Reflections on 2011

As I look back on 2011, I have so much to be thankful for! Our family has remained healthy, we are anticipating the birth of another grandson in four short weeks, our daughter has been accepted into the college of her choice where she will begin studying to be a pediatric nurse, my baby daughter turned 16 this year...gasp!, we have been blessed to spend time with family and dear friends....God has been gracious!

We began the year by watching our son being sworn into the United States Marine Corps. We ended the year by watching him deploy to Afghanistan.

I am so thankful for the bravery of the men and women who are willing to sacrifice everything in order to protect the freedoms of our nation! Godspeed son!

We have also had a productive year on our little homestead. We added 10 Cornish X hens to our freezer, as well as 2 very big turkeys. Actually, one of the turkeys was the centerpiece of our Christmas dinner this year. What a beauty she was! But, of course, I forgot to take pictures! (I really need to work on that.) We put up electric fencing around the area where our goats will be. Now we just need to build a shelter for them and I can get my milk goat! We planted a dozen fruit trees that are coming along nicely. The grass we planted in our future pasture did VERY well. Hopefully, by spring, we will be able to fence it in and have a couple of cows!

Our garden was a disaster this year! We learned many lessons of what NOT to do in the future. First, if you are using the Square Foot Gardening method, you MUST add tremendous amounts of compost to the soil at the end of each season. Obviously, we didn't add enough and nothing wanted to grow. You could also replace the used soil with the recommended soil mix again, but this is just not cost effective for us. However, I do love the idea of having the garden in raised beds. We added new ones this year and plan to add more in the spring! I'm looking forward to making plans for our 2012 garden!

God is faithful! And as we anticipate the coming new year, may we all seek to draw near to Him and remember to be thankful for all He has provided!