We made it another year and sure enjoyed the mild fall and early witnter weather. Mud is just so messy and the colors of the landscape very gloomy but now it’s all frozen and white. A bright clean white and less gloom. Give me a few months and I probably won’t be as happy with snow.

I’m taking a break and not doing anything too much. I’m decompressing and doing lots of puzzles at my table by the window. Puzzles are me go back to my early days at home. Mom did them and then I guess I took them over. They are my winter escape, they give me some sense of accomplishment and allows my mind to wander all over. I can also have some youtube videos on, or music or a movie although I don’t do many movies I will try to enjoy some this winter.

I have things to do. I have the extra bedroom that is the office/storage room that needs to be gutted, reorganzied and part with a LOT of things that I do not need. DeJunking is my word.

We had to resort to a fake christmas tree this year and it was entirely because of my, well my lungs specifically. The past few years I’ve had alot of breathing problems when the tree is in the house. Allergies galore. Last year was particularly bad and the guys had to haul the tree out before Christmas. It was a bad time. I was coughing and wheezing bad. Seems the tree that was supposed to be good for people with allergies was my worst trigger ever. So out it went. This year we purchased a 6 foot tall fake one and some led lights which I do like. except I got a strand of 500 when we only really needed 300. So the excess was draped around the bay window which does look quite nice. My breathing is okay. I didn’t even want to decorate the tree because it made me depressed. See i love trees but my lungs do not.

Anyways moving on.

Farm wise. The beef herd is in their witner quarters wtih lots of wood chips to lounge on inside and go outside to eat their hay we put up in the summer. The pigs are no longer here but in the freezer or customer freezers. No pigs til March or so. We do have 9 or so hens giving us eggs.

We got snow overnight and time for the snowmobiles to come out.

Juju and Cally love the snow. Juju is 8 months old and has her thick winter border collie coat so always wants to be outside. Cally prefers to nap in typical lab fashion.

We went to the Maple Conference in Syracuse yesterday. It was okay. The workshops really were not that great and I was often bored to almost falling asleep when the speakers (many are professors) dig out their boring powerpoints with graphs that are just my ( or matt’s) thing.

I wish more presenters would learn how to teach to adults and not 20 something college kids who are stuck in their class. Few get it and even fewer care. Big egos who enjoy their own voices galore is how I think of many of them. But the trade show was good and conversations at lunch good also.

Next up is a trip to Massachusetts for a grazing conference where I was invited to be on a Pastured Pig Farmer Panel- they call them hogs, I call them pigs which to me is just nicer. Should be a good get away for a few days, hopefully no snow storms to mess up the trip.

PORK

If you were looking for some pork we did end up having extra and have it listed in the online store for sale. We had some extra because some of the pigs were larger than I planned plus I did not oversell things and get shorted. Some really good looking ham steaks, hams, bacon, chops, spare ribs and country ribs. yeah I got some backlash because of the prices. but if you want good meat it is not cheap. We are still dealing with higher costs of everything on the farm and can’t give it away.