Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

We had a really unusal Christmas here on the farm.  It was white, and beautiful, and peaceful...  But we were all alone.  Snowed in from Christmas Eve (when we did manage to get one family Christmas in before the roads drifted too bad) until Monday the 28th, when we finally got the driveway cleared.  Our little tractor wasn't big enough, and we had to wait until the snowplow came through the road and my dad could dig their driveway out and bring his bigger tractor over. 

It reminded me of what Christmas must have been like in the "old days", and it was actually kind of nice for the first couple of days.  I did lots of cooking (luckily we had plenty of advance warning and bought lots of groceries) and we had a romantic Christmas dinner at the dining room table, looking out through the windows drifted in the corners with snow.  The power stayed on, which was a real blessing.  Staying warm was the first concern, of course, but it would have been a LONG weekend without television!  There was our departure from the "old fashioned" Christmas!

We are having a very strange winter, more like Alaska than Nebraska.  It has been a strange weather year overall.  The summer was cooler than normal, which was great.  We had our first snow in October, which was NOT great.  And now we've had two big snowstorms and snowfall every few days.  I'm undecided how I feel about this, but I'm trying to keep a positive attitude and pretend we've moved north somewhere.  I wonder if there are any pumpkin patches in Alaska??

We woke up to a very pretty coating of snow this morning.  It was just the right amount to cover the grass, the rooftops, and settle onto the branches of the trees.  It is certainly "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" here, and the weatherman is predicting another 6-10 inches tomorrow night!

Even before the snowfall I was already feeling the Christmas spirit.  The weekend after Thanksgiving I took advantage of the above-average temperatures and got my outdoor decorating done.  The last of the pumpkins were given to the cows to eat, and then the greenery came out.  Our cats have been VERY helpful in this year's decorating process, as they often are.  Our kitten, Frannie, is discovering her climbing abilities and was on top of our arbor nearly the entire time I was hanging the garland and wreath...

 I took the indoor decorating slowly, and finally finished up this past Friday.  Keeping with the helpful cat theme, here's Willy doing his part to help out...

Here's hoping you all are enjoying the season and staying safe and warm.  Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from Bloom Where You're Planted Farm!

I'm getting ready to start my Christmas cards today, but first I wanted to write to wish all our customers and everyone at Local Harvest a wonderful holiday season. 

This is a peaceful time of year for us at the farm.  All of the pumpkins are gone, the fields plowed, and everything put away from the fall.  Although we probably could get to work in the shop building some of the projects we have planned for next year, that can wait until January.  For now, we're getting caught up on our "real jobs" (the ones we still rely on to pay the bills!) and enjoying having some free time on the weekends.  Most of our shopping is done, and we've been trying to get out to see some of the holiday sights around Omaha, Lincoln, and our nearby small towns. 

For those of you who have visited the farm and befriended our animals, here's what's going on in their world.  Molly, our bigger heifer, is visiting my in-laws right now (specifically, visiting their young bull, in hopes of producing a mini-Molly next year).  Our younger heifer, Fern, is becoming friendlier all the time and is really loving the leftover pumpkins -- you should see her go at them!  Our "baby" horse Dash isn't such a baby anymore.  She's growing all the time and we have her halter-broke and are able to lead her around now.  Her dad, Sully, is a big brown teddy bear with his heavy winter coat.  Mama Sachi is currently at the horse trainer's and I'm looking forward to finally getting to ride her when she comes home after Christmas.  And, as if we didn't already have enough horses, we bought a new mare, Abbie.  She's tall and black with a wavy mane and big white blaze on her face.  She's very friendly and usually the first one to the fence to greet you. 

Rocket is enjoying lots of quality time in his dog bed in the house, and like the rest of us is trying not to over-indulge on all those tempting Christmas treats.  We'll all need to go outside and exercise after the holidays!  With the way this past year has flown by, the time to get out there and start working toward next fall will be here before we know it.  Until then, we're trying to slow down and savor the season, and I hope you will be able to do the same.  We wish you all a peaceful and happy Christmas.  See you in the new year!

Teresa