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Blogs are good for many things.  One of those things is remembering.  Remembering what we've said in the past, what we've thought, what our goals were a year ago - or several years ago.  We can see how far we have or haven't come. Today, as i am sure you are aware, is New Year's Eve.  With less than 12 hours before the beginning of a new year, and a new decade, i will review last years goals and ambitions and see what i can glean for the new year, and the new year's goals and ambitions. 2010's Goals What now? ~become a bee keeper This one, we will forward to 2011.  It is in the works, however, more than it was a year ago.  By the end of 2011, i do expect to be harvesting honey. ~become a chicken farmer who gets to actually collect eggs (eta: February or March) Successful!  We regularly collect close to a dozen eggs per day! ~get better at 'dispatching' chickens Not only have we gotten better at it, we have a system and a new schedule ...

Christmas. We celebrated with family and friends for three days straight.  It was really great.  I have really enjoyed the holidays this year.  And on the 27th, i went into withdrawal. After more than a month of prioritizing baking, cooking, and crocheting projects for multiple family get-togethers, i found myself with nothing specific to bake, cook, or crochet for.  And it made me cry. But i'm o.k. now.  I'm using the quietness of the last week of the year to write down some goals, make some plans, schedule the lives and deaths of multiple chickens, and get used to life at a little more normal pace. Not too normal though.  I like getting things accomplished. One of my goals for the new year is to investigate, and possibly follow through with, setting up an Etsy store for the sale of some of my crocheted items and possibly other things that i haven't made yet. Here are some of the things i made for Christmas presents/stocking stuffers this year....

Whew! This has to be quick.  I'm on a short break. Christmas making is very busy. I'm snacking on some caramel corn i just made and deciding whether i want to adjust the caramel to popcorn ratio for better coverage.  I think that i do.  I'm going to go back and start over in a couple of minutes.  I usually use my mom's Microwave Caramel Corn recipe, but the microwave i currently own is about 30 years old, and though it does the job, it isn't powerful enough to pull off caramel corn.  So i went to the internet and found this recipe .  It's very tasty, but the coverage is a little bit thin in my opinion.  Thus the impending adjustments. This past weekend, we were blessed with some new furniture, which greatly improved our storage space and the appearance of our home.  It also compelled us to rearrange nearly every corner of our home and to get rid of a couple of things that weren't pulling their weight around here.  I've decided that we...

I finally got batteries for my camera today.  I have lots of things i want to take pictures of for you, such as how to successfully produce yeast bread.  But i wasn't in the mood to make any bread for you this evening, so i took pictures of our happy, simple Christmas decorations instead. This is our little antique Christmas tree that i found in the attic.  I didn't put anything on it, ornament-wise, that doesn't have some significance.  You know, no boring round colored bulbs that came from Wal-mart and mean nothing to me.  I have plenty of those, but this is a tiny tree, and we can only see about a third of it, so i needed to be picky.  Sorry you can't really see them, but they're nice and simple and unflashy. Then i went outside to take pictures of my house.  The lights GSSH put up are awesome, but i had a hard time capturing them very well with my camera.  This is the best option.  This picture makes my house look even tinier than it is...

I still haven't managed to get batteries in my camera, so i don't have any pictures, but i thought i would share some farmstead updates.  We have been busy. The week before Thanksgiving, we had a great hatch.  My broody hen, Kyckling, hatched 6 out of 7 eggs.  And i hatched 21 out of 24 in the incubator.  Since i planned these two hatches at the same time, i got to do something i've been wanting to try for a while.  I put all 27 chicks under this broody hen as soon as they hatched.  And she accepted all of them!  It's great!  She's still with them, and while i'm helping her keep them warm with a heat lamp in the brooder, she usually has as many of the growing chicks under her feathers as she can.  She's the best broody ever! Oh wait!  I do have a picture of that.  Probably the last i took before my camera went dead. See how they all look like they're listening to her?  She must be a great teacher.  Too much beautifu...