Oh, my it’s the middle of December! I really thought that I had picked up a few gifts here and I might be in good shape but as I sorted out my spare room, I felt kind of sick that I am missing out on gifts for some special people. Then I became stressed out as I know how busy the local businesses have been. I do have a few things that I have ordered that are very slow to arrive so maybe as they all get shipped to me that will make me feel some better. I really love giving but I don’t want to buy “stuff”, I want it to be put to good use. We all have plenty of stuff. I finally took the time to get both my upstairs and downstairs tree up and though I still need to do some cleaning, my house is ready for Christmas. I kept thinking since we are keeping things quiet for this Christmas it maybe was a waste of time getting it all decorated up. The girls will be out with a few friends though and I want them to feel like it is Christmas! This would have been their year to go to Florida, but I am so happy they will be home for Christmas. Since losing my dad I really am happy to have them home! I got my mom’s tree up as well and though my dad isn’t here, we still decorated it just the way he liked it. Blue lights and no bows! I miss his calls at this time of the year; “Kimmie what are we going to get Mother” or “Kimmie can you go and get Mother a gift certificate?”
The weather has been fantastic. Although nippy this a.m. it isn’t expected to last. At least when we get the cold days, we often see the sun! This warm spell has saved on hay! Without a bunch of snow, I can feed the cows a fair way from the barn yard. It really helps in spreading around manure and the seed in the hay bales. You can do great work by feeding your animals in different areas of you pasture / fields. The year following you will notice all kinds of lush growth. It is a lot easier and cheaper to have your cows do the work for you than going in with equipment. Once the snow is deep and hard to get through, I will have to move them closer to home. But for now I am taking advantage of a great winter.
This is the last week of meetings for 2020. Though many of our meetings have been via a computer we get a nice break from this. The Cattlemen’s are working on their major barn renovation project and the abattoir is in the planning stages of a project that will allow for more processing. It will be nice to walk away from both for a bit. Applying for funding and researching best practices can be very tiring!
I hope everyone enjoys these last couple of weeks of Christmas preparation and though many of our gatherings will be small I hope you can enjoy a calmer time so that next year we can all be here to celebrate in a bigger way!
