"It's Been a Great Year!"

Based on my previous post, you can guess that I didn't say the words in the title.

I sat in the office a bit ago, crying. This has been such a hard year! Snowman died, and earlier, Denise the calf. Our well-loved cat Tiger vanished. We lost our laying hens. We lost 75 chicks to predation before we butchered the unproductive last 25. One of my swarms never established. We lost Isaiah's beloved ducks!

Add to that, the continued disappointment of the not-growing raspberries and the unproductive (though readily rooting) blackberries, the continued wait for the apple trees to produce (the boys ate through about $50 worth of apples in two days: we are all ready for trees to bear), the entire lack of milk for the last 18 months, the utterly disappointing garlic harvest ... I make these depressing lists in my head. See! It was a hard year!

Well, yes. Sort of. But no, Phil said. It's been a great year. We spent time with the boys. We didn't spend half the year frantically pursuing a market garden that didn't pan out. The grazing plan is working, as the pastures improve. Yes, the loss of bull and calf was sad, but the overall vigor and health of our herd is radically different than it was twelve months ago.

Our apple trees are larger! Two-thirds of the grafts took, though I watered them not once (developed for drought tolerance and survival in Lykosh clay soil: they are making it). Our daffodils bloomed. We have comfrey! We have three bee hives now, not just one. We know what we're doing as we plant fruit trees. We have an idea of what to do on the 40 wooded acres.

We finished the metal building, that sat on our ground for 18 months. We have storage for our tractor, so it's not "rusting into the James [River]." We started another building.

"That's a lot of forward progress. So when you planted trees and felt so discouraged, I just couldn't relate. It's been a great year."

Overall, I'd say his argument is stronger than mine. I'm glad that it is.