The bad luck started during calving with the freak Easter weekend storm. Not that we're not anticipating or preparing for bad weather during calving; we just hope that we don't have to endure any too severe.
Then in April we had the scary shop fire. see blog post here
May brought seeding, but no rain to go with it and the grass didn't take off because of the lack of moisture and cold temps.
In June we lost our unborn grandchild which put a damper on everything else. And, still not much rain.
In July we got rain......along with a bunch of hail that totaled out a lot of our crops. We had several thousand acres that we didn't even harvest. We have land spread 35 miles east to west and nearly every acre was hit. My brother, ever the smart one, said we need to start expanding north and south. J leased some land on the Canadian border and it was hit also so I guess heading south is our only option. see blog post here
August brought the short and depressing harvest. It's always my least favorite month anyway.
In September we finished the harvest (or cleaning up the mess). M was contemplating seeding winter wheat but just wanted the crop year to be over so couldn't bring himself to make it happen. see blog post here
In fact, he needs to start making plans for next year and can't quite get into the right frame of mind for it yet.
By this time the cow/calf market had tanked. Thank goodness we had contracted MOST of our calves in June for a price well above what it was at shipping time in October. Shipping is always stressful no matter how smoothly it goes.....hmm, has it ever gone smoothly?! see blog post here
By November I remember M saying "we still have two months of this year to get through?" see blog post here
That was about the time he came home after the umpteenth day of fencing and said that he discovered his post pounder had an automatic shutoff. Really? "Yep, when I can't lift it over a post anymore I know it's time to quit". Hmm....
And then, Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Talk about NASCAR depression!!
Finally, we made it to December and through December with a great adventure to cap off the year. see blog post here
We really do have a lot to be thankful for and appreciate what we have and who we have in our lives. It is just a lot easier to be positive on some days than others. That's why I plan to do a journal and/or jar to each week add a note with a good thing that happened. I saw the idea on Facebook and thought it was a great one since it's too easy to focus on the bad things that happen....and in our business there seem to be a lot of those!
It's been a good week for me since I've been spending time with my favorite littles.
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