Happy New Year

I know, I am late but it is heartfelt. I wish each of you to do better, love better, feel better. I wish we will each be more aware of how we treat each other, how we treat our earth and how we treat ourselves.

I am not making any earthshaking resolutions because I know I will only stress myself when I don't keep them. So I am doing baby steps and trying to kick myself up a notch, eat a little better by eating more fresh fruit. In that vein I am going to try planting a nice variety of vegetables in my garden and learn how to can so I can have them over the winter. I figure with so many people around me who know about this stuff I should be able to bribe someone,lol. I am planning on planting more herbs because I am having so much fun with the ones I did this past season. Being able to take out a jar and have these great dried herbs to add to my cooking, I love just the smell of them.

On the exercise front I am going to clear paths around the property so that I can take walks and hopefully I can get them smooth enough so I can ride my bike also. The dog will like this and hopefully by the time Spring rolls around I will have found another dog. I want to get a puppy while Elvira is still with us so she can help train it. Elvira is 11 which is starting to get old for a larger dog. If I manage to drag even half the junk out of the trees I should loose a few pounds. I know it is common practice but it still puzzles me why they would dump all that stuff all over the place. I am talking freezers, microwaves, farm machines, huge feeders, wire, you name it. Some of the items I am going to try and use in my flower gardens. Since this is farm country makes sense to have farm type stuff around. I want to make a walk through the trees be interesting and unusual and fun. I keep looking at that

big feeder and wondering how I can make it look like a big mushroom,lol. I may have to resurrect my welding skills, haven't done that for a zillion years.

Of course on the agenda also is being able to paint the house and buildings and put up fences so the goats can run around and eat all our yucky weeds. Probably more towards Fall we should be able to start making some progress on the interior of the house . Lots of tearing out walls and ceilings, much more insulation, then the fun stuff, paint and paper. Today the wind is 20-30 mph and you can tell the lack of insulation, doing the blown in insulation should make a world of difference. We have made quite a bit of progress from last winter, but definitely there is still a lack. At least when the wind is howling the drapes are not blowing out, as I said we have made progress.

I am also on the hunt for a parlor stove, you know those cool ones with the glass inserts and the fancy decorations on them?? We were thinking fireplace but have decided that a stove would be more in keeping with the style of the house and easier to install. We have enough wood to last for a while and the people I talk to say how much heat the wood stoves put out.

Sounds like a plan!

Another thing on my to do list is to be as "Green" as possible. I already recycle and put as little into land fills as possible. I heard on TV the other day that if you turn off the water while you brush your teeth you can save quite a bit . It said that leaving the water run for the two minuets it takes to brush your teeth uses 10 gallons of water? or was it five? and then you multiply that by how many in your house. We are lucky here because we have a well, but in the cities the water bill can be a pain. I already have my small appliances plugged into a strip so I can turn it off. I will admit that when I first heard someone mention electricity "leaking" due to things being plugged in I thought it was a joke. Now that I have heard more about it I am much more conscious of not leaving chargers plugged in and turning off the power strips .

Somewhere down the line we are going to invest in the solar and wind power, I want us to the point they buy power from us!!

I leave you with some pictures I took through the window of visitors, things like this help to gloss over the cold and wind.

All my best to you in this New Year, Barbara