Auld Lang Syne...

I have been reflecting on 2017 and everything that it brought into my life and the life of my family.  This year has been a very stressful but equally successful year.  

Some of the highlights this year were:

  • My oldest winning the science fair with his project on infrared radiation and global warming.
  • My youngest playing soccer with his dad coaching the team.
  • Completing the kitchen remodel in the barn (it is absolutely beautiful and I am VERY spoiled).
  • A weekend trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park.
  • Celebrating being married and not killing each other for 17 wonderful years.
  • Growing a beautiful kitchen garden... the tomatoes this year were out of this world.
  • My youngest growing a cabbage larger than himself for a school project.
  • Speaking at the ASHS National Conference in freaking Hawaii - life was rough for a whole week and I didn't even have to pay for it...
  • Visiting Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and the Amish in Pennsylvania with my mama.
  • Being awarded a scholarship to be among the first group of graduate students invited to NC-140 which is a fruit tree research group from the top universities in the nation.  I got to speak which was an incredible opportunity.  This was at Wenatchee, Washington and we toured the biggest orchards I have ever seen.  It was life changing...
  • Interviewing for and getting my DREAM JOB.  I am now an assistant professor working for USU as the Davis County Horticulture Extension Agent.  I love every minute of this job!  I get to run the Master Gardener Program for Davis County, Utah and it has been a blast.  Plus, I get to teach a few college level courses on the side which is great fun. 
  • Defending a Master's Thesis.  This was incredibly stressful, but I passed and am now graduated! (And the crowd goes wild... ahhhhhhh!!!!)  The absolute BEST part of this was that my kids got to see me finish this.  That meant the most to me, that they were in that room with me.
  • Publishing a thesis.  This was also incredibly stressful and I think the intention of this work was to attempt to murder me.  I fought hard and won... I'm still here.  If you ever need to fall asleep in about 1 minute you can read all 100 pages of nerdy research here.
  • Taking off two whole days after Christmas has been guilt-ridden bliss.  I have slept, and slept, and slept, and played Nintendo with my kids, and it has been the BEST.  
Grateful as I am for the wonderful things that 2017 brought me and my family, I am ready for 2018 and the challenges, beauty, and moments of joy that it will bring.  

How about you?

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 29, 2024 at 9:19 AM

    Where are you located?how cold is winter there

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Raspberry Cream Crumble Pie...

Image
Raspberries, creamy filling, crumble topping, and delicate pie crust.  Can you handle this?  Wow!  This is one of those fantastic recipes that I will make each year during the height of raspberry season, yep, it's that good.  I am completely in love! I have to say that the raspberries are the most important piece of this puzzle, it requires very fresh, ripe, and sweet raspberries.  A farmer friend of mine was able to get some glorious little jewels from a farmer friend of his in Oregon yesterday.  These berries are divine, ripened in the sun and carefully picked.  I know that they are not local, but really, they are from a friend of a friend and a small sustainable organic berry farm.  It doesn't get much better than that!  Make sure you get berries grown on a farm that were picked a day or two ago at their peak.  You will have an amazing tasting pie if you do! I switched the original recipe just a bit.  The crust wa...
Read more

Keeping Bees Through the Winter...

Image
With all of this snow and cold temperatures I have been concerned about our bees.  This is our third year keeping bees, and we have not been successful through the winter.  Our first year, we got a swarm very late in the season, and they were not well established when winter hit.  The second year, the hive was blown over in a horrible wind storm with 103 mile-per-hour winds. This year, so far, so good.  We knocked on the side of the hive this morning and the bees buzzed back.  I am so hopeful. I wanted to share what we did to improve the chances of survival for our hive.  People say that you don't need to do anything for them in the winter, but with the luck we have had, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry.  We put three bales of straw around the hive with a gap between the bales and the hive to promote air flow.  We get so much snow at the farm (we usually have at least 3-feet before the winter is over), we thought it would be ...
Read more

Chicken Tractor...

Image
How many of you have heard about a chicken tractor?  If you are not in the know, it is a marvelous idea: a mobile home for chickens that you can move around a yard (large or small), giving your chickens opportunity to range without wandering far off.    We have seventy chickens at the farm.  With so many girls, we occasionally get an injured or picked on bird.  These girls need a sanctuary away from the pecking order that can become vicious and eventually deadly for a chicken that isn't quite normal.  These girls that need a little extra TLC end up in my backyard.  If they can rehabilitate they are eventually moved back to the farm.  We have a few that can't go back, and they become permanent residents.  We have a blind chicken named Helen and a chick with hip dysplasia named Dot.  These two girls will stay here forever.  I have a small yard, 0.25-acre, and these rehab girls make a marvelous mess of my little plot.  We als...
Read more