Ruminations - Long

Okay, so I'm sitting here in Annie's kitchen with Booker sleeping on the blanket beside the computer table. A Christmas elf removed the magical card reader from the cord so I can't download the pictures from yesterday's Christmas morning gift opening frenzy. Annie is teaching me a few things about computers. I'm still being dragged into the age of megabytes, gigabytes, etc., and confess I sometimes long for the old days. I admit it would have been a lot easier earning my Master's Degree with a computer instead of a card file. That was 1995 and many of my classmates were using computers and coming up with amazing stuff. I did it the old fashioned way - story of my life. Much harder for professors to check for plagairism (sp?) in those days - now they can google a suspicious phrase and there it is - or isn't. Still can't update my own website even after some very expensive lessons...have to go back to the Master but he costs so much money. As I sit here in the semi-darkness I'm mulling over the last 12 months and pondering what the next will bring. Some random thoughts on the good, bad and ugly of 2008.

1. Still have my job - can't imagine why they would keep me I'm so weird.
2. Matt has a job he loves where he is constantly learning and growing.
3. Apartment is great - funky, warm, bright, sunny and friendly even without closets and kitchen half finished. What I would give for some front steps so I don't have to wade through livestock to get out the door.
4. Hannah and Luke lived with me on the farm for a month and it was fantastic - they want to come back next summer.
5. I got in Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival - still a miracle after applying and being rejected all those years. Still can't believe it. Have to work my tail off from now to May. This time I will have a trailer full of product, even if Beasty Boy tells me I can't take the trailer because it is full of sheep dung. When I got back from Md. and looked it was only one inch deep and took me ten minutes to clean out.
6. Mia thriving in her professional nursing career, and feeling much better after switching to day shift. She is still pursuing her MS, thank Goodness.
7. AJ perfectly happy and comfortable with his Orthodox Christian seminary status - haven't seen him this happy in years.
8. Eric happy and thriving in his new job as #2 Boy Scout professional in the Santa Clara County council and knows that Leaving Las Vegas was a good move.
9. Annie landed a job with a local social services non-profit where she will have four weeks vacation and a short commute.
10. Codes inforcement officer extended my deadline to meet with compliance issues to May 1. Still don't know how I am going to do everything. Turning an old structure into a living space is supposed to be very "green" but NY State is not hip to the jive.
11. Still like to sew, make soap, and play with wool. As long as I do those three things I can make a little extra money. The fiber arts industry seems to be recession proof for now, but time will tell. Don't know how long people will spend a c-note for a cloth bag, or $4 for a bar of soap, but I am hopeful.
12. I was raised by a Depression Era, WWII Army Nurse, rural Georgia, WASP mother so I know I come from tough stock and can take whatever is thrown at me.

The Bad bordering on Ugly:

12. Hay issues are killing me. Lack of own hay-making equipment has my shepherd career one foot in the grave and that knee is buckling.
13. Found out who my friends are...but as long as I have family I am going to be okay.
14. Lost my Best Beagle, Jasper, still talk to him every day at his spot under the pine tree.
15. Need to expand my business but $$ issues - as in hay - are preventing any growth. I have a bigger market area now and possibly more shows in 2009 but lack of capital keeps my teacher's paycheck a business subsidy. Should have applied for grants or small business loan when money was more fluid.
16. Physical issues are creeping in. Broken leg and foot still aching, Weak Webster knees, bad back due to equestrian accident - all making the physical aspects of farming more challenging. Good thing I found those BOCE boys.
17. Isn't it great that's all I can think of for now!