Hopes, Dreams, Revelations and Resolutions

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Everyone is talking about their big parties tonight or quiet night alone.
Tomorrow many people will begin their resolutions.

I never have kept a resolution, the closest I got was to May or June. I had decided to stop cursing because my language was terrible at the time. After I found out I had been cheated on in the spring, I decided to give boys a break and try cursing again.

I don’t want to call them resolutions I want to be more free flowing. Why set yourself up for a guilt trip later? Why not list your hopes and dreams for the new year?

My hopes and dreams always far outweigh my accomplishments bucket, but I slowly plug away and get a few more things done.

A few hopes and dreams for the coming year for myself and others:

• I wish to keep trying new recipes with my hubbster. Maybe try another country/culture specific dish.

• Expand our chicken flock, build a simple coop and get free eggs all summer.

• Play with our kids daily or every other day so they learn to love people. (Goat kids are due in May or June)

• Start another garden!
Buy seeds, plan, start and plant.
We skipped 2013 and we were pretty sad every day we didn’t have fresh produce in the backyard.

• Go on more dates with Hubbster. My Christmas present of monthly dates should do the trick. (I will likely post about them later)

• Read more for fun.
Get a book, read it all the way through in two weeks. Quit hanging onto one tiny paperback for two months and then barely finishing it.

• Spread more joy.
Visit people, just to sit and have tea. Talk about happy things, really listen and respond to stories from their life and how they are feeling. Like plants; I need to tend to my relationship garden more.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. There are more serious hopes like, finding a solid job that doesn’t kill my spirit, paying off bills so I can travel, and exercising more. However, I don’t need a new year to start these things.

Do you have hopes, dreams, goals, resolutions for the new year, or have you had revelations in 2013?

My wish to all my readers is the warmth of a good meal in their stomachs, happiness in their hearts, and the strength of spirit to achieve their goals for the upcoming year.

Merry new year,
~Kit and Kat~

State Fair 2013 Part One

We went to the state fair for Kit’s 45th birthday. The young man who tallied up our prices assumed we owed one adult, one senior and one parking fee.

Kit was tickled at first because we saved $9 on his ticket. Then the rest of the day he was worried that he looked over 55 (how old you had to be to get the discount).

Check out this impressive ceramic piece we saw in the 4-H section of the fair! I love the design, colors and all. It was the only puffer fish we saw in the whole 4-H area.
I took some other photos of the embroidered crafts, but somehow the camera didn’t save them.

Check our this fancy little show piece tractor. It doesn’t run, as I first hoped, but it is still super cute.
Notice Kit’s backpack, we filled it full of two kinds of cheese snacks, sandwiches, water and granola bars. This way we saved about $20 on fair foods that would leave us lethargic. We saved our coma inducing foods for after the fair.

We hung around the ring in the wing alongside the cows to see Miller’s dogs working. We got to see six ducks herded under and over wire bridges by six excited border collies. Watching working dogs is fascinating and strange to me. Their owner also showed how they worked following word commands and whistles. They followed both styles of work commands seamlessly. I can’t wait for the next cattle dog on our farm. Geena was Kit’s favorite working dog and sadly, I never got to meet her.

A few adorable Boer goats, snuggling the afternoon away. Most of them were gone, judging began at 9am eastern and by afternoon there were only a few stragglers.

There were mountains of veggies in the produce room in addition to this lovely tomato collection I already shared.

Check out these cucumbers! Despite what the sign says I believe these are pickling cucumbers not pickled. Can you believe how tiny they got those Mexican gerkins? Wild stuff.
Speaking of wild and weird. I don’t remember a “critters” division from last year:

Top left clockwise:Wally the Walrus potato, this was easily my favorite and I just kept giggling at his little face. The next guy up didn’t have a cunning name that I recall, but it made a very cute whale. The baby tater tot was watching over the blue potato buffalo and the carrot bird at the state fair—they had an entire story to go along with it!
Lastly, the Duck Taters, I was thankful not to see another lame reference to the TV show that shall not be named. The duck bill had be giggling like a kid as well.

The final impressive thing in the veggies room were the entries for the largest pumpkin contest. Please note, first and second place are both in this photo. First place is the large orange pumpkin weighing in at 1,034 lbs and 2nd place is the white/ghost pumpkin weighing in at 94 lbs. Holy smokes people!!
The thing to keep in mind about this behemoth is that the tiny looking pumpkin sitting at the feet of the blue ribbon winner would make pumpkin pies 1,000 times better than its competitor.
Alas, we weren’t judging flavor.

After looking at all this food we had to bust open the backpack for lunch. Then my phone died and I was forced to take photos on my actual camera.

What’s Up with Kat

Since I’ve been back from Spain I have been trying to get my rhythm. Not too hard, but it does take time.
I tried to save the weakest chick of nine thar hatched (just before I got home). Sadly, Mr. Chicklet didn’t make it but we had some happy times before he passed.

Been cooking with my girl. I assisted with cake decorating for a sports themed baby shower. What is even better is I didn’t mess up the cake. I didn’t do the fancy writing but icing that sucker was a task in itself!

Picked some fresh strawberries, mashed and mixed them to make strawberry pies. Folks at work made the one pie disappear in under 30 minutes. Maybe more pie next time.

My poppies and tiger lilies are blooming. It makes the backyard look super jolly!

Made a fruit tart for some friends with my girl and now that I know how easy it is I really want to do one! Maybe I can borrow her tart pan sometime :-)

We also purchased a wee soft shell turtle. We plan on letting him grow bigger and releasing him into our backyard pond. There are some sliders in there now and frogs and I don’t want Jubal to be bullied by the other creatures in the pond.

Those are the highlights of the last couple of weeks.
We have been enjoying hot days but not the too stinking hot days we are used to in June. Such a relief after last year’s scorcher.

Day 350: Sprouting Jade

In addition to my shamrock plant’s newest growth (a second shoot is up!!), my jade plant is growing slowly but steadily.

I didn’t notice at first, the T shaped umbrellas–technical botanical words–are popping at the end of every branch. Obviously, I need to learn more jargon, habits and likes versus dislikes of my little jade.

All I know at present is that he does like this afternoon sun spot in the windowsill above the sink. And because of his sunning habits, he is quite tan–deep green. Chlorophyll or some such nonesense.

He is, of course, posing for this picture. Just before I shouted, “Hey Jade! Say ‘chlorophyll’!” He was gazing out at the backyard pond. Hippster succulent.

Day 349: Shammy Plant Lives!

My shamrock plant has reclaimed vitality! I couldn’t believe it!
It died for whatever reason and my plant savvy friends told me to keep it in the sunshine and keep watering it. Low and behold, it returned.

I love that they close up at night!
It seemed wildly active. I turned it away from the sun and within three hours it turned like a rotating satellite towards the sun.

If it continues being awesome I will buy it a slightly bigger pot and maybe even paint it pretty colors :-)