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Here it is, February 2nd and we are just getting around to posting the annual update to our “vision” for the year. We have found that when we put our goals down on paper and share them, they are more likely to manifest themselves.

As I sit here, with a pulled hamstring and stuck on the couch, I am listening to Steve teach Grace to make Grappe Gumbo which is our new New Years Eve tradition.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the day that we pack up our first big batch of meat chickens to carry to be processed. This has been an amazing experience, filled with joy and many major lessons. On March 2nd, we got 550 baby chickens. Prior to that, the most chickens we have raised at a time was fifty.  We decided at the beginning of the year that we were going "all in" on chickens.  And through this experience,  we have had the opportunity to learn so much as we have raised these babies from day old chicks. 

Today was a sad day. In fact, it's one of the saddest that we've had here on the Farm. My beloved Elvis went to chicken heaven today.

I’m infatuated with Elvis….no, not the King of Rock ‘n Roll, but Elvis, our rooster. 

As I sit here in the early morning light of the Christmas tree, coffee brewing in the kitchen, I've been reflecting about this Christmas season. Two years ago, on our first Christmas together, Steve and I decided that we would give homemade gifts to our families.

This year, we are thankful for baby turkeys.  I have tried to write this for several days now but every time I tried to write everything I was thankful for, it just didn’t seem to do it justice.  A couple of times, I was just too emotional to finish writing.  The word “thankful” just isn’t enough.

I have such vivid memories as a kid with my mom cross-legged on the living room floor, the smell of cinnamon sticks boiling on the stove and Christmas music blaring, as she made the prettiest bows to adorn our Christmas presents. It's a memory that I treasure and have continued in her tradition as I've grown up and started my own family. As I'm pulling out the Christmas ribbon to prepare for our holiday selling season,

What makes country music different from any other genre of music is the honest, emotional, stories that are consistent across all demographics.  The great songwriter, Harlan Howard, described country music as “Three Chords and the Truth”. The songs we hear in country music tell stories about love and loss, and every decade or so, a song is written that makes us hold our breath with lyrics that rip open a corner of our hearts.  This song yanks buried emotions to the surface and allows us to empathize with the song-writer/singer on a very personal depth. Craig Morgan has recently written and recorded a song that will be remembered alongside the select few songs that are woven into the fabric of what makes up country music.

Progress, not perfection. This has been a theme in our lives lately. Our good friend Deborah is a nutritionist we are working with and she introduced us to this mantra which has definitely been an encouragement over the past few weeks.

This weekend was hard. I’ve been dreading it for months. I didn’t grow up hunting animals. I’ve never eaten an animal that I’ve harvested. I do remember my brother cleaning a deer at my Grandparents’ house one Thanksgiving. It was a pretty traumatic experience just being on the periphery. It wasn’t a process I ever wanted to participate in. When we bought the farm, one of our goals was to be self-sustainable. We dreamed of stocking our pantry and our freezer with vegetables and meat that we had grown here on the farm. We know we’ll always have to go to the grocery store for certain things. After all, we don’t grow avocados in Arkansas. And everybody loves guacamole, right?

“These things do we earnestly desire:

A clear vision of life, that with gracious and kindly hearts we may share both joy and sorrow and bring into living reality the Sisterhood of women. An appreciation of real merit and worth, steadfastness of soul, that without bitterness or defeat we may encounter misfortune and with humility meet success. These things, O Lord, help us to instill within our hearts that we may grow in courage and graciousness and peace.”

I love new back packs. I love new binders and new pencils. I love note cards....only the lined ones, of course. I love freshly sharpened pencils and most of all, I really love blank notebook paper. I remember growing up and each year before school started, we would make a trip to Walmart or the Dollar Store to pick out school supplies. I loved getting home to bags of supplies that needed to be organized and carefully placed in my brand new back pack.

Our dear friends, Erich and Annie, came to visit us at the Farm this weekend. It was an incredible experience, from Southern cuisine on Friday evening to breakfast with friends on Saturday, a visit to the Tea Room which has more rocks than tea (and that's a good thing) and then finally to our Meraki Charcuterie experience on Saturday night.

Chirp, chirp, chirp was all he could hear

He knew that the time had to be drawing near

He could hear a lady saying, "Come-on, you can do it!"