NEW YEAR, SAME OLD CHALLENGES

The first week of 2014 has passed.  It has not passed quietly or gently, but we have made it through the beginning of the new year all the same.

We began the new year at Anna's Farm.  January first was a beautiful day filled with warmth and sunshine.  There was work to be done, as there always is on the farm.  Firewood need cut (though it was quite warm, it was still January after all). Despite the work, we spent the morning relaxing and enjoying the weather and each other's company.

Afternoon came and I cut some firewood while Anna started a fire outside to cook our new year's dinner.  Later, we dined on fried chicken (raised on Dave's farm), Okra (grown on Anna's farm) and corn cakes which were, unfortunately, not produced on either of our farms (maybe next year).  All in all it was a wonderful day, though it ended far too soon.

To our dismay, Anna woke up the following morning with the flu, and has been trying to deal with it ever since.  As anyone on the farm knows, the animals have to be fed no matter how bad one feels, so she has been struggling this past week.  It breaks my heart that I haven't been there to help.

The two days after new years day, I was off work.  Thursday and Friday, I spent trying to finish projects left over from 2013.  The old barn I was tearing down in the spring when I injured my foot, is now finished except for some minor cleanup.  A solar panel I started pre-injury also got finished, and the garden is now tilled up.

Saturday found me back at work but feeling unduly tired and achy, which I chalked up to pushing through projects.  Sunday morning was cold and a couple of inches of snow covered the ground.  I also woke up knowing why I felt tired and achy the day before, I had the flu.  Though I could not afford to miss work, the rest of the week has been spent trying to recover and doing only what what is necessary here on the farm.  As an added bonus, it turned really cold, with night time lows around 0 and highs in the teens.

During this first week of 2014, I predicted that we won't reach our goals this year without a fight.  Since Anna and I never planned to go down without a fight anyway, we are confident that this will be a good year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pudding for Dinner

Sad to say, but it is when there are long lapses in writing on here that I actually have the most to write about and just can't seem to stop long enough to get in a post!

I will be doing a several part post about my Christmas this year, as I did for Thanksgiving, but I kind of need to cool off a little get my emotions in control, before I write about it. So before I get to that, I will be making a few other posts, first.

Thanksgiving Day I felt kind of yucky, but just figured I was tired from getting ready for the holiday. Then the next morning I got up with the full-fledged flu! I ran a fever and had the aches for about 10 days, then it turned into bronchitis. I was sick for the whole month before Christmas, so, consequently, a large portion of my gifts never got made (and I couldn't just go out and buy them because I had lost two whole weekends of work while sick). I was just beginning to feel half way decent again, except for a lingering and very annoying cough, then....

A couple of days before Christmas I started feeling puny, and it just seemed to grow each day, especially the chills! Then the gut pains magnified and by Christmas day, all I could think about was going home and going to bed. That is what I did do yesterday.... all.... day .... long. I think I was up only about 3 hours out of 24, sleeping most of the rest. Today I am weak and tired, still a little achy, but not near so bad, we won't talk about what my gut is doing, but I have been able to stay up most of the day.

And now I am eating a small bowl of homemade vanilla pudding with a heaping serving of Diatomaceous Earth stirred in. I usually take it on a regular basis, as it helps with all kinds of things, but, I hate to admit it, I had gotten slack on taking it lately. It is suppose to really help with pulling viruses and all kinds of toxins naturally from your body. So I will let you know if it helps.

I hope your Christmas found you well and relaxed.