beautiful thoughtful hand made gifts

This holiday I have received some beautiful thoughtful hand made gifts - that just warmed my heart... thank you ... : ) - For Christmas Brian and I did VERY little... and it was just lovely!  in fact on Christmas evening we went to bed at about 6pm watched a movie and didn't get up till 9am the next day.. now that's a wonderful holiday...

 

 

in big table farm news we picked up our labels from our letterpress printer and they look AMAZING!! we will start labeling in the coming weeks and new wines come march... I'm excited about these new 2011 wines and the labels too : )

 

cheers!

An Open Letter to Uncle Loren

Over the past four years, since the very beginning of the farm, we have been helped by countless family members and friends. They have spent an incredible amount of time helping us get this dream off the ground and dealing with my crazy ideas and procrastinating ways. Our "farm angels" have helped us build a home, construct fences, move pigs around, fix equipment, find hay, make portable pens and buildings, and above all help us to survive the first four years without doing complete damage to our minds, bodies, and souls!

But, I want to take a moment today to send an open letter to my Uncle Loren. Some of you may know of him, but I'm convinced all of you should get to know him ... or someone like him. He is one of the many people that have helped out so much on this farm journey ...

When my feed auger wagon broke and my feeble attempts to fix it fell far short Uncle Loren showed up in the middle of the night to take it home to his shop to fix (after I called and said I was at my wits end). When the cattle had spent most of their time on the farm getting out of my horrible excuse for a fence Uncle Loren showed up with the equipment and the knowledge to get the fencing project started. When the pigs are boggling my mind he is always just a phone call away. When a tractor breaks down he has shown up with a loaner (sometimes a long-term loaner) to help me. When water lines and electrical lines needed to be run underground ... well ... you probably get the idea ...

My Uncle Loren has invested quite a bit of his time and himself into the farm. In fact just this week he spent almost two days building more fence, setting corner posts, smoothing ruts, and even moving and leveling a building that had been sitting haphazardly in the pasture for the past few months. When he left late Tuesday evening it hit me just how much he gives and how hard he works. The farm would not be where it is without the help of so many people! And, Uncle Loren is one of those people ...

Uncle Loren ... Thank you for the knowledge you share. Thank you for the work you give. Thank you for the time you so freely share with us. Thank you for the example that you are.

One of my many dreams is to have just a fraction of your farming knowledge. You remind me that farming is not just a set of physical movements, but rather an art. Uncle Loren ... you are an artist.

resolutions? hell YES

sure don't we all have them ??

Fear of falure ... well YES ...fear off looking stupid ...duhh ... fear of pain and things being too hard... yup that too.. but what the hell...

soooo Brian and I have been doing a lot of dreaming and scheeming over the holiday -- there are lots of dreams and things in the works on the wine side as well as ideas for the farm and hopefully making our lives easier on that front... but brian asked me to not go to public with those here on the blog till we are a little further along.. (fear ?? a little for sure but I promise more on that in the coming weeks)  -- I will say we have a 20 yard dumpster coming this weekend and we are starting with some clean up -- gotta clean up old projects before you start new ones!!

 ... so in the mean time ..

Some personal resolutions these are self centered but you have to start inside and work out I think.....

Get down to 'fighting weight' and make my final rank - black belt - I've been at this since the fall of 2007 and it's been an awesome journey!!.... the once a year black belt test is in june and I want IN.. my sensi has not invited me yet that's a few months out... I just need to do the work...

GET INTO THE STUDIO.. it's that simple once I'm in there it will flow.. I spent Christmas break cleaning and purging in there and I'm almost done...  : )

and the last thing work on my book.. yup it's an ilustrated book... It's in the works but kind of treading water at the moment...

so there it is...


loose 25 lbs
get my black belt
do my art
finish my book

: ) nothing like big dreams... ha... bring it 2013 I say... if I'm gonna fail I may as well fail big (and sure publicly while I'm at it) and if I'm gonna live this life I may as well live it ... : )

cheers to you all and happy new year!!