Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The year just isn't long enough...

Where did 2010 go, and how is Christmas already over?! The last few months have been a blur, and I'm astounded by how fast the year went by. At least I was able to squeeze in a dinner party at the end of the year, the first in the new house. It's so nice to finally have a place big enough to have people over. The old house was built in the 40's and its floorplan didn't comfortably accommodate more than 4 or 5 people. We had friends and family over on Thursday. My rosemary pork tenderloin ("pork crack" according to LJ) went over very well (yay) and everyone cleaned their plates! I got to use my mom's Ken Edwards dishes for the first time (early Christmas present), and found that grandma's table easily fits 8 people with the leaves in. After dinner we had an outside fire in the 23 deg weather. Cigars were enjoyed and beer consumed. All in all, an excellent evening. I'm looking forward to many bbqs in 2011!

I finished off the holiday weekend on sunday, thrashing blackberries with our clearing saw. It's a stihl fs550, and my absolute favorite tool. It is a blackberry and scotch broom eating machine, and will even fell saplings. Most excellent. I made a sizeable dent in the thorns over a couple hours, and finally quit when I was too tired to work safely. I wear saw chaps for extra protection, and they impede my movement just enough to really ramp up the workout. I stacked/piled two new burn piles and called it quits. I love the kind of work where I can really see what I've accomplished. Very satisfying!

I've started on my to-do list for 2011. To be recorded digitally soon, as I don't know how long LJ will accept it being on the fridge.

2 comments:

Paula said...

Hey Rae- since you're out in the country, you should think (maybe a little bit) about goats (at least two, because they need each other's company). They are great for clearing brush, especially thorny brambles, and you could milk them and make cheese. If nothing else, the research on them would be fun!

Happy New Year!

Rae said...

Paula, I like the way you think. We actually have thought about goats. LJ wants meat goats, and has been considering boer crosses. He would like to get 2-4 wethers to start out. I'm all for it, but would like to get a bit more settled in first. Pigs will be an easy start as we've both had experience with them. We know nothing about goats, save for the reading we've done over the last few months. We did have a lot of fun checking out the different breeds at the clack. co. fair this last year! They are definitely something we'd like to do eventually!