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January. It snows. A lot. We have serious issues with water as keeping our well pumping all the way up the hill to the house proves to be a bigger challenge than had even been expected. Repeated periods of days and days without water nearly have me ready to head back to the old farmhouse. But we love heat and insulation. We love our new farmhouse! We persevere and the water situation is finally resolved.
We also build a goat house and meet the newest member of our farm family. It’s our first wonderful winter on the farm!
February. It snows. More. We can’t get up the driveway and sometimes can’t get down the road. I worry about supplies on days we’re snow-stuck. But, we have a bottle baby! Plus five more sheep. And we have our first experience with shearing sheep (and trimming their hooves). (Poor Mr. Cotswold.)
Never mind the chasing them around the yard for an hour because we don’t know enough to herd them into the pen first. We’re learning! In other excitement, Clover takes a trip!
We’re hoping for babies! (Not Admiral’s!)
March. It’s still snowing. And I’m tangling with Mean Rooster, who has risen to king-like dominance in the chicken yard. It is just the beginning of a battle that will go on for most of the year.
I learn to knit and Coco has an unfortunate affair, which thank goodness does NOT end in babies.
We bring in mounds of compost. We’re ready for a garden and ducklings and chicks and everything that is SPRING.
April. We have a fencing party! Fencing the meadow bottom completes an effort that was begun even before the first block was laid for the house. I am as helpful as can be expected.
It feels like a real farm now. We move the sheep down to their new pasture growing with green, green grass. We lose our dear little Nigerian Dwarf wether Honey, but will soon gain a new fainting goat buckling, Pepsi. We also have a little bit of fun with Annabelle’s tail: Part One and….
….Part Two. And! I also appear in a feature story on West Virginia Public Radio.
May. The leaves are finally on the trees! Spring is so beautiful here!!!! Winter? What winter? We have new chickens and ducklings….
….and a new dog (Boomer!) and a new kitten, who eventually settles on the name Kitten.
We plow the garden and plant by the moon. Life is good!
June. We have piglets! And a miniature donkey. (Poky!)
And another miniature donkey. (Jack!) And I keep wondering if Clover is pregnant and SHE WON’T TELL.
I put the ducks on the pond and move more chickens into the chicken house. Our farm is growing by leaps and bounds!
July. It’s a strange summer, almost cool.
The little hen that couldn’t takes over my heart when she tries and tries to sit on a nest.
We lose her in a raccoon attack and I don’t take any prisoners. We finally accept that Clover isn’t pregnant and plan our next move, a new Nigerian Dwarf buckling. Our garden grows! Let the canning begin. I won’t face another winter in the boonies unprepared.
August. Kitten, and our new “little kitten” Little begin an enduring love affair that continues to today.
The last of this year’s chicks graduate to free-ranging and we lose all but one of our ducks on the pond.
But wait, there’s a happy ending! At least, for now….. Keeping ducks is harder than I expected.
September. We lose Pepsi suddenly. It’s a hard blow after losing Honey earlier in the year. I consider establishing a goat nunnery. We have two new fainting goat does, Sprite and Fanta, and no buck.
Preparing for the winter ahead takes over the farm. After putting up everything I can from my own garden, I’m putting up all kinds of fruits and vegetables scored for free from the farmers market. (I tell you how to do it, too.)
October. I love autumn! It’s my favorite time of the year!
I tell you how I spend an ordinary day. You all name our new fainting goat buckling Mr. Pibb! And my eldest child prepares to leave the nest as he joins the Navy’s nuclear program.
Change is in the air! And some of it is hard.
November. I’m feeling the pressure as the last fruit of the season is put up for winter.
In an unusual turn of events, Clover actually helps me. In other news, Mean Rooster passes away, leaving our battle of wills unfinished. I also head toward the end of the year with just one duck. And in final preparations for winter, we bring in a wood stove and I learn how to use it (or not). Good thing because winter comes calling early. I still dream about a barn.
Some things just have to wait till next year….
December. It’s another homemade holiday as simple crafts and recipes I’ve been working on all year save the day.
Winter arrives in force, and this becomes my photo of the year.
It’s been a year, like every year, of ups and downs. Some hard losses, and some joyful gains. We have sheep and miniature donkeys, and we’re on our way to completing our mini-herds of Nigerian Dwarf and fainting goats. My goal is to keep two does and one buck each. We have more chickens, and fewer eggs. WHICH MAKES NO SENSE. But we keep trying. Perhaps the staff just needs additional training. There’s always hope. There’s always next year. We learn more all the time, and hopefully get better all the time at this simple, complicated, beautiful thing called farming. In the coming year, I hope we will finally make our own farm babies We have spent the last year and a half laying in our breeding stock. Next year is the year we will breed. It’s the next stage in the farm. There will be more ups and downs, more joys…and more sorrows.
But we will triumph over the downs and celebrate the ups. And today? Today is good.
This is my now.
Go back in time:
The Farmhouse Year in Review 2008
The Farmhouse Year in Review 2007
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on December 14, 2009
2:21
am
We made the swirl bread tonight – YUM! I like that it isnt too sweet. I over-rose it and it fell a little – and I did half white sugar and half brown – it was YUMMY! Can’t wait to try it as toast in the morning!
5:27
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6:13
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I hope you get a barn next year too. I so want a big barn! My small one is full of vehicles, tools and machinery. No animals :-(
Big barns are great things!
6:13
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6:16
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Hugs Granny Trace
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7:12
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You have made such major changes in your life over the past year! I hope you get a few moments (like when you wrote this) to reflect and feel proud of all you’ve accomplished.
Congratulations and happy new year!
7:16
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I don’t know what this coming year will bring but I do know that as long as you write us every morning and share your life with us, I will open this blog and get my daily dose of Chickens in the Road.
Thank you…Merriest of Christmases and Happiest of New Years.
7:35
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Rose
8:44
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Love your yearly summary and look forward to the next year of reading your blog!
8:45
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8:51
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What a lovely trip down memory lane.
It is a pleasure to read every day about your wonderful country life. I, like so many of you readers, have learned how the simple things can make like so happy, and you have taught us how to do so many of those things.
“Thanks for the memories”.
JO
8:57
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Looking forward to enjoying next year with you, also, Lord willing.
)
God bless and Merry Christmas!!!
Joy
8:58
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9:22
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I have enjoyed every moment of this year with you, and I am so looking forward to the next year.
Thank you for everything Suzanne!
9:31
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10:09
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Thanks for sharing your family life on the farm, and for all the wonderful photos or your funny and fascinating “gang”
10:33
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This is a beautiful recount of what your year has been like. Thank you so much for being out there and for sharing your journey!
Happy Yule and Merry Christmas! May you and yours be well!
10:56
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11:13
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Thank you so very much for all your posts. I look forward to coming and seeing what is happening.
I wish for you all the best of holidays and a wonderful new year. Look forward to more
Thanks for the recipes also, have used quite a few so far
11:29
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As wkf says, I can’t wait for you to find where the motherlode of eggs is either! (though I agree they’re really probably just extending their molt time to avoid cold weather laying… you’re much too generous to your staff, but come spring, I’ll bet you’ll be baking 10 egg cakes twice a day)
As so many have said, we all look forward to your blog every morning and we’re all grateful to you for bringing us along for the ride! As Gini said, “You always make an ordinary day into an extraordinary one” for all of us!
11:29
am
I hope I’m coherent enough for you to understand what I’m asking…
Basically, I’m saying
“I love your blog!” And I envy your Farm Life…
I keep threatening to buy a few chickens, but we live in the city and my husband keeps reminding me of the law about no poultry in the city limits. Whatever. I’ve seen chickens in other people’s front yards!
Anyway… It’s just beautiful, Suzanne! Thanks for sharing.
=-)
11:48
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Looking forward to the adventures awaiting in 2010.
Susan at Charm of the Carolines
11:57
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12:51
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I love coming on everyday and reading about someone just like me! Maybe I’m not so crazy after all! Or AM I???
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~~HUGS~~
2:21
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Mary
3:23
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What I found was the story of a life, and a really fascinating one at that. I’m not even a chicken person (not meaning that I have anything against chickens; more that I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I had one, and where I live, having one isn’t an option). Other than the writing and my family’s country roots, my life today is very different from yours, but I enjoyed reading about your journey to being a farmer so much that I kept coming back. And in recent weeks and months, I’ve also started coming for the warmth and the comments and the sharing of all the other readers here, too. This is, as I and others have said so often, a fun and friendly place to start the day. (Or end the day–I often come back to read the comments that have been added throughout the day).
I’m looking forward to next year.
3:35
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Sounds like you had a great time last year!
Can’t wait to see what next year brings! 
I too have to go back and read some of your old posts that I missed before I found your blog.
Merry Christmas!
Angela
4:50
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I love it!
5:54
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Suzanne, Thank you from the bottom of my heart.Your skill as a Writer,Author,Photographer enable us all to vicariously live your triumphs and pitfalls of the “Simple Life” on a daily basis.Your stories have become an essential part of our lives too.God Bless you and Yours.May 2010 be a Happy Year.Your hopes and expectations fulfilled in large measure.
Carol-7:16am….
If we didn’t have sorrows, how would we recognize the joys we have? …. a few posts this year made me cry..
I must DITTO those feelings. It’s been a journey that I look forward to each and every morning. The DH always knows where he can find me and the first cup of coffee in the AM.
We all love your posts, or we wouldn’t be here.
Lets all pray for Suzanne to get her BIG BARN this coming year.
7:23
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I read other blogs and they either write when they can or take holidays and weekends off. Your hard work is so appreciated. Thanks Suzanne.
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10:35
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2008, there was that day your car went in the river (…“She didn’t think it was that deep!” ~ RIP)…not so in 2009!
So all and all, (with the exception of a few setbacks and DS#1 leaving the nest)….2009 was mighty fine!
May 2010 be the best yet! Love it!