Happy New Year 2019!

We also need to briefly catch you up on the many ado’s about our homestead over the last year. It was a very busy and challenging year for us and I made the decision not to work on our blog as it was an expense in both time and resources which were woefully short in number during 2018.

The two most challenging aspects of our year included a job change for me as well as a very unhelpful weather pattern that persisted all year.

The job change was due to my desire to work closer to home rather than the 1 1/2 hour commute (each way) I had been doing since moving to our farm. Unfortunately that new job which was 3 miles down the road didn’t work out and I ultimately ended up at another employer 6 months later. I’m very thankful for my new position, but the hours are quite long leaving very little time for family/farm life balance. We’re getting into a routine now, but it has certainly taken some getting used to.

As for the weather we’ve experienced in the past year, I can surely say that trying to make a living off the land is no small feat when nature throws curve ball after curve ball. Our 2018 started much colder than usual and that cold “spell” lasted longer than usual. It ended with a torrential rain system and then a sudden and quick warming trend.

The rain stopped and the temperature was so high for so long that our hay fields never really grew to their full potential. The result was that our first and second cuttings were half the size we have become accustomed to. Then came the end of summer and it hasn’t really stopped raining long enough to dry our fields so that equipment can get the remaining hay. So now what is in our fields is quite unusable. I did what I could to cut some of it by hand and store it, but one man cutting hay with a scythe when he has but an hour or two per day just doesn’t produce enough to keep our flock fed.

The unrelenting weather also made it quite difficult for us and many others from having productive food gardens this year. Those that eeked out better harvests typically spent much more time on their plots than the rest of us could.

But enough about the doom and gloom. There have been some wonderful happenings on our farm as well. In the midst of the early year cold our ewes gave us several more lambs. We’ve been happy to welcome them to our little farm and look forward to what increase we receive in 2019.

The sheep weren’t our only growth sector this year though. In September we welcomed a new baby boy into our family and he has been a true blessed addition to our hearts and home.

This is just a short welcome to 2019 and recap, as promised. I hope to be much more active on our blog this year so please stick around and see the exciting things happening at Whirldworks Farm this year.

OH! Please note that our new blog address is now: http://whirldworks.farm