Year End Homestead Update

I'm not sure if time is moving faster or I'm moving slower. Me thinks it's me...

I can't believe the year is almost over! It's has been (as always!) a crazy busy year. In addition to the normal routine of critter tending and garden work we moved a house from the center of a field to a corner on the far side of the property. Not only was it taking up needed pasture space it was built over an area that stayed constantly wet and was starting to cause structural issues in it. Hubby and my brother in law have spent the better part of 3 months remodeling it. The house is absolutely precious now and we are renting it to my niece. Welcome to the compound J. :-)

Just prior to that Hubs had some minor surgery that put him out of commission for several weeks.

We added a new family member. This is Saber. He is a now 11 month old solid black German Shepherd. 

Ludovic and I trained hard all summer and he finally earned his BH and is now training for his IPO1 title sometime next year.

The boys have been busy hunting and sis and I have cut up and packaged 6 deer so far. The freezers are in nice shape for the winter as is the pantry since I've started canning meat in addition to freezing it.

We are letting our garden rest for the winter but we planted sis's garden with a wide variety of greens, broccoli and cabbage. It is looking good! 

We have dealt with 2 hurricanes and a heavy snow already. Wind brought down a few trees not damaging anything but making a mess for sure. It is wetter than we have ever seen it since building our homestead. We ended the year almost 20 inches above normal! 

Our soap business is booming and we are blessed with lots of happy and repeat customers.

And that's a quick year end update. We are looking forward to a great 2019!