The end of the year.. Man what a year 2020 has been.. we all know it and so I am not going to recap it.. Really we lived it.. that is enough right?
So today is the day we are to be looking forward too..
Forward to 2021 and all that it will bring.. and on a normal year, we should be looking for bright shiny things and goals that are set to high in the hopes that if we get even some of them done, we will still be happy
Normally I would be looking at how and what and where I would be spending my budget for my continuing education.. but that’s not going to happen this year, at least not in person.. it will be books or online courses.
I mean lets face it, the norms do not work this year..
Can you really plan for that awesome trip
That amazing concert
That wow camping trip with your best girl friends
Heck we are not even sure if we can do more basic’s like have game night, suppers in, or sitting around the camp fire or fishing in the boat.
No, its 2021 and if you are smart, you are hunkered down and you have that grit in your eye that says..
Lets do this! One foot in front of the other..
So that my plans for the year in life and here on the blog.. Real life 2021, Day to Day life, its going to so be all about the small things folks. We have a number of projects on the go and I will share how they are going.
The farm and all the things that make my world go round..
So what do you think our first thing is going to be?? Hmmm..
For Hubby, he is currently working on his Second Novel, so lots of writing going on right now, he is also still writing short story’s.
well, anyone that has been around for a while knows I love a good challenge.. Short Challenges, Wierd Challenges, Basic Challenges.. I just find them fun..
The 12 Week Winter Horse Challenge (from England) at the most basic bronze level!
This means 3 hours of working with horse’s weekly, thankfully I can do up to a hour of grooming work per week but I still need to do ground work, take mini challenges ( I have a massive list to choose from) and I will be sharing along the way..
Typically they do less and less at this time of the year, so it will be a good thing for eveyone to do a bit more, however when its really cold, you can expect that I might be doing trick training in the barn lol
The weather so far has been a mix of rain (so much rain), sleet, ice and snow.. so it will limit me to a point on what I can do with the horse’s both for safety for myself and them in regards to working as we have no indoor riding area.. but I have a creative mind and we will work on a number of things none the less.
Not going to sugar coat it, my horses have been lean pasture puffs, (normally pasture puff horses are fat, but that at least I made sure they did not get fat, its really bad for them to do that) and while they get their daily love on, they have not been worked much other then the basic’s that come with daily living.
They are both far to well broke to say they need retraining would be unfair to their awesomeness.. but they do need a refresh on a few things and they both need to be slowly brought out of Pasture Puff shape into Riding Shape for the spring.
So tell me one thing you are working on over the next couple winter months? It can be anything really..
Just another Day on the Farm 
So this is weird but there’s regional artform called sweet grass baskets that I absolutely love and whenever we go to South Carolina/Georgia, I always have Jeff stop at roadside markets so I can buy one….but I can never quite pull the trigger. They’re crazy expensive, like they can go into the thousands of dollars depending on the size and complexity of the design, so my “collection” consists of 1 itty bitty one. Anyway, I just learned that you can make a similar style basket with long needle pines! So I have a bale of Carolina longleaf pine needles, raffia and tapestry needles and I’m going to learn to make my own. I’ll still insist on stopping at roadside stands to appreciate how amazing sweet grass baskets feel and smell…and maybe next summer I can add one to my “collection”….but learning to weave my own coil baskets should help with the obsession somewhat lol. I’ve also got an upcycling project….an old Victrola cabinet that was really badly refinished that I’m going to gut and repaint for use as a server or bar.
Very cool, I have done birch bark baskets with spruce root cord trimmings, and I have done woven sweet grass basket but I am guess its not the same as what you are talking about.. I have never done the spruce needle but have done the porcupine quil top design work.. it was a lot of small detail work but so amazing at the end.. Keep me posted on how it goes 🙂
Ohh that made me laugh Val, a pasture puff! I have never heard that expression before XD
I must confess I have not thought a lot about any particular challenges I might do, as you say, one foot in front of the other at the moment.
Though one thing that has occurred to me is that I would like to overpay ever so slightly on the mortgage and on my student loan in 2021. Not so much that we are left short in case I’m made redundant, but just a little. Even a small overpayment each month will reduce the amount of interest we have to pay.
🙂 Glad I made you laugh, its a common term around here for horse’s that have lots of hay, water, pasture, a herd and basic care but their main job is to look pretty in the field.. lol..
I understand and I agree even a tiny bit of difference can add up fast over the many years on a loan. I would say good goal as long as you can adjust back down to the lower amount with no penality.. we did our in a different way then most, we took the 30 year one with very reasonable payments (as in if something happened to hubby as the bigger income earner, I could work enough to make our house payments but then as soon as we got it at the lower, I went in and double the payment to my legal limit to pay it off in half the time at 15 years.. For us it worked well but gave us flexablity if we needed it.. Take care
Get my writing up to 3000 words per day on my writing days! 😀
that a great goal..