Merry Christmas 2012

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

Meet Hoss

Meet Hoss. Acquired 9/12/2011

Happy Holidays 2011

Dear Family & Friends,

I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying the Holiday Season.  We are doing great and enjoying life in Boerne.  We have been living here over 5 years and still staying very busy with the DIY home improvement projects, farming and gardening. 

Pets:  First, the sad news – our 17 year old dog, Bogey, died in August.  He outlived his sister by over 1-1/2 years.   He was a much loved ‘housedog’ and is greatly missed.  It is still hard to not have any house pets; but I am adjusting.  Hoss, the farm dog (Great Pyrenees); is really a good dog.  He learned quickly to stay with “his” goats and he guards over the chickens.  Knock on wood;  Since we got him, we haven’t lost a chicken to any predator. He’s a big lovable bear.  Just a month ago we acquired a couple of cats; only to have another one show up.  Two are scarce; rarely seen during the day and the youngest is finally coming close enough to pet and get acquainted.  Too cute to see the 100# dog and 1# kitten; nose to nose. 

Farming:  2012 has been an exciting one for us on Rucka Farms.  I honestly have experienced many things that I thought I would never experience.  February I kidded our first goat.  It was the coldest night of the year (14 degrees).  I braved the weather and sat with the baby and mom in the barn until we were assured she would survive.  That’s when we learned to “plan” the births instead of just letting them happen. The next fun came in June, with two more kids.  This mom did it all on her own.  Fortunately, all the kids were girls so we get to keep them.  I’ve tried my hand at milking them; not too good at it yet; but still learning.  Want to learn to make goat milk ‘stuff’ (in my spare time HA!).  The chicken egg production has been slow this year, at least that is what we thought. But what we learned is mice and rats will steal them. When rat shot and traps didn’t work, we increased our search for the cats.  Now, we are getting more eggs and not even seeing the rodents around. Yea!  Hopefully, the cats will win!. 

Gardening:  We installed gutters on the house and a rain catchment system to supplement the water for the garden.  Ironically, we haven’t gotten much rain to collect the water.  This year’s drought and heat played havoc on any attempt to have a garden.  We did harvest peaches, jalapenos, garlic, swiss chard, basil, lettuce, but very “few” tomatoes.

Home Improvements:  On-Going!!! The most recent project started July 4^th weekend when Ben purchased trusses off Craigslist. It was just suppose to be a pole barn and has evolved into a fully enclosed garage.  No, we still aren’t through and are still married.  We also gutted the fireplace and re-stoned the façade with rocks from our property.  Replace the firebox with a wood stove.  This heats the house so well, when lit, we definitely don’t need fire up the furnace.  Absolutely too many projects started; and very few getting finished; but it all is fun. 

May you be blessed thru this Holiday Season and into 2012.

With Love, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,

Ben & Darla Rucka

Webcam

Exterior Painting & Springtime

Spring is here so good weather for exterior painting. All 17 window screens need rebuild. Fortunately this is a RockHouse so we only have to paint the eaves and window/door trim. Ben's made great progress. The north side was the greatest challenge with the high roofline and all the electric, phone and utilites coming into the house on that side. Found scaffolding at a steal on Craigslist which made the job easier. Eaves completed end of June.

Ben helped me build a peoriod correct yard light from parts we found in the barn. At least it looks period appropriate to me ;). Exterior is really shaping up nicely; but would be much better if we would get some rain. NONE to speak of since Winter. We are in stage 4 water restrictions (which means only watering by hand on a certain day of the week). Fortunately the garden is still growing (amazingly).

This month he started prepping for painting the garage, doors and windows trim which is very tedious. Many years of build up. We removed the garage walls and doors, so all is open right now. We are investigating options on how to close it back in yet restore the craftsmans style of the home.

Farm House Renovations and Funny Farm Animals

Work has officially begun on the Farm House:

• Relocated Bedroom Door and installed Pocket Door including new wall for new master bathroom.
• Back door foyer/hallway. We're building out a pantry and creating a mudroom out of it. Prep, drywall, and texture sprayed today.

Progress and Picture will follow.