It's 2013!

Hello everyone! Can you believe it is already 2013? Time flies so fast. They always say the older you get the more you notice it. I am not old, but I certainly can understand that statement! Well I suppose it is time to take a look at some of the things we have been up to.

Did you all have a good Christmas? We had a great one. My Aunt and Uncle and cousins came up to my grandparents' house. My Grandpa got sick with the flu Christmas afternoon unfortunately, but He is much better now. Christmas is always nice, though it is easy to get distracted with all the presents, trees, shopping or whatever. But I guess now it is all over until next time, which, if time flies like last year, will not be long.

My Grandfather is here for a visit. He started a tradition that on our tenth birthday we would get to go on a twenty-four hour trip with him buy ourselves. Abram's birthday is tomorrow, so he came up to go on a ski trip with him. My cousin in Maryland turned ten in December, so Grandpa is here on the east cost for his birthday too. So they should have a good time. We are having a great visit with him.

Everything seems to be going well on the farm. The sheep got out yesterday so we moved them down to the next part of woods where I am feeding them hay. I have been buying round bales this year as they are much cheaper (pound for pound) then square bales. They are a little more work to roll out and feed then square bales, but you save a lot of money, and you can store them outside which is nice as well. We are all out of broilers for the year, so my chores only take 20 to 30 minuets twice a day. The cow is continuing to grow which is good. We moved her to a new location in the garden this afternoon. We have people asking to buy her a lot, but we are probably going to either breed her or eat her. So, things are kind of slow I guess, soon I will be taking lambs to the butcher, then new ones will come and the whole season will start over again. It is nice having the seasons. Warm, cold, busy, slow. It makes life much more interesting.

Papa bought a little 4'x6' trailer the other day. It should be handy for hauling things now that Papa's truck no longer runs.

Well deer season is over in our parts. We went out a lot more this year then last year. I didn't go out every time Papa and my brothers went out, but I went out quite a bit. I didn't get anything, but Samuel got a turkey on Christmas Eve, and got a deer (a "button" buck) a few  days later. Here is a picture:

I am thinking about trying to start teaching guitar lessons. I still need to figure out how to make it work, but seeing as how I love the guitar and would love to help others learn. Obviously I still have a lot I can learn, but I could certainly teach beginners. I'll see how it works out.

And, speaking of music, I am going to do something a little different. I made a CD for some of my family for  Christmas, and since I have extra I thought I would do a giveaway. All you have to do is comment and let me know you would like to participate. I will draw a name on the 21st (2 weeks from today), and there will be one winner. It kind of defeats the purpose to do a give away if no one enters, so be sure to enter it! It is not the best quality as I do not have the best recording equipment, and I made a few mistakes, but I did try to do my best.

Well I guess that is all I have for today. Hopefully I will be able to post on here more often this year. To close are some pictures from the farm.

Thanks for reading!

- Graham