Wednesday 1 January 2014

Crikey, it's 2014 already!

How did that happen! How did 2014 creep up on me like this! I was working my way through the ups and downs of 2013 quite nicely, and found that today is the first day of 2014.

So may I send belated hopes and wishes for a good and productive New Year to you, and thank you so much for sharing our continuing journey towards getting our house and smallholding sorted out. Soon we shall have babies, according to the tummies of our goats who are swelling up by the day now, as are their little udders. Although we milk our goats, their udders are quite small in comparison to those of you who have 'proper' milking goats, but ours give us what we need and we thank them for that.

Max and Mum Pig are now together all the time, so hopefully there will be littl'uns from them this year. The troop of geese should have been laying eggs by now, but don't seem to be unless they are laying eggs in nests which are hidden from us. The hens are giving us loads of eggs per day at the moment, and laying them in a convenient spot, which is unusual for hens as they do like to change their nest sites as soon as find the one they have been using.

But the sheep will not have lambs because we are resting them this year. We have enough meat in the three freezers to keep us going for a year or so. It is comforting to know that if we suffer a financial difficulty we can feed ourselves.

We no longer work for  anyone else, but work for ourselves, which means that Lester is now a full time smallholder, which means that work on the farm and in the house is slowly being done by us, but no income is being provided at the moment. We are living on savings. Not to worry. Actually, we do! It is hard to stay positive all the time, but we have the opportunity to change track with what we do so we are 'going for it'.

It is with some surprise that I realise that I am 67 this year. Gosh! I suppose I should be winding down, retiring, taking things easy. No chance! This year we hope to open as a place of rest and recovery for those who are life tired. Lester is busy setting up the necessary environment to host the bookings on our two websites, and I have spent the last three months updating one of the websites, with the other one half way done. We are also taking control of the several books I have written, bringing them here for sales rather than going through other sales platforms. And then there are the videos to make, and the MP3 downloads. Phew!!!

Lester is just uploading the Zen cart ( ? Dunno either that that is either, but something to do with the website  shop environment), and then he says that he is coming onto my computer to go through the website files to make sure that they are all in order. He says he knows what I am like, and that he suspects that they will be in a muddle. Working with him on the smallholding is a pleasure. Having him work on my website will not be, and we shall definitely argue. I think I might leave him sort out the website files himself, and go sort out my new sewing machine. I have had it for two months, and I have only just unpacked it. It looks quite a complicated bit of kit, so I shall need an hour or so to understand it. I normally use my industrial straight stitch flatbed sewing machine, but this table top machine will give me buttonholes and fancy stitches. I am looking forward to playing with it. And anyway, I have taken care to keep my website files in good order, but men are men, and so I must be patient with Lester as he looks into the work I have done.

So that is why 2014 has crept up on us. Christmas came and went with hardly any attention paid to it by us, as has the end of 2013 and the start of 2014.

Lots of things happening. Lots of changes. Lots of worries. Lots of excitements. But hopefully not to many skirmishes between Lester and me as we get the Internet platform going for Labartere.

Thank you so much for visiting with us, and hoping that 2014 is going to be a 'break through' year for you as well.
Vx

8 comments:

rusty duck said...

It's going to be a big year for you Vera, I hope it all goes well and will be following your progress. You will sail through, you always do!
Happy 2014. Jx

John Going Gently said...

Happy new year Vera x

Denise said...

All best wishes for 2014, to you both, as you embark on the next growth spurt for Labartere! X

Diane said...

Yes it has arrived with a bang and chaos here at our place. We left to go the the UK, promised visit to 92 year old FIL with a huge fosse problem. Promises to sort it out while we were away did not happen, so we arrived back here in the sh*t. New guy now on the job but can only arrive on the 13th Six weeks wasted as such!! Great fun.

What ever we celebrated lunch today in style and forgot some of our woes. 2014 will be better and we wish you all the very best. I will be 71 this year, Shhhhhh don't tell any one. How do the years go so fast now, they never went this quickly 50 years ago!

Take care and keep up the good work. Diane

Horst in Edmonton said...

Happy New Year Vera. Hope 2014 is a great year for you and Lester.

Vera said...

Jessica, thank you and looking forward to watching how your cottage and garden make progress this year. I hope you sail through this new year as well, and hope the mice do not cause too much mischief with your wires.

John, oh bless you. Are you wearing the superman outfit at all? Love the photo of you in bed with your pals. Everyone needs a warm body to cuddle up to when the world is not such a nice place to be in.

Denise, thankyou, and wishing you and Andy the same. Hope you are enjoying your new wood burner and that it has not caused too many sooty spots on the floor and on the ceiling!

Diane, oh how what an unhappy start to 2014, but hope the fosse gets sorted soon. 71? Oh but you are still a youngster!

Horst, bless you, and wishing you the same. Hope you are enjoying your new camera, and wait to see with interest what photos you take with it.

Olly said...

Best wishes for 2014, I really admire what you're doing and love reading your updates. Good luck with the new project - hope you get some bookings.

Vera said...

Olly, bless you. And wishing you all the best for 2014. Vx