Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous 2017! Yet again, we failed to send holiday cards, emails, texts. Yet again, we failed to maintain contact with old friends and family. At home, Christmas wishes are flooding in, from photo cards to greeting cards to yearly update letters. The year flew by, as most years do. Here is our year in review, from the Capra Lane Farm house to yours. . . 

Down on The Farm

This will be our second holiday season at the new house and its feeling more and more like home. We've transformed the land quite a bit, and we've celebrated the first year ever having a surplus of hay. Did I just jinx it? Stalls up, stalls down, wiring in, fences up. Trees down, trees in, mowing, tedding, baling. We asked for it!

Home Sweet Home

The house itself is still a work in progress. the largest renovation of 2016 is conversion of the old fireplace to a woodburning insert to help heat the house. Its been wonderful and toasty warm, the dogs have permanent residence in front of the blower. We're known amongst family and friends as keeping a chilly house, but no longer. Men + fire = stifling at times. We're still tweaking the milk room and will hopefully get to painting and staining later this winter. Having hot water in the barn has been fantastic. The powder blue carpet is disappearing room by room, replaced by wood, stone and tile. The basement is now dry, thanks to many hours of moving stone and dirt by Rog and his father (aka Capra Lane Farm's #1 intern). The new landscaping was a bit stunted by this summers drought, but next year will hopefully bring growth and lots of color to the new garden plantings.

Death Defying Stunts

This is just one of the many reasons women live longer than men. Many of this years projects required ladders, and sometimes the ladders weren't high enough. No worries, noone got hurt. Leaky roofs, loose gutters, dead ash trees and 36 acres of hay all needed attention before winter set in.

Lives on the Farm

The goats are well. We've bred 19 for the spring of 2017 so it will be a busy few months shortly. All of the older girls have their 'spots' in the barn. Blessing the guard llama is working hard from her perch atop the manure pile. She was a bit put out by the angus calves next door. We only made it to one goat show this year and we left with several first places and a handful of GCH and RGCH wins. We can't let them get too lazy thinking they can go all summer loafing at home. We raised 520 lbs of pig this fall due to be picked up this week, bringing milk fed fresh bacon back into our lives. That is a very good thing. 

Speaking of Bacon. . . 

Summers are generally rich with 'farm fresh meals' which has turned into a bit of a joke for us. We compete nightly to put nothing store bought on the plate once the garden is in production. Despite the lack of rain, our garden turned out to be quite productive. Not pretty, as usual, but productive. I went on another canning rampage and stockpiled beets both plain and pickled, tomatoes, marinara sauce, green tomato pickles, green tomato marmalade, applesauce, apple butter and apple jelly. I think Rog was ready to hurl my pressure canner and copious jars out the back door at one point. I may have gotten a little obsessive about preservation.

Roger

Rog hit the big '4-0' this spring, which was nothing short of traumatic for all. We reminisced with childhood friends over Lu's pizza in Grafton, a common hangout during their high school years. We also had a beverage at the absolute shadiest bar I've ever had the pleasure of entering. Again, noone got hurt. His now much longer commute to school was made easier by a mild winter and a shiny new truck - working brakes and reliability are not overrated. The acreage expansion at home shifted Rog's focus to collecting larger equipment in greater number. He gave up his long term state park naturalist position to focus on farm work and found himself busier than ever and seemingly always teetering on the edge of a haywagon. Rog's newest adventure has him leading a grant funded water quality initiative studying the environmental impact of runoff from Lorain county's large farms.

Amanda

When asked how I am my standard answer is 'living the dream every day'. Sarcasm? Yes. The healthcare industry routinely gives me heartburn but so far I've managed to stay independent in practice and am gifted with a thriving office and wonderful staff. A couple years ago I accepted a teaching position twice yearly in Memphis- truly, Memphis is kind of a shithole. Aside from one spectacular restaurant I'm usually anxious for the sessions to end. I was recently invited to speak in China (still attempting to weasel out of that one) and I tucked a few more publications under my belt this year. Hospital meetings, resident journal clubs and speaking engagements rounded out my year. Gosh I'm boring...

The Kids

Don't be silly, your didn't miss anything, no kids here of the two-legged variety! Just the cute little ones with fuzzy ears. On January 1st of 2016 we woke up, went to the barn and found a kid with a broken leg. Happy New Year! Always the way things happen. The rest of the crew did just fine this year. Birthing season was uneventful, kids were sold, some were retained. They bounced happily in their new pasture and made it their job to torment the chickens through the adjacent fence. 

The Other Kids

Luna and Tinder are suffering from 'only child syndrome' - yes, both of them. Without Kaelyn's guidance and Rosie-cats discipline they've basically become suicidal. And some days we want to strangle them. How can 13 lbs (collectively) of dog cause so much trouble?? Luna started the parade by eating a tilex soaked shower-cleaning sponge. All except the scouring pad, it must have been uncomfortable to chew. Why? Seems a logical question. She was fine. Canned pumpkin meals and poop checks for well over a week until the last of the purple sponge bits made an appearance. Next incident- we came in from chores and those buggers had pulled a backpack off a counter height table, unzipped it, unpacked it and ate 2 packs of gum. They're tiny-how'd they do that? Remains a mystery. Gum with xylitol is highly toxic, meaning quick death in such small dogs. Even the emergency vet was dumbfounded by the fact that they weren't sick and their labs did not show multiorgan failure. Especially since Tinder pooped out two Trident wrappers on their floor. Again, they were fine. A few days later they had passed the 'worry phase' for liver failure and then I caught them in the garden eating nightshade berries off of a weed. Again, they were fine. Over Thanksgiving they broke into Ava's (our niece) diaper bag and helped themselves to 3 full quart sized ziploc bags of vanilla wafers, goldfish crackers and cheerios. You guessed it, they were fine. They have us well trained. They have a cozy bed in front of the fire, a newly decorated room (bathroom), an impenetrable (not!) baby gate and various furry blankets to snuggle into (and pee on). I hope they make it through 2017. 

Equine Events

Yes, we are officially horse owners. Two senior, somewhat crabby mares have joined our motley crew. Sierra and Rain have fit in somewhat seamlessly and have chubbed up in time for winter. We've enjoyed learning their quirks and taking leisurely rides. seeing how they respond to unpredictable winter weather and screaming goats in labor should be interesting.

Ohio Weather

Unpredictable. Multiple personalities disorder. Gray. Generally crappy. All over the place so far this fall after a dry, hot sunny summer. If this is a predictor of whats to come in 2017 I can't say I'm looking forward to it. The picture of the roses is from a 70 degree day November, the snow is from 24 hours later. 

Family

2016 was full of unexpected excitement, retirements, parties, growth and loss. I suppose all are par for the course in adulthood. 2017 will bring extended vacations (not us), new homes (not us, are you crazy?), and probably block parties like the Columbus area has never seen. As old traditions give way to new, we wish all of you who read this far (!) a fulfilling and rewarding New Year. Happy Holidays from Capra Lane Farm!

With much love, 

Roger and Amanda