Christmas Letter 2014

One more week and the winter solstice will be upon us, and then as Hannukah draws to an end, Christmas. Whichever one you celebrate, light and hope abound, as well as a lengthening of the days for those of us in the northern hemisphere. It is also the time to look back and assess the past year as we get ready for the New Year. We hope that 2014 has been a good year for all of you.

This last summer we especially enjoyed Joe’s visit when he visited with Mum. I think all our South Dakota family and friends enjoyed his energy, openness and enthusiasm, with some using the opportunity to learn more about autism. We all appreciated his patience and loving way of teaching us. Unfortunately he missed the 4H Achievement Days by a couple of weeks, where we got to meet Temple Grandin, Joe’s hero. Summer is usually about visitors for us and it was fun to celebrate two birthdays in one party for my brother Jim and Anita’s eldest son, Michael. Just missing the party but still here for Jim’s visit, we loved having the Ward family visit from Texas and especially appreciated Alec and Jim playing guitar together; it made for some magical moments.

Expanding our vegetable gardens and increasing the size of our flock of layer chickens enabled us to share, sell, barter and encourage local folks to bring their children out to learn where their food actually comes from. Baby goats, lambs and baby chickens are an irresistible attraction to both young and old and, through our Facebook page of Two Old Broads, quite a few people were involved in naming bottle lambs and kids. We met new local people as they ordered eggs and/or veggies and got to know some better than before. It was also a great excuse to spend time chatting with friends as we dropped off bags of goodies. We introduced people to vegetables previously unknown to them, supplying recipes to bring out the best of the veggie as well as encourage them to come back for more…… the biggest success, without a doubt, were the leeks. Our trees produced apples for the first time and we are fortunate to have friends who also enjoy cooking and shared their tried and tested recipes with us.

This year we decided to stop raising sheep. In our efforts to become self-sufficient we rarely ate our own lambs and the physical work involved, while still possible, will become more difficult as we approach the next decade of our lives. This seemed like a good time to stop and we wish the young man who bought them much success as he enters the sheep business again. We will keep our goats, they are so much more intelligent than sheep and therefore easier to manage. Instead of sheep, we looked for a meat source that we would enjoy and which we would be able to take from birth to freezer without external help and without periodic feats of strength. We now have rabbits and I have no doubt that baby rabbits will draw as many local children as the lambs. We are hoping Jon’s family will come to visit next summer and that Addie will stay with us for a few weeks and be a part of all of the activity, even if Lily will miss her older sister.

Anita enjoyed a visit to South Carolina to stay with middle son, Brian. She was treated as a queen and, as well as getting to see Brian’s new house, was taken to Savannah, Georgia where they enjoyed being tourists together. It was a special time and she enjoyed calling and telling me about the difference in temperature as much as recounting the day’s activities. It is never easy for us to get away, with animals, gardens and weather all making it difficult and the timing of this trip was perfect. It is good to see all three sons living happy, fulfilled and rich lives, even if distance separates them all and work makes trips home difficult. In these times it is a blessing that they all have work they enjoy and that keeps them busy.

Winter sees us no less busy than any other season but the activities seem more leisurely; the sewing room becomes our center of activity rather than the garden, especially in the build up to Christmas as we make those ‘special’ gifts. Moving into the New Year, locals will see us in shelter belts, cutting down dead trees to bring home for firewood. You may ask why we do this in winter but we find the lack of biting bugs a bonus and the snow allows us to bring the chunks of wood to the pickup in the sled. At our age we have to work smart!

On Two Old Broads we took up the 100 Happy days challenge, posting photos each day of the subject that made us smile. It very quickly became apparent to us that not only can we easily name those blessings, but that sometimes we had to choose which we would post as we have so many blessings in our lives. We both have Mothers that are healthy in mind and body, our families are involved in our lives and we have a wealth of friends and acquaintances, some of whom we have never even met! The internet allows us to stay in touch and has even enabled us to rekindle old friendships that have been dormant through changes in our lives.

2014 has been kind to us and we eagerly look forward to 2015, hoping it will be kind to all of you.