. It is already the 7th of the month, time to look at any resolutions we may have made and judge them as realistic or not. We have resolved to do the same as always but more of it. Increase our garden size and start selling locally. If we are unable to start a Farmers' Market in our local town, we will at least sell out of the back of the pick up locally. We will look to our old chicken customers who may not have the time or space to grow their own gardens but who we know appreciate good 'old- fashioned' healthily raised food. We have the seed catalogues ready to order, we have seeds we saved from last year waiting for warmer weather. We have goat milk soap to sell, there will be eggs a-plenty and we hope to create a wave of enthusiasm.... OK perhaps I exaggerate and we might be happy with a show of local support building to a wave of enthusiasm next year!

Once the seed catalogues have been well fingered and buying decisions made, daily chores of feeding and watering animals have been done, we turn to our winter pleasures. It isn't difficult for Anita to decide what to do as she has a new baby granddaughter, born just after Christmas with the promise of red hair just like her 4 year old sister, she needs clothes! Her older sister needs clothes! Anita has ordered enough 'little girl' fabric to keep them both well dressed and I foresee us being regular customers at the Post Office. We are excited to meet her in the spring!

It's hard to describe just how our lives hover between the things that must be done in winter and our winter pleasures. Imagine me hand sharpening our new wood splitting maul while watching a quilting show on public television; imagine Anita keeping an eye on the bread in the oven while carrying wood from the step to the indoor wood rack, sometimes it can be a little bizarre. 

Randy, our male goat, developed rather bad manners toward the end of the year. He became overly aggressive and using his horns, brought me down to the ground a few times, had he been a bull I would not be here to write about it, but I did discover adrenaline really does give us Olympian skills as I jumped over a gate with sufficient height to have considered impossible to jump 20 years ago. Our neighbour came to the rescue by lending us his hot shot aka cattle prod. I only needed to use it once, goats really are smart. I still wouldn't turn my back on him but he has returned to the well mannered young male he used to be, even when I am not carrying said prod. I don't mind him being protective of his little family but he has to learn that we are not a threat and that he narrowly escaped being given .22 reasons why not to attack us. All the animals are looking healthy and content despite the cold temps we have had and we hope the sheep and goats are all gloriously pregnant to give us a busy time in April. Even after all this time there is nothing more peaceful than watching sheep catching some sunshine while chewing their cuds.

We have set up the sewing room so we can both sew, a large custom-made corner unit with 2 sewing stations, an ironing board and a large cutting area. Sometimes it can be compared to a complicated dance, especially while I am quilting and need a larger surface area to hold the bulk of the quilt, then Anita will cut as I quilt, but for the most part we can roll our chairs back and forth between sewing machine and iron without hindering each other. It is a special room where we can relax, create and enjoy. I recently finished a quilt that is now hanging on the wall in the living room. It is a wall with no window and, though insulated, has a nasty habit of getting cold in winter when there is a south wind. The quilt seems to have made quite a difference.

This is a peaceful time of year for us, the freezers are full, the shelves in the basement are full of jars with our preserves, the woodstove pumps out its magic, and every day we realise how fortunate we are to have this peace and contentment in our lives, where we laugh a lot and prepare for the whirlwind of activity we know will come with the spring.