Wow. Has it really been almost a year since I posted last?
Can that really be?
Seems almost unreal. I mean, I love my blog and I love chronialing my life here on this little electronic journal. So many things have happened in the last ten or twelve years.
But, life just got in the way! I guess I needed a little break. I’ve kept up a fairly daily narative on Facebook, because it’s breif and easy to just post some witty little bit or a picture or video of the day’s adventures. But it’s not the same as writing out a blog post. It’s different, more thoughtful, deeper. Sometimes.
Well, I don’t want to go into a bit of long, drawn out excuses but basically, our life has just gotten very very busy because of one of our home based companies going bonkers! Miss Maggie’s woodworking company has just risen up and consumed us all. She is getting any where from 4 to 7 orders a day and making looms and weaving tools and we are just tired. Yep, tired. Especially coming off the holiday season, we are ALMOST caught up on due dates… not overall orders because it just never seems to stop, but no more late order, which will be a huge blessing. I think by the end of this week, we will finally be caught up on due dates.
Our other companies are still hanging in there, but slightly neglected. Hoping to sort of rejuvinate them in the coming months and try and spread out the love between the various companies. It’s hard not to give the people what they want! Last summer we actually closed down Miss Maggie’s shop for two months because we had over 180 open orders and it was just strangling us. By the time we had to reopen we were down to about 25 open orders. We just had to, we were running out of operation funds by that point. Within a month, it was back up to about 70 or 80 and soon after hit 100. We are trying to keep it under 100 but it seems every week we get down to 80 by Friday and then over the weekend, when we are not producing but resting, it will be back up to near 100 again! It is good to be busy, but wow, we are super busy!!!
The farm is doing fine. Suffering a little from the lack of attention, but we did get a lot done this past summer. We torn down the failing old poultry barn! That was crazy. It netted us a lot of raw materials in the way of a zillion cement blocks and a lot of tin roofing sheets. It looks so different now, to not have that big old tumbling down building in the landscape. It’s still a bit of a work in progress. We ran out of time and energy and it’s still a sort of staging area of weird leftover bits. Hoping to get it all tidy first thing this spring when we are able to work back there… minus the mud!
We made the decision to get out of hogs. Our beloved American Guinea Hogs, to be exact. They went to live at a friend’s farm and are doing fine. We enjoyed having them and raising them, but we found that the last two litters, we were having trouble finding folks to buy them. And we tried raising more for ourselves, but it was just too much. And there is the cost and effort. With Maggie’s business so busy, it was just harder to keep them in the style we wanted to keep them. It was a good decision.
We also limited our sheep flock considerably. We had 24 and now we have 10. It’s a much more managable level of sheep. We are breeding only two ewes this year so that we will have a couple babies to enjoy and add to our ranks. Emma and Pixie are our 2020 mom choices, both great moms, easy birthers, and often twin. So we expect 2 – 4 little babies and that is perfect. Hopefully, not all boys!
Still have Buttercup and her boys, JPG and PDF for our goats and of course, Cody and Shadow, our pony boys. Our fowl population has taken a hit, and we are down to just a handful of chickens but we are in the process of building a beautiful new coop and run and will add new hens to the mix when that is finished!
I’m also in the process of building a little mom shack out in the old garden area. Near the new coop. Just a dream of mine forever… I have always wanted a yurt, but in our damp climate, I’m not sure a traditional yurt will be the best thing so I have decided as my primary living area, I’m going to build a tiny home. Actually, I’m considering a Amish shed to home conversion. Should be interesting. I really really want to make that happen this summer. One way or another! I have a foundation down and was going to try and build it all from the bottom up, but my health has been a little wonky and I’m not sure I can handle it all and get it done in a reasonable amount of time. So… I am looking at the local Amish builders for a shell that I can then finish up just how I want it. We shall see!!!
Jessy and Maggie are doing fine, just busy from working all the time! I’m so happy that they are becoming more and more independant every day. They are embracing their lives and doing what they love. Sure, there are some things we would like to change or upgrade and we are slowly taking care of things, but our lives are pretty blessed already and we love it. Can’t wait for a little warmer weather to grace our lives. This old 100 year old plus farmhouse can be a little chilly in the winter and it tends to sap a little of your get up and go! I think in the end, it’s not a bad thing. Winter is a time for rest and renewal. It’s good to have some down time. Lots of naps and just time to recharge. I know my own to do list is getting longer and longer as the days get closer and closer to some sunshine and warm temperatures!!! It really won’t be too much longer and we will have a lot more time to start working outside and getting to some nice sunbaths in the April shine!
I will try to not stay away so long! I promise.
I do miss this sort of blogging, writing and sharing. I’m hoping that our schedule will start to level out a bit more. I think it will. We are trying hard to work smarter, not harder and to share a little of the effort with those that can help us. It’s a good thing.
I’ll try and figure out how to add commenting again to our blog. We had an attack about 2 years ago and our hosting company suggested that we turn off the commenting. I’ve tried to figure out how to add it back again, but I think that I need to talk to them and figure it out. I don’t want to accidently wipe out all these thousands of posts!!! That would be very upsetting. I do have some of it backed up in a very sort of basic way, but still, just would hate to loose it all.
In the meanwhile, you can always drop me a note at my email… sherri at chekal (dot) com. (Hope you can put that all together. Just trying hard to stay ahead of these naughty spammers!!!)
You can also follow us on Facebook… search for WindhavenFarmOhio
And on instagram… WindhavenFarmOhio
The same thing! Yah! Easy, eh?
Well, take care and I promise to come back and keep filling you all in with the last year’s adventures… I mean, I haven’t even mentioned Earl yet!!!
