First week of January

Yesterday I sat and prepared the pages of our farm journal for the first 3 months of 2011. How odd it felt to write week 1 -- January 2-8. It doesn't seem as though enough time has passed for it to be a new year. But that's how it goes; the older we get the shorter a year seems. I think it's because as you get older, a year becomes a smaller and smaller proportion of your life. When you're 8, a year is 1/8 of your life. When you're 30, a year is only 1/30 of your life.

2010 was a typical year of changes, subtractions and additions. The opening picture shows one of the largest additions to our farm this year, dairy beef calves. We've determined over the past few days that cold and clouds is not what keeps our animals inside for most of the past few weeks. It was snow on the ground. Even though it was cold and breezy yesterday and this morning. All our animals were out braving the elements. I wish I could have managed a picture of our birds this morning. We have an old a-frame portion of a swingset out in our pasture. The youngest turkey hen was perched on top of it, and all the other chickens and turkeys were quietly gathered around, as if holding poultry church, or an important livestock meeting.

Happy New Year!