New Year and a new decade...

 2019 was a difficult year.  In May, I sat in on a phone conference where we were told that all Forest Service Job Corps were being closed.  I then had to tell our 57 employees that in September we would be done.  Thankfully, legislators and support from the Forest Service kept that from happening.  Still it was a scary year.  Twenty five years at an alternative school and finding out you need a new education job at the end of May does not bode well for a person.  Still, we made it through.  Now that that heart stopping obstacle is over, I'm mentally stronger and ready for a new year.   I'm a goal setter and I feel like I already have a good head start on 2020.  

First is self improvement.  I have been doing yoga six times a week for the last two months and I cannot say enough how much better I feel.  My balance, strength, and stress level has all improved.  Last year I started reading a book a month and I will continue that into 2020.  I am still looking for something to do within the community.  This one is more important than ever as the support we received from the community was overwhelming when we were told our program was going to close.  Very few of our students are local, yet the concern from the people around us meant more than they will ever understand.  I really feel the need to give back.

Gardening is always a goal.  I need to be proactive with all garden intruders.  Last year it was deer.  This year it was mice and slugs.  They ate all of my vegetables.  I do have a sneaky suspicion that Ella ate the broccoli.  I found Sluggo and this year I'm not afraid to use it.  I want to add one more cutting bed by the barn.  I would also like to add some plum trees to the orchard.  I also need to come up with a water feature.  My beautiful birdbath was decimated by the hail storm two years ago and I have been unable to find a replacement.

On the family front, I want to create a finished family cookbook.  With every family there are traditional meals and dishes that everyone is known for.  For the last year I have been gathering recipes and photos.  I gave myself two years to complete the project, so it was an enjoyable experience and not a rush to complete the job.  

I also started a big commitment and plan on making a quilt for every niece and nephew that graduates.  I believe there will be one every year for the next 10 years.  Oh my gosh.  What have I gotten myself into?  At least it will keep my winters busy.

My biggest goal this year is to support my husband on his new endeavor.  He plans on retiring in April.  We have been preparing for projects and a few bucket list items.  I am really looking forward to enjoying this summer with him.  His job had him busy and rarely able to make any weekend plans.  Now the world is our oyster.  Maybe we will even be able to take a trip.

Those are my future plans.  Now, lets see how I did last year.  

My biggest goal for 2019 was war with the deer.  They decimated my gardens in 2018.  It was very frustrating.  Generally, I don't have problems with them until the fall.  This year they munched through my garden in the spring, summer, and fall.  It was very disheartening.  I will spend the winter making battle plans and stinky smelling sprays.   Well, the deer didn't give me any problems.  Unfortunately, the slugs and voles ate everything.   The mice girdled all of my orchard shrubs, ate my plants, enjoyed my strawberries, and munched on my melons.  I spent a majority of the summer sniping them with my pellet gun.  I got pretty good towards the end.  The slugs would just attack a plant or zucchini and it would disappear overnight.  We had so much rain this year the slugs had the run of the place.  At the very end I found Sluggo and sprinkled it everywhere.  We will see how they do in 2020.

Focus on seed starting for the vegetable beds.  I did not have any luck with my seed starts last year and it hindered my vegetable garden.  I may even toy with using a grow light.   The greenhouse took it pretty hard with last year's hail storm.  Hopefully, I can get it back into shape.  I want more cherry tomatoes to broil and freeze for the winter.  More canned vegetables for stews.  Herbs for my olive oil and herb ice cubes.  They work great for cooking.  I'm still trying for a giant pumpkin.  I did great with my seed starts.  I had broccoli (until Ella ate it), melons, pumpkins, and tomatoes.  The tomatoes never ripened.  It didn't get warm enough.  My herbs did amazing.  I not only made my herb ice cubes, but also made salts, smudges, and teas.  I brought them all inside this winter and they are doing great.  

On the orchard front...  I am super excited about my new fish fertilizer program.  I am anxious to see how the orchard responds next spring.   I am definitely going to add grapes this year.  I am also looking at adding some June berries and adding more raspberries.  Despite the mice girdling the shrubs, the orchard actually did really good this year.  I continued with my fish fertilizer program.  I added some grapes and raspberries.  I still need to get some more June berries.

I want to add more flower pots to the rose bed and a bench.  I also want to make another butterfly bed by the barn door.  I was super happy with last year's butterfly bed.  I have some new garden chairs and I think adding a little sitting area outside of the barn would be lovely.  The flower pot project was a huge success.  I put lavender and marjoram in pots throughout the yard and since it rained regularly they were beautiful.   I didn't get the bed next to the barn done, as we were working in the area.  This year it will happen. 

Since I finally have some healthy habits for my body, it is time to expand my mind.  My brother, sister and I are going to try and read a book every month.  My brother calls it the FBC (Family, Book, Club).  We will see how it goes.   We each picked four categories and then will chose two books out of the four categories.  Some months we will read the same books, some months we will read from the same category.  I also have to take a college class for my teaching re-certification.  I'm a bit grumpy about the cost and I haven't had a college class since 2004.    If I'm a bit sporadic on my posts for the next couple of months, it is because I'm either reading a book or doing homework.   I not only passed the class, but also learned a lot about research.  I am utilizing this knowledge for a project this year.  The family book club was sporadic, but overall I would consider it successful.  My brother and I enjoyed reading and discussing books. 

In  October of 2018, I was honored to be nominated for the Spirit of South Dakota award.  It was an amazing experience and a great adventure for my family and I met some outstanding women.  I didn't win, trust me I didn't expect to win, just being nominated was an honor.  I was in the league of women all over South Dakota who had made a huge impact in the lives of the people around them.  The experience did inspire me to be a stronger influence in my community.  I am confident that at work I give everything and do my best to make young lives better.   I try very hard to be a solid support for my friends and family.  Now I need to look at how I can be a more impact in my community.  I'm not certain what my niche will be, but the Spirit of South Dakota experience showed me the importance of community involvement.    As I wrote above, this is still a goal.  If any of you have ideas I would love hear them.  What have you done that made a difference?  What was something that somebody else did that made a difference?  Please let me know what you think.

I hope you all had a wonderful 2019 and that 2020 will find you all happy and healthy.  Happy New Year!

Farewell 2018 and welcome 2019...

I am very happy with 2018.  I got to spend some precious time with my friends from Denmark and my nieces.  Time with family and friends is always the best.  Despite a few stressful things it was a much better year than 2017.  I got some projects completed, did a little traveling, and was a lot healthier.   I am looking forward to 2019.   

My biggest goal for the year is war with the deer.  They decimated my gardens in 2018.  It was very frustrating.  Generally, I don't have problems with them until the fall.  This year they munched through my garden in the spring, summer, and fall.  It was very disheartening.  I will spend the winter making battle plans and stinky smelling sprays.  

Focus on seed starting for the vegetable beds.  I did not have any luck with my seed starts last year and it hindered my vegetable garden.  I may even toy with using a grow light.   The greenhouse took it pretty hard with last year's hail storm.  Hopefully, I can get it back into shape.  I want more cherry tomatoes to broil and freeze for the winter.  More canned vegetables for stews.  Herbs for my olive oil and herb ice cubes.  They work great for cooking.  I'm still trying for a giant pumpkin.  

On the orchard front...  I am super excited about my new fish fertilizer program.  I am anxious to see how the orchard responds next spring.   I am definitely going to add grapes this year.  I am also looking at adding some June berries and adding more raspberries. 

I want to add more flower pots to the rose bed and a bench.  I also want to make another

butterfly bed by the barn door.  I was super happy with last year's butterfly bed.  I have some new garden chairs and I think adding a little sitting area outside of the barn would be lovely.  

Since I finally have some healthy habits for my body, it is time to expand my mind.  My brother, sister and I are going to try and read a book every month.  My brother calls it the FBC (Family, Book, Club).  We will see how it goes.   We each picked four categories and then will chose two books out of the four categories.  Some months we will read the same books, some months we will read from the same category.  I also have to take a college class for my teaching re-certification.  I'm a bit grumpy about the cost and I haven't had a college class since 2004.    If I'm a bit sporadic on my posts for the next couple of months, it is because I'm either reading a book or doing homework.    

In  October of 2018, I was honored to be nominated for the Spirit of South Dakota award.  It was an amazing experience and a great adventure for my family and I met some outstanding women.  I didn't win, trust me I didn't expect to win, just being nominated was an honor.  I was in the league of women all over South Dakota who had made a huge impact in the lives of the people around them.  The experience did inspire me to be a stronger influence in my community.  I am confident that at work I give everything and do my best to make young lives better.   I try very hard to be a solid support for my friends and family.  Now I need to look at how I can be a more impact in my community.  I'm not certain what my niche will be, but the Spirit of South Dakota experience showed me the importance of community involvement.  

Well, that is it for my aspirations for 2019.   I have some pretty lofty goals this year.  I did pretty good with last year's expectations.  I'm happy that most of my goals were achieved in 2018.  As always, I look back on my goals and whether or not they were successful.

My number one priority this year is my health.  I spent way to much time visiting doctors in 2017.  I will drink more water, eat better, exercise more, and go to bed when I am sick.  I did much better this year.  I got a water bottle at work and marked how much I should have drank by 10:00, 12:00, 2:00, and 4:30.  It worked very well.  I tried to stick to my workout routine.  At work; two cardio days and 2 weight lifting days.   At home, every Sunday Ella and I went running or snowshoeing.   I am certain that has a lot to do with why I was not sick.  I did make it a point to get rest if I felt even the beginnings of a sore throat.  I can say that I ate better, but not in a healthy way. I found all sorts of wonderful recipes for babka and  other yummy foods.  Three out of 4 isn't bad.  

  

I want to spend a week off with my husband.  Normally, every year we take a week off and do projects together.  Our timing was off in 2017 and it didn't happen.  I missed it terribly.  My husband is my strength.  We have fun together and I look forward to our time with each other.  We actually took a couple of weeks off together and it was great.  We took some time in the summer and some time during hunting season.  After 24 years of marriage I can honestly say our marriage is even better than when we were kids starting out.  We still have the passion and same sense of direction that brought us together years ago.   

 Home improvements are again on the list.  This will be our 15th year in the cabin and it is time to spruce things  up. I am hoping to host several visitors this summer and I want them to be comfortable.  I am not going to wait until the last minute and will start in January.  This goal was pretty successful.  I finally got the bathrooms painted.  We had the house stained.  I repainted the front door a color we actually like.  We also had the stairs from the garage redone, as they were in terrible shape. There were a couple of things on the list I didn't get completed, but still things are fresher than before.   We had quite a few visitors this summer and I hope they were comfortable.  


To successfully implement a strawberry bed, more grapes, and add a shrub bed. I haven't had a good strawberry bed since we first moved to the cabin.  I make wine and hardly have any grapes on the property.  Doesn't make much sense.  I need to landscape a road that we took out and I want to do it with shrubs and grasses.   I finally planted strawberries.  They did ok.  I would love to get an old sheep water tank for the bed, but where I had them was fine.  I didn't get the grapes added, but a friend gave me a five gallon pail from her grapevines.  I have another month before I find out how that wine turns out.  We decided to wait with the shrubs and see how the old road would hold up with just grass.  It is ok.  After trying to dig past the top soil we added into the hard packed road, I'm not in a hurry to add anything that requires digging.  

Add a butterfly/hummingbird garden somewhere on the property.  Hopefully, on the slopes in front of the barn.  I had more butterflies this year than I've ever had and enjoyed them immensely.  I am hopeful my lost hummingbird found its way south before the freezing weather.  I would love to have a buffet for it this year.  This project was the biggest success.  The deer decimated every flower bed I had, except the butterfly bed.  I was so skeptical at the beginning.  I was overjoyed by the end of the summer.  The bed did fabulous.  It drew in  many butterflies.  I didn't have many hummingbirds and I'm pretty sure my late staying hummingbird from 2017 didn't make it.  :(  Since that bed was so successful, I may add another to the side of the barn.  

Make a barn quilt for our shed.   I have been wanting to do this project for several years and maybe if I write it down I will get on it.  Simply stated; It did not even come close to happening.   

I added a birding goal for 2018.  I tried to take a photo of every bird I logged.  That little addition made it extra hard.   I had 65 photographed birds and 72 total.  It was a good birding year.  I have to say it took some of the fun out of taking photos of birds when I needed to get one.  I look forward to just taking bird pictures for the fun of it.

Well, there you have it.  I am very happy with my 2018 accomplishments a look forward to a happy and healthy 2019.

2017 you were horrible; 2018 here I come...

Here comes 2018.  Where did time go?  Goals again for the new year.  I hope I do better than I did in 2017.  I think it was the most unfilled goals I have ever had.  Optimism.  I am sure that I have learned from past failures and will trudge ahead.  As the sun sets on this year, I am positive that 2018 will be better.

My number one priority this year is my health.  I spent way to much time visiting doctors in 2017.  I will drink more water, eat better, exercise more, and go to bed when I am sick.  

I want to spend a week off with my husband.  Normally, every year we take a week off and do projects together.  Our timing was off in 2017 and it didn't happen.  I missed it terribly.  My husband is my strength.  We have fun together and I look forward to our time with each other.  

Home improvements are again on the list.  This will be our 15th year in the cabin and it is time to spruce things up.  I am hoping to host several visitors this summer and I want them to be comfortable.  I am not going to wait until the last minute and will start in January.

To successfully implement a strawberry bed, more grapes, and add a shrub bed. I haven't had a good strawberry bed since we first moved to the cabin.  I make wine and hardly have any grapes on the property.  Doesn't make much sense.  I need to landscape a road that we took out and I want to do it with shrubs and grasses.  

Add a butterfly/hummingbird garden somewhere on the property.  Hopefully, on the slopes in front of the barn.  I had more butterflies this year than I've ever had and enjoyed them immensely.  I am hopeful my lost hummingbird found its way south before the freezing weather.  I would love to have a buffet for it this year.

Make a barn quilt for our shed.   I have been wanting to do this project for several years and maybe if I write it down I will get on it.  

I have to say that 2017 was not one of my favorite years.  Work was extremely stress filled and I spent a lot of time wishing I was healthier.  I visited the doctor more in 2017 than the last 20 years combined.  A review of my goals will show that it was a sad year for success.  

~Family and friends are always at the top of my goal list.  I don't think I could beat last year with hosting.  We had a lot of company and and loads of fun.  I would like to expand our repertoire things to do while at the cabin including gifts, projects, games, and adventures.  I need more indoor games and kid friendly projects.  I think this was a successful endeavor.  We hosted several people this year and I can say that the card games and game room that Kelly created definitely helped alleviate any boredom.   I hosted the nieces for a week and we kept very busy the whole time.  I was extremely proud at how well the girls did on their birdhouse project.  

~Home improvements are on the list.  I need to update our guest bathroom.  It needs a fresh coat of paint, new curtains, and a new theme.  We have been in the cabin for 14 years and it is starting to look shabby.  The outside of the cabin also needs re-stained.  Thankfully, it is small and shouldn't take long.  It is just it takes some serious acrobatics to get to a few areas.  This was a total fail.  I didn't get the cabin stained and only 1/4 of the bathroom painted.  I thought I could still pull out painting the bathroom, but bronchitis put an end to that delusion.  

~Host a barn dance.  We have a new barn and I really want a barn dance.  Maybe we won't dance.  Food, fun, and wine is fine. The timing was bad and a barn dance wasn't to be had.

~Landscaping.  We have the new barn and there is plenty of landscaping to do around it.  I also want to add hardscapes like trellises and more garden art.  I am satisfied with my garden plants, now I need to include some art to tie it all together.  My sweet husband got me a truckload of compost and landscaping here I come.  I did numerous projects this fall and have one final big one this spring.  I added trellises and garden art.  I am extremely happy with the landscaping of our property and truly enjoyed all the work that it required.

~Gardening goals (this is a gardening blog) are to focus on soil, fertilizer, and water.  I was negligent on my composting this year and it showed.  I need to keep my compost turned so it can enhance my beds.  The clay soil is persistent and it doesn't take long for it to overpower any improvements I make.  I started with a drip watering system in the vegetable garden and then when there were issues abandon the project.  If I don't focus on those little things, all the big things I do won't make a difference.  I also want to include hugelkulture into my beds.  This is the practice of covering wood with soil.  The wood retains water and fertilizes as it breaks down.  I did much better this year at keeping my compost pile turned.  The soil my husband got me will help immensely in improving the beds.  I didn't quite incorporate hugelkulture into the red/yellow bed like I wanted, but that doesn't mean I can't still this spring.  My husband did an incredible job with a watering rotation this year.  It was one of our drier years, but his system didn't miss a beat and the beds stayed happy and healthy.  I used a lot of fish fertilizer and my roses thanked me for it.

~Bring Hygge to my job.  It was a long stressful year at work.  Not just for me, but also for my staff.  I need to take what I learned from Hygge and incorporate it in the education building.  It is easy to get wrapped up in a job where you deal with young emotion filled adults and lots of government red tape.  We need to take a breath and slow down.  Another epic fail.  The government is a fickle beast to work for and instead of Hygge we felt tension, frustration, failure, and worst of betrayal from our superiors.  I love my job.  I love the students whose souls we fight for daily and the staff that give everything because they know they make a difference.  I will keep the faith that what we do means something and hope somebody above realizes it.

~To use a planner at home.  I live and die by my daily planner at work.  It keeps me focused and on task.  I want to experiment and try using a planner at home for meals, cleaning, and projects.  I'll admit I think this goal will fail (great start huh?), but I will give it a try.  This was a huge success.  My husband and I would plan our meals for the week on Sunday.  This gave me guidance when grocery shopping and eased the stress of a long day.  Knowing what you are going to make when you get home does a lot to make life smoother.  Even though it was mainly used for meals it did also help keep us organized when company came.  

I'm afraid that is it.  As I sit on the couch, the dog snuggled up to me, I count my blessings.  I have a great husband, wonderful family and friends, I work with amazing people, and live in a beautiful place.  2017 wasn't the best year, but I am still thankful for it. I have high hopes for 2018.  I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year.

Welcome 2017...

Goals, goals, goals.  I am not much for resolutions, but I like to set goals. I'm glad that blog tradition makes me review last year's goals and set goals for the coming year.  There is nothing wrong with accountability.   I will admit I am struggling this year when it comes to goal setting. I am glad this blog makes me sit down and focus on the upcoming year. 

~Family and friends are always at the top of my goal list.  I don't think I could beat last year with hosting.  We had a lot of company and and loads of fun.  I would like to expand our repertoire things to do while at the cabin including gifts, projects, games, and adventures.  I need more indoor games and kid friendly projects.

~Home improvements are on the list.  I need to update our guest bathroom.  It needs a fresh coat of paint, new curtains, and a new theme.  We have been in the cabin for 14 years and it is starting to look shabby.  The outside of the cabin also needs re-stained.  Thankfully, it is small and shouldn't take long.  It is just it takes some serious acrobatics to get to a few areas.

~Host a barn dance.  We have a new barn and I really want a barn dance.  Maybe we won't dance.  Food, fun, and wine is fine. 

~Landscaping.  We have the new barn and there is plenty of landscaping to do around it.  I also want to add hardscapes like trellises and more garden art.  I am satisfied with my garden plants, now I need to include some art to tie it all together.  

~Gardening goals (this is a gardening blog) are to focus on soil, fertilizer, and water.  I was negligent on my composting this year and it showed.  I need to keep my compost turned so it can enhance my beds.  The clay soil is persistent and it doesn't take long for it to overpower any improvements I make.  I started with a drip watering system in the vegetable garden and then when there were issues abandon the project.  If I don't focus on those little things, all the big things I do won't make a difference.  I also want to include hugelkulture into my beds.  This is the practice of covering wood with soil.  The wood retains water and fertilizes as it breaks down.

~Bring Hygge to my job.  It was a long stressful year at work.  Not just for me, but also for my staff.  I need to take what I learned from Hygge and incorporate it in the education building.  It is easy to get wrapped up in a job where you deal with young emotion filled adults and lots of government red tape.  We need to take a breath and slow down.  

~To use a planner at home.  I live and die by my daily planner at work.  It keeps me focused and on task.  I want to experiment and try using a planner at home for meals, cleaning, and projects.  I'll admit I think this goal will fail (great start huh?), but I will give it a try.

2016 was a busy year.  I am very proud that I met all of my goals for 2016.  That rarely happens.  Here is a recap of my goals and successful outcomes...
~As always, the goal is to make time for family and friends.  Last year we were extremely busy on the weekends and wasn't able to host guests.  Now that we have most of the big projects out of the way, I am hoping we can slow down and share our little piece of heaven with others.   We hosted many guests this year.  We took friends and family fishing and hunting.  My friend from Denmark came out and we went 4 wheeling and did some serious relaxing.  There was also brunch on the porch with Phyllis and Bob.  We even had a surprise visit from my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nita.   Words cannot describe how fulfilling it is to have company.  Sharing our little piece of heaven with others and teaching kids to appreciate the outdoors is very gratifying.  

~Get a strawberry bed this year and focus on my fruits and berries.  An early frost caused almost no production last year.  About the only thing that produced was the apples, crabapple, and raspberries.  I have an orchard here and one out on the prairie, so I will have plenty to keep me busy.   Despite the drought this year my cherry tree, crabapple, apple, gooseberries and raspberries were fruitful.  The strawberry bed was a fail.  I am cursed in strawberries.  I did get quite a few wild strawberries.  After several years of cultivating an orchard, I am amazed how our ancestors survived when they were dependant on such a fickle food source.

~Finish a quilt that I'm currently in the middle of.  Done and by the deadline of Christmas.  My mom sent a photo and it sits on their bed nicely.

~Do more fishing with my husband.  I really enjoyed our bear hunt/fishing trip last year and now we have our own fishing hole out on the prairie.  We did a lot of fishing and caught many catfish.  It was very fun taking kids out, as it was fast paced fishing.  The smiles and shouts of excitement were worth a million dollars.  Kelly and I took several fishing trips this spring, when there was still snow in the hills,  and it was a great way to spend time together.

~On the flower front, make a few more perennial beds and get control of my slug problem.  I was also pretty successful with annual flowers I started in the greenhouse last year, so I would like to expand my use of annuals.    We had a drought this year, so slugs were not a problem.  I was pretty happy with my beds, especially since we redid the front beds.  They held tough even though we were stingy with the water.

~Always try to be creative.  Pinterest, other blogs, family, and my husband are always giving me new ideas of things to try.   I can't sit still so projects weren't a problem.  I'm pretty excited about my fishing pole holder, caramel apple jam, the quilt, my 7 minute caramels, and flower bed combos.  

~Slow down.  I'm always in a hurry or too busy to do things I enjoy.  More picnics, more yoga, more exercise, more reading, more quilting, more time on the porch. These are all things that keep me balanced and when I don't make time for them I become stressed.   Life is too short to be unhappy.  I did 3 weeklong staycations this year.  Even with guests, I found them to be very satisfying.  It is easy to get wrapped up in work and it is a good reminder that work goes on even if you are gone.   I seriously studied the Danish belief of Hygge and have worked to incorporate the belief into our life.  On the exercise front,  I had the joy of running a 5K with my niece, Taylor, for her birthday.  She was an awesome running partner and I cannot wait to do it again in 2017.  

Although 2016 was a pretty good year overall, it ended on a very sad note with the passing of Gene.  He was a wonderful father-in-law and a great man.  He will be missed.  A wise man told me to learn something from everyone.  Gene taught me a lot; to laugh, see both sides, work hard, honesty, be responsible, and don't be afraid to have a little fun.  I am thankful he was a part of my life.

Five years later I'm still here...

January 22, 2011 I started my blogging journey.  I worried that I would run out of material.  Would anyone care what happens in my little corner of the world?  Is it possible to do a garden blog when I really only have 3-4 months of gardening weather?

After five years, I'm not worried anymore.  There always seems to be something going on.  I have enjoyed learning about what is happening at other ends of country and people seem to enjoy seeing the world from my porch.

I want to thank you all for your contributions to my life.  I look forward to your comments and suggestions.  I am lucky to have met such wonderful people.  My life is enriched.

I plan to continue my journey and am anxious to see where the next five years takes us.  Thank you again for our chats on the porch.   I am adding some of my favorite photos over the years and links to my top ten favorite posts.

Me Garden?

Sisters...

New Traditions...

I Promised You a Rose Garden...

A Danish Garden...

A Rose by Any Other Name...

Blooms...

The Cranes are on the Move and so am I...

Service Berries...

A Day in the Life...

Are there any posts that you liked best?

2016 here I come...

I have come to the conclusion that New Year's is my favorite holiday.  I enjoy setting goals for the upcoming year and reviewing my progress from last year.  2015 treated us very well.  I can't wait to see what 2016 has to offer.
My aspirations for the upcoming year are:
~As always, the goal is to make time for family and friends.  Last year we were extremely busy on the weekends and wasn't able to host guests.  Now that we have most of the big projects out of the way, I am hoping we can slow down and share our little piece of heaven with others.  
~Get a strawberry bed this year and focus on my fruits and berries.  An early frost caused almost no production last year.  About the only thing that produced was the apples, crabapple, and raspberries.  I have an orchard here and one out on the prairie, so I will have plenty to keep me busy.  

~Finish a quilt that I'm currently in the middle of.  Here is a teaser of the materials. 
~Do more fishing with my husband.  I really enjoyed our bear hunt/fishing trip last year and now we have our own fishing hole out on the prairie.


~On the flower front, make a few more perennial beds and get control of my slug problem.  I was also pretty successful with annual flowers I started in the greenhouse last year, so I would like to expand my use of annuals.  
~Always try to be creative.  Pinterest, other blogs, family, and my husband are always giving me new ideas of things to try.   
~Slow down.  I'm always in a hurry or too busy to do things I enjoy.  More picnics, more yoga, more exercise, more reading, more quilting, more time on the porch. These are all things that keep me balanced and when I don't make time for them I become stressed.   Life is too short to be unhappy.

That is about it for the new year.  How did I do last year.  Not too bad really.  I accomplished eight out of my nine goals.  Last year was a wonderful year filled with good memories.  
~Go on a bear hunt with my husband. ~Done!  We both got very nice bears.  The meat is delicious.  The fat is great for baking.  The fur is amazing and I'm trying to create jewelry from the claws.


~Be a good host as I anticipate many guests at the cabin this year.  ~We didn't have a lot of visitors, but I spent a week spoiling my nieces and that was a great time.   
~Go on Jeep adventures like we did when "we were kids" (That is code for when my husband and I were first married). ~We had a lot of projects going this year, especially on the property we bought, so we weren't able to relive our youth.
~Redoing the front flower beds.  I don't mean plants I mean the actual beds. ~We got one of the two done.  It was a lot of work, but it looks amazing.

~The veggie focus will be sweet corn and tomatoes from seed.  After last years poor showing, I will never buy tomato plants.  My challenge will be to grow an egg plant and a giant pumpkin.  ~My vegetable garden was amazing this year.  I had tons of tomatoes.  I grew egg plants and a loofa.  I didn't grow a giant pumpkin, but one did magically appeared in my pumpkin patch.  I never did find where it came from.

~Relax on the porch with family and friends. ~The porch is the best part of our cabin and was well used this year.  Especially, after we built a picnic table and we could enjoy meals outside.

~Expand my blogging community.  Become inquisitive again and visit new blogs.~I did get out and find several wonderful blogs which I am now following.  
~Stay on top of my wine making.  Which means keeping notes, labeling, and keeping on track.  You forget to take some notes and don't label a few things and chaos ensues. ~I was much better this year about keeping up.  Despite a poor year for berries, I was still able to make a batch of wine every month.  
~I haven't given up on the orchard fence.~It got a major makeover this year and that seems to have kept the deer out.  It isn't exactly what I planned, but then what ever goes exactly as planned.

Check things off the old list and start with the new.  I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!  I can't wait to read about your adventures and keep you apprised of mine.  

Goodbye 2014 and Welcome 2015...

At the end of January, I will have been blogging for 4 years.  Pretty cool.  I've always kept a garden journal and I found blogging to be the perfect way to journal and add photos.  What I hadn't expected was that my circle of friends and inspiration has grown immensely through the blogging community.  Part of the enjoyment of keeping a record of the everyday thing is that you can look back and see progress or lack of progress (orchard fence comes to mind).   Another positive of keeping a record is setting goals for the new year.  Goals give me a compass.  My priorities for the upcoming year are:  

~Go on a bear hunt with my husband.
~Be a good host as I anticipate many guests at the cabin this year.    
~Go on Jeep adventures like we did when "we were kids" (That is code for when my husband and I were first married).
~Redoing the front flower beds.  I don't mean plants I mean the actual beds. 
~The veggie focus will be sweet corn and tomatoes from seed.  After last years poor showing, I will never buy tomato plants.  My challenge will be to grow an egg plant and a giant pumpkin.  
~Relax on the porch with family and friends.
~Expand my blogging community.  Become inquisitive again and visit new blogs. 
~Stay on top of my wine making.  Which means keeping notes, labeling, and keeping on track.  You forget to take some notes and don't label a few things and chaos ensues.   
~I haven't given up on the orchard fence.   

How did I do last year?  Well, I didn't set my sights very high.  The year prior had been exhausting.  A review of 2014's goals.

1.  To keep my husband happy and healthy.  He will undergo some health challenges this year and I will be beside him helping and nagging.  Done, my husband's surgery was successful and he is back to his old self.  I'm impressed with his determination.

2.  Continue to push my garden skills.  This year I would like to focus on annuals and containers. I turned my strawberry bed into an annual bed.  I got the idea from Deborah's cutting beds at the Dandelion House and Garden.   I was very happy with the results.  I'm going to have to find somewhere else for them this year as I finally purchased strawberries and the bed is back to it's original purpose.  I did a few containers and they were ok.  


3. Continue to produce Pinterest projects.  I have really enjoyed finding recipes, projects, and ideas from others.   I will also continue to turn the old into something new.  I am very happy with my Pinterest projects and try to share them regularly.  I've tried sewing, cooking, baking, and spa projects.  Some very successful and some complete failures.  One doesn't know until you try.

4. Continue my education and exercising.  I have been working out regularly.  As for education, the young kids I work with are constantly giving me an education:)

5.  All I have to say about fencing that orchard is if there aren't any shrubs left due to the blizzard (Atlas they call it) I am going to raise Highland Cattle in that damn corral.  The shrubs took it hard.  We still haven't finished the fence.  Partly because I wasn't sure if it is even worth finishing.  

5. Take it easy this year.  Stay close to home and enjoy the little things in life.  We didn't venture far this year.  Instead we enjoyed hosting visitors to our cabin.  Most notable was my two nieces got to spend the night.  We also enjoyed hosting my cousin and his family on their giant road trip.  There was also a very nice brunch on the porch with my relatives Bob and Phyllis.


That is it.  My review of the past and future goals.  As for the present,  I'm happy and healthy.   I have an awesome husband, a good dog, great family, good friends, and a beautiful cabin in the woods.  Life is good.   I wish everyone a wonderful 2015. 

It is always important to me to look at the past and set goals for the future.  I may not meet the goals in the set time frame, but I'm a determined woman and eventually they are achieved.  2013 was a year on the run for me both physically and mentally.  

Review of 2013 Goals

-Visit Christina in Denmark for 2 weeks and see Hamlet's Castle.  Done!  The trip exceeded our expectations. Denmark is a beautiful country and the Danish people are amazing.  Christina was a wonderful hostess.  We stayed in a cottage close to the ocean.  It was a visit of firsts for me:  Swimming in the ocean, riding English, seeing Hamlet's castle after years of teaching the play, and (oh yeah) visiting another country.  Everything was perfect. 

-Finish my quilt and start another for my parents.  I did finish the quilt in time to give to Christina.  Now that things have settled down I will start on my parents.  

-Plant a Christmas tree, with the goal of posting it on December first 2013 loaded with lights.  This did not happen for two reasons.  One placement became an issue and the second was my husband wants a pine and I hate pine trees.

-Read 10 Books.  A Fine Romance, Rosemary Sweet Rosemary, Blood Trail, In Plain Sight, The $64 Tomatoo, The Square Foot Garden, From Beginning to End, Every Farm Tells a Story, Old Deadwood Days, and Hans Christian Andersen's Fairytales.  It came down to the last days to meet that one.  (Did I mention my friend Christina has an apartment in what was once Hans Christian Andersen's school?)

-Get a successful harvest from the expanded vegetable beds.  I got sweet corn, lemon cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, potatoes, chamomile, parsley, basil, beans, peas, onions, garlic, lettuce, spinach, and tons of jalapenos.  My harvest exceeded my expectations, especially after several hailstorms. 

-Focus on salsa and canned vegetables and try making eggplant soup.  I made 4 cans of salsa and 14 cans of mixed vegetables, and 4 cans of beans.  Doesn't seem like a lot to others, but is just right for the two of us.  I forgot to plant the eggplant seeds, so no soup.

-Finish fencing the orchard.  This is a difficult subject for me.  We did not spend additional money on the fence this year.  Probably a good thing as I haven't seen a shrub since the October 4th blizzard.  I am afraid all of my patience was for naught and the berry bushes that were beginning to produce are crushed under the snow.  I tear up to think of it.

-Run the half marathon on the Mickelson Trail in June, then I'm done running.  Yes, I survived the half marathon with my niece and swore to never run again.  That is until Christina told me to bring my running shoes to Denmark.  I was lucky enough to run with my friend in the world's largest 5 k.   Twenty four thousand people run in that race.  I managed to hang tough on both races and keep my 10 minutes a mile goal.  I have broken the second half of this goal and for some odd reason continue to run twice a week.  I don't know what happened there. I'm really not a fan of running.
-Landscape below the fire pit.  I'm leaning towards an alpine rock garden.  Issues with snow removal have put a temporary halt on this project.  Until I know where the road is going to go, I will do no landscaping. 

-Continue to enjoy my life.  I have an incredible husband, wonderful family, and great friends.  This continues to be a successful goal.  I got to go on an adventure with my wonderful husband. I participated in a challenge with my niece.  I finally visited one of my oldest and dearest friends.  It was especially nice to spend a week with my sister and her family.  I enjoyed getting to know my four nieces better and meeting my new nephew.  I spoiled them all to the best of my ability.  To finish it off Christmas at my parents.  It was a good year.

Welcome 2014

Wow, where do you begin after a year like 2013?  I guess I'd like to do the opposite and spend some quality time home and not running around.  Literally running around, as I was running 10 miles on the weekends last year.  

1.  To keep my husband happy and healthy.  He will undergo some health challenges this year and I will be beside him helping and nagging. 

2.  Continue to push my garden skills.  This year I would like to focus on annuals and containers. 

3. Continue to produce Pinterest projects.  I have really enjoyed finding recipes, projects, and ideas from others.   I will also continue to turn the old into something new.  

4. Continue my education and exercising.

5.  All I have to say about fencing that orchard is if there aren't any shrubs left due to the blizzard (Atlas they call it) I am going to raise Highland Cattle in that damn corral.

5. Take it easy this year.  Stay close to home and enjoy the little things in life.  

Maybe they aren't the biggest goals, but they are mine.  I wish all of my blogging fellows a happy and healthy New Year.  As always, I am excited to see the adventures the new year brings. As the sun sets on a a truly stellar year I will slow down and enjoy life.  I am thankful for family and friends and continue to count my blessings.  I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.