Love makes the world go round, and sex makes love go around.

Our farm has seen lots of lovin’ this year, that is for certain, actually it’s more of a brothel than a farm, which would make me more of a Madam than a Farmer, and really, I’m okay with that.

Between the sex filled spring and summer, and me running the nursery needs for all of the new little ones, I am grateful that my mind, body, and heart had purpose every single morning. Hauling water, grinding feed, picking greens, mowing, planting, cleaning the bedding, brushing, filling pools, monitoring the sexy pasture, and so much more.

Mother Nature has been very kind to us this year, a bit dry, but all in all, great weather for growing, and an abundance of healthy animals and all of their offspring.

We hatched out 348 quail chicks this year, super healthy, super gorgeous, and I almost reached my goal of 400, but alas, winter came. My quail hens were laying strong all season, and between my eggs and my friends eggs, and some fortunate male quail, we had about a 90% hatch rate which is kind of insane!

Two of our duck hens, Margaret and Cordelia, sister sat on a clutch of 18 of eggs. Those broody sisters fiercely protected those eggs, but the magpies and doves got in there one day and pecked open all but one of the eggs, just 4 days from hatching. The survivor is Junior, a gorgeous Black Swedish Hen.

It was getting late in the season, so I ordered ten Golden 300 hens in August to make up for the loss. That is about the amount of hens I was planning on, and there is nothing cuter that raising baby ducklings in your office and taking them swimming a few times a day.

I did a zerodawnthirty pick up of my friends buck, we had an hour in my mini van to get a feel for each other, and I was over the moon with his looks and temperament.

I thought my sweet does would swoon with his oozy hormone and urine soaked face and come running up to him lovingly. But as it turns out, my sweet girls have now earned their new names with pride, Death Blade and Slayer.

If you didn’t know, goats are Matriarchal, and they mean it. That buck was tossed, and punched, and pushed around the pasture with what looked like maniacle fiery. Social order with prey animals is way harder to watch than with predators, that is for certain.

After a few days, the girls settled in, the buck cozied up and there was a peace of sorts. And hopefully, with all of the love happening in the pasture we will have 2-6 health kids in the spring. And this will also mean milking and cheese making, so super excited!

And this now brings me to my garden, which feeds our entire farm.

Fort Duckworth where our ducks sleep at night, is also our green house, and where much of our garden life begins – potting, planting, growing and transplanting seedlings, and where our fragile plants like aloe, fig, and tea herbs live all summer. It is about 20-25 degrees warmer in there than outside, and a special treat in early spring. I easily spent 3-4 hours a day in there getting plant life started. Mother Nature literally gifted us with a growing season that was incredible – we ate fresh, canned, froze, pickled, dehydrated, stored, and are still eating fresh every day. Veggies, herbs, berries, fruit, garlic, greens, squashes, barely, and more.

This year I added some new skills, thanks to friends and family, and my desire for some new things to focus on.

Farm pop-ups became my things this year. We had been at our county farmers market for 17 years, but it was crushed this year, so I started to offer pop-ups and had other producers, farmers, and ranchers join in. I met so many cool people, made new friends, and introduced people to shopping truly local.

I took up hunting – bought my guns, took some lessons, practiced every week, went hunting with my girlfriend, and filled my freezer with healthy wild meat for our entire family.

I am making real sourdough bread again, it’s been a twenty year break but my friend Janis revived something in me I didn’t know I was missing, and it feels great to provide this for our family.

Pickled quail eggs, never ever would I have thought that this would be a food I would like, let alone get excited about making, but they are AWESOME and I love having jars in my fridge, all flavors, all the time.

Tea making is the same but new. I am specifically growing some herbs just for tea blends, this is super exciting for me.

And my fig trees, my new obsession. I bought two, they loved Fort Duckworth, twenty two figs the first year, and I am just about ready to prune and plant the clippings for more. There is something super special about these trees, not sure what it is, but they have captured my attention and heart and are a big focus.

My dogs are doing great, nothing happening on the sexy side with them right now. We seem to be in a growing into maturity together phase, and I appreciate this new calm, this new power and knowingness, and really they are just an extension of who I am, so there is that. After all of the loss we experienced earlier in the year, I am just grateful for kind of a low key time with our dogs. Easy, loving, and that is it.

So to all of you, I wish for you love of all kinds, in all ways. From the earth to the plants to the animals in your life, it is all so good, so pure, so honest.

Merry Christmas to you all, Nancy