2011 - A Blessed Year

2011 has been a year full of blessings here on Hillbilly Hill Farm! We started out the year with a baby being born on the farm, Clover, the first Jersey baby girl born on our farm. We were also blessed with a little boy (KC) later in the year from Honey one of the new cows we brought home this year.


We had a lot of laughs through the year, something we love to do a lot of. Between the cats keeping us entertained (see one instance here)The dogs making me giggle all the time, and my own silliness we didn't run out of things to laugh about.


I continued my cheese and butter adventure this year, making cheese when I had the time to, and dreaming of having a place to age cheese better, so I can get into doing hard cheese more. I also tried to get photos of more of our food, so eventually I can get a cookbook of my favorite recipe's done...that is of course if I ever have time to work on it more. LOL I've also been trying to learn to "play" with a recipe more to change it to fit us better. Its not something I've done a lot of before, for fear of wasting food if it didn't work...but am learning to now and then, most of the time with good results. :)

We said goodbye to our goats this year, since they were to hard to take care of, while DH was not able to get around to well with his bad back...and surgery. They have been missed for their cute antics, but I can't say I've missed their trouble making ways of getting out. One of these years, maybe we can get more cause we really do love them...but it's sure been nice to not have them to worry about while DH has been recovering.

Speaking of DH, his back surgery this last summer went well, as has his recovery. He's doing better now than he has for several years I think...even if he still has to be careful what he lifts, and have me doing the heavy lifting of feed sacks, full 5 gallon buckets, and whatever else comes along.

We were blessed with being able to pay off the farm this spring which came just in time as we had several unexpected repair bills come up over the rest of the year, as well as things we needed to buy, which wouldn't have been possible had we still been paying on the farm. Praise God for his wonderful timing!! :-))


Our first "real" garden grew this year...and grew much better than I ever thought it would, since I tend to have a black thumb. Not that I learned to LIKE gardening, but I'm really looking forward to spring, and planting another one, cause it was so nice getting fresh produce from our own garden for a change. I missed that once the season was over more than I thought I would. It was nice to have the 2nd pantry DH built me early in the year, so I could can up a lot of things for the winter and have a place to store them. :)

My soap making has come a long way this year. I've still got a lot to learn, but least it's looking better now!! Gotta find time to learn to make liquid soap now...hopefully.

It's been a wonderful year for us here on Hillbilly Hill Farm, hard in some ways but we lived through those hard times with God's help and that of family and friends (Especially my parents and DH's friend Kirk). We've enjoyed our online friends too, and thank each and every one of you for your prayers over this past year. You are loved and appreciated by both of us.

We hope you all have a wonderful and Safe New Years and that 2012 will be a wonderful year for us ALL!! :-))

Happy New Year!!!