Happy Holidays to our Dear Family & Friends,
Hope this annual letter finds you and your family doing well. 2012 has given us quite a few challenges, but we do count our many Blessings! I could write a book for this year; but would have you glazed over in no time. So to avoid the emotional overload, I’ll be as brief as possible and only share the things that were “eventful” to us and we’ll share the full stories when we get a chance to talk in person.
The Farm: Our farm dog, Hoss, continues to protect the farm; but loves the opportunity to come up to the house and sleep on the porch. About cats – at one time there were none and we couldn’t get one. Finally we adopted 2; and suddenly there were 6. Oops! A little later we noticed some strays hanging around stealing Hoss’ and our cats’ food. This ended up being 11 cats > totaling 17 cats! With patience and due-diligence we now have 4, Princess, Callie, Patti & Roni.
The momma goats started having their babies in late March into April (14 born within 2 weeks or each other). The last twins were born early July. The total headcount was 7 mommas and 18 kids. It was a busy spring and very fun watching them grow and play.
The chickens are chickens. Egg production fluctuates depending on weather, season, and construction projects. They were not too happy with the roofers being here. On good days, we average 18-20 eggs; and 1-3 eggs on the bad ones… It might be time to get some more layers started.
Despite the lack of rain, the garden did fair, and we harvested plenty of peaches along with a late batch of tomatoes.
Our Events: Remember the Garage we started last year which was supposed to be just a pole barn from the Craig’s List trusses? Well, we finally finished it after 1 year and 2 months. It is really FINISHED! So now we can start another project.
Our life’s motto is: “One project leads to another” – we couldn’t start renovations on our main house. Whenever we got rain, the roof leaked. So, we finally bit the bullet and put on a new roof; But, since we were going to have the roof off; we decided to change the 1-carport to a 2-carport without the “head knockers”. It looks great; but now, we have more projects waiting to get finished (painting, sealing the wood, etc). Yes, we have several started – which drives me nuts. But Honestly, I think if we ever did finish; I’ll find us something else to do or re-do.
We’ve been blessed with visits from family and friends throughout the year and always enjoy the company.
Ben’s Events: We have lived here in Boerne over 6 years and have managed to avoid any collision with the deer. Unfortunately, Ben’s luck changed and he challenged 3 deer in 3 months (starting in January). The first 2 were fairly uneventful; but the last one, he hit @ 65 MPH and put his truck out of commission for over 6 weeks. Fortunately, Ben wasn’t hurt.
BUT, he wasn’t so lucky when installing an attic fan. The blade flew off and sliced into his chest. After the trip to ER and 25 stitches with 15 staples later; we realized how lucky he was – considering it could have hit him anywhere else.
In conclusion, Ben lost his Father this year. Rudy is greatly missed.
Darla’s Events: My job travels have taken me from California to New York. I haven’t been able to ‘see the sites’ at my destinations; except for one evening in New York City. I would like to go back to all the places some day to ‘play’ and enjoy their attractions. My customers were great, but, getting to and from the destinations were NOT fun anymore.
TOO many negative airline and airport experiences prompted me to leave the Consulting/Project Management position and return to the Technical System Administration world. I still get to work from home, love the change of pace and technical mental challenges.
I have a new niece in my family. Holly, 14 months, is officially a Beaton (my sister Paula’s 5th child). I’m blessed to have her children in my life. They don’t even mind coming out to the farm and help me with the farm chores.
This has been a FULL year! One for the records – so I decided my New Year Resolution would be to better document our events as our life goes along. Who knows, I might start remembering some history and include it. Our website: “Rucka Farm” (http://ruckafarm.blogspot.com) will be including our life’s little and big events (the “book” version) and pictures.
We WELCOME 2013 and whatever challenges it wants to put our way.
All our Love,
Darla & Ben
