Is Spring Finally Here?
The last year has definitely been rough for us to say the least. We have had a few positive things take place however. Let's start with those.
In October of 2022, we got engaged on the north shore of Lake Superior. It's one of my favorite places!! He had done a great job, planning his proposal, asking my children's permission, already having asked his best man, as well as the officiant, a venue picked and having a date in mind already. All I had to do was make it happen...by May 1, 2023! I was thankful for all he had done, but 6 months can be challenging to plan an entire wedding. Of course I managed to pull it off!!
We were going to get married outside, but mother nature had other plans for us. I did mention that we've had a rough few months right? Well 5 weeks before our wedding, our officiant had to back out and along with it we lost our venue as it was her personal venue and she was leaving the state unexpectedly. After a few phone calls, we managed to find an indoor venue and someone to officiate thankfully. All in all, our actual wedding day went flawlessly.
Now to the not so good stuff. Last June, we had a terrible thunderstorm, complete with hail and strong winds. A large tree in our yard fell on top of our gazebo, completely demolishing it! The storm knocked out the power for much of our area. We were without for 2 days. The ground was so wet, that we had another tree fall across our driveway 3 days later.
We both work secular jobs in addition to managing our small farm. I thankfully work from home but Ron's job takes him away from the house in the late afternoon/evenings. This was working out okay for our market purposes, as he would work in the garden during the day getting everything harvested on Fridays. Friday after I finished work, I would get everything washed, packaged, and labeled for market Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, our season was cut short because the restaurant he works at was short a prep/fry cook most of the summer. So instead of preparing for market Friday evenings, I went into the restaurant to help out. Saturday morning market became impossible. Maybe things will get better with fall?
No. We spent our fall fighting to keep our horses and goats in their pens. I swear we were fixing fences everyday. They decided the fences were just not for them anymore! Thanksgiving morning we woke up to a call from our neighbor down the road to inform us that our horses were at his house. Despite our efforts to repair the fences adequately, we were unsuccessful. We did manage to finally contain our goats but we had to put our horses in the round pen until we could figure out how to keep them in the main pen. Unfortunately, now our 2 livestock dogs decided they no longer wanted to stay put either! We received calls from our neighbors about them also. Oh and the brand new high tunnels that we put up this summer, they took a hit too. We had a terrible wind storm towards the end of fall. I swear the wind was stronger than what we experience during a Minnesota winter. That wind storm took the plastic off our high tunnels, leaving it in a heap and with a few holes. We haven't even had the opportunity to plant in them yet and they already need repairing!
Moving into winter, we started December with a family emergency that took us out of state. Our return trip was delayed due our first major winter storm of the season. The stormed knocked out power for almost our entire area for days! Our house was without power as well but we were still out of state. The power was restored about 20 minutes before we got home. Our neighbor had plowed our driveway otherwise we would never have made it up to our house. Our house did not freeze up but it came close. We had left a little bit of coffee in the pot when we left. It had formed ice crystals by the time we got home. Although the house itself was fine, this winter power outage did cause some major problems. The water pump for the horses froze and busted. with frigid winter temperatures, there was nothing we could do to repair it until spring. The water pump in the goat barn froze and busted as well so we spent our winter hauling water.
We had a record snowfall this year. With such a large amount of snow, bigger issues arose. Ron manged to get the tractor stuck quite well. Without the big tractor, we had to use our smaller tractor to move snow. This takes much longer and for whatever reason, the power steering decided to quit working. We did call someone to come plow for us at one point but even with a big commercial plow truck, they got stuck in our driveway! Needless to say, we never plowed anymore than the bare necessities so we were hauling water through snow pasty our waist. Sometimes we didn't have any water left by the time we go to where we were going!
Another problem with heavy snowfall is that structures buckle under the weight sometimes. This was the case with our goat barn. We were fortunate though, we didn't lose any of our animals when this happened. It's just one more thing to clean up.
The last year has not been good for our animals as well. Mid- summer someone stole all our chickens. We learned that there are actually some things that pigs cannot eat. I did chores the night before with no issues. The next morning both pigs were dead. After consulting with a nutritionist, we learned that the grapes skins and seeds we had given them, after juicing and making jelly, can be deadly to pigs. So no fresh pork for us this year. During the hard winter, we also lost a couple of our goats as well as 1 of our horses. To be honest though, every winter for the past few years, we wondered if this horse would make it through the winter. The down side to losing animals in the dead of winter with a record amount of snow is the question of what you do with them.
Last but not least of our rough year. January 3rd my car went to the shop. They called to tell me that I needed a new engine. After 6 weeks at the shop, I got my car back with the new engine and all. Three weeks later, I totaled it. I did however buy a new vehicle that I like even better than my previous vehicle so that is positive.
With the last year as tough as it was for us, we started our spring officially married and hoping for a better summer! I'm looking forward to putting out some new videos soon and showing the progress we hope to make this summer!
Last updated 05/14/23
The last year has definitely been rough for us to say the least. We have had a few positive things take place however. Let's start with those.
In October of 2022, we got engaged on the north shore of Lake Superior. It's one of my favorite places!! He had done a great job, planning his proposal, asking my children's permission, already having asked his best man, as well as the officiant, a venue picked and having a date in mind already. All I had to do was make it happen...by May 1, 2023! I was thankful for all he had done, but 6 months can be challenging to plan an entire wedding. Of course I managed to pull it off!!
We were going to get married outside, but mother nature had other plans for us. I did mention that we've had a rough few months right? Well 5 weeks before our wedding, our officiant had to back out and along with it we lost our venue as it was her personal venue and she was leaving the state unexpectedly. After a few phone calls, we managed to find an indoor venue and someone to officiate thankfully. All in all, our actual wedding day went flawlessly.
Now to the not so good stuff. Last June, we had a terrible thunderstorm, complete with hail and strong winds. A large tree in our yard fell on top of our gazebo, completely demolishing it! The storm knocked out the power for much of our area. We were without for 2 days. The ground was so wet, that we had another tree fall across our driveway 3 days later.
We both work secular jobs in addition to managing our small farm. I thankfully work from home but Ron's job takes him away from the house in the late afternoon/evenings. This was working out okay for our market purposes, as he would work in the garden during the day getting everything harvested on Fridays. Friday after I finished work, I would get everything washed, packaged, and labeled for market Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, our season was cut short because the restaurant he works at was short a prep/fry cook most of the summer. So instead of preparing for market Friday evenings, I went into the restaurant to help out. Saturday morning market became impossible. Maybe things will get better with fall?
No. We spent our fall fighting to keep our horses and goats in their pens. I swear we were fixing fences everyday. They decided the fences were just not for them anymore! Thanksgiving morning we woke up to a call from our neighbor down the road to inform us that our horses were at his house. Despite our efforts to repair the fences adequately, we were unsuccessful. We did manage to finally contain our goats but we had to put our horses in the round pen until we could figure out how to keep them in the main pen. Unfortunately, now our 2 livestock dogs decided they no longer wanted to stay put either! We received calls from our neighbors about them also. Oh and the brand new high tunnels that we put up this summer, they took a hit too. We had a terrible wind storm towards the end of fall. I swear the wind was stronger than what we experience during a Minnesota winter. That wind storm took the plastic off our high tunnels, leaving it in a heap and with a few holes. We haven't even had the opportunity to plant in them yet and they already need repairing!
Moving into winter, we started December with a family emergency that took us out of state. Our return trip was delayed due our first major winter storm of the season. The stormed knocked out power for almost our entire area for days! Our house was without power as well but we were still out of state. The power was restored about 20 minutes before we got home. Our neighbor had plowed our driveway otherwise we would never have made it up to our house. Our house did not freeze up but it came close. We had left a little bit of coffee in the pot when we left. It had formed ice crystals by the time we got home. Although the house itself was fine, this winter power outage did cause some major problems. The water pump for the horses froze and busted. with frigid winter temperatures, there was nothing we could do to repair it until spring. The water pump in the goat barn froze and busted as well so we spent our winter hauling water.
We had a record snowfall this year. With such a large amount of snow, bigger issues arose. Ron manged to get the tractor stuck quite well. Without the big tractor, we had to use our smaller tractor to move snow. This takes much longer and for whatever reason, the power steering decided to quit working. We did call someone to come plow for us at one point but even with a big commercial plow truck, they got stuck in our driveway! Needless to say, we never plowed anymore than the bare necessities so we were hauling water through snow pasty our waist. Sometimes we didn't have any water left by the time we go to where we were going!
Another problem with heavy snowfall is that structures buckle under the weight sometimes. This was the case with our goat barn. We were fortunate though, we didn't lose any of our animals when this happened. It's just one more thing to clean up.
The last year has not been good for our animals as well. Mid- summer someone stole all our chickens. We learned that there are actually some things that pigs cannot eat. I did chores the night before with no issues. The next morning both pigs were dead. After consulting with a nutritionist, we learned that the grapes skins and seeds we had given them, after juicing and making jelly, can be deadly to pigs. So no fresh pork for us this year. During the hard winter, we also lost a couple of our goats as well as 1 of our horses. To be honest though, every winter for the past few years, we wondered if this horse would make it through the winter. The down side to losing animals in the dead of winter with a record amount of snow is the question of what you do with them.
Last but not least of our rough year. January 3rd my car went to the shop. They called to tell me that I needed a new engine. After 6 weeks at the shop, I got my car back with the new engine and all. Three weeks later, I totaled it. I did however buy a new vehicle that I like even better than my previous vehicle so that is positive.
With the last year as tough as it was for us, we started our spring officially married and hoping for a better summer! I'm looking forward to putting out some new videos soon and showing the progress we hope to make this summer!
Last updated 05/14/23
