Family Letter 2011

Here we are at December 27th 2011. Another year is just about over. In years past I have sent out an email with our yearly letter but I am going to try something new this year with the creation of a blog. I think it will be neat to update this once a year with a new family letter as well as be able to reflect over the past years.

2011 will go down in our books as a very good year for our family. James not only managed to find and maintain full time employment all year, he also found the job of his dreams. He had a few jobs last year that he did not like very well and he would speak of some ideal conditions he would love to find in employment. I would tell him he was dreaming and that he just needed to be thankful to have any job at all. Well now he has the best of both worlds- a stable secure 40 hour a week job in an atmosphere he both loves and met all of the conditions he wanted in employment.

On February 10th,a very special couple celebrated their 10th Wedding Anniversary! US!

So much for those who we wouldn't make it is a year. :)
Also in February we purchased several baby goats with the intention of raising them to be family milking goats. James has trouble with lactose in store bought cows milk. We also bought a pregnant dairy goat who gave birth with a little buckling in the wee hours of the morning one really cold snowy day.

We made a lot of goat cottage cheese. It tasted wonderful specially with a little garlic powder added to it. We ate it plain as well as added it to such dishes as lasanga.

This was a Sour Cherry tree that was planted last fall.

In April/May we purchased and planted several varieties of fruit trees and blueberry bushes. It is not cheap by any means to raise a large family so while our space is limited here, we are working towards growing as much of our own food as we can. I wish I had planted them 10 years ago but at least I am doing it today instead of regreting it years from now.
Josiah turned a year old at the end of April. Sarah officially became a teenager in early May and Mikayla turned 10!

This picture was from a peach tree we planted 2 years prior. It was so beautiful this Spring when it blossomed.

It didn't take long before the "honeymoon" was over between me and the dairy goats. Our milking goat- Dizzy quickly discovered the taste of fruit trees. As you can see in this picture, she loved them. It took her hardly any time at all to completely destroy whatever she could find. The trouble I ran into with the goats was that as soon as we had green grass, the goats did not want to eat anymore of the purchased hay. They totally snubbed hay and would allow themselves to get very hungry and that hunger would drive them to become very creative in escaping their pens where they would then want to feast on my trees and blueberries. When you spend $200 on fruit trees and another $100+ on blueberries, you quickly have to decide which it is that you want more... cheese or fruit. Considering the trees can feed us for the next 20-40 years after they mature, it was obvious the choice would be the fruit. They did a lot of damage to even our newly planted Spruce trees. Lesson is learned here- we will never own goats again! We found the young ones (5 of them) a home with another homeschooling family who also have 7 children. We did not know them prior to selling the goats but they quickly became very good friends with us. They also have fruit trees and blueberry bushes but they also had 7+ acres of electric fenced pastures to which the goats not only loved but they became quite content. It turned a heartbreaking thing for us into something wonderful- new friendship.
In June, Amanda ran her first 5K in the Ludington Lakestride. This had been one of her "bucket list" items ever since she was a little girl. After losing over 100 lbs and then re-losing after Josiah was born, she felt ready to finally run. She was joined by Rachel (Hepworth) Elwood and her husband Steve Elwood.

In 2012 Amanda will be running again! this time she will be joined by both Sarah and Mikayla as well :) This could very well become a family tradition. Not only is there the bonding of the race but there is the bonding created as we train together throughout the year. There is the added bonus of improving our health and physical fitness.
Also in June, Jenna celebrated her 4th Birthday!! Happy Birthday Jenna!

This was Jenna making a "sand angel" at the state park :)

We spent a lot of time at the Ludington State Park this year. Amanda and the children hiked all of their trails at least once and even kayaked and canoed out to the sand dunes. If there were any place we love more than our home it would be the State Park! We are looking to add on another canoe for next year and increase the amount of canoe trips. It is so much fun to take the kids out on the water.

In July we were able to harvest some of our peaches!! Nothing tasted better than our first ever peach from our own trees!

In August Laura celebrated her 6th Birthday! James also had his birthday at the end of the month

We once again enjoyed taking some of our completed projects, canned foods and fresh vegetables to Oceana County fair! We did fantastic!! James had felt I (Amanda) had gone a little crazy with entering but he sure didn't mind our $160 premiums check we received a few weeks later. We brought home a lot of Blue Ribbons! I took in a lot of canned goods and fresh vegetables. I figured for .25 cents I could enter a jar and potentially "win" $2 for it. They do not open the food and it would remain usable later on so why not? I did fantastic! I also entered some baked goods which did well in placing but my favorite winning was not only a blue ribbon but a Best Of Show for a picture of Josiah!! Nothing was more treasured than that Best of Show ribbon! (Another bucket list item marked off)

We ended the gardening season on a successful note. We had one of our best harvests ever! We grew strawberries, green beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini, squash, over 100 plants of tomatoes, watermelons and several other vegetables. It was a very good year. With a good harvest comes canning season. We ended the season with about 550-600 mason jars. We made jams, jellies as well with fruit purchased from local farm markets. We took advantage of having a wonderful U Pick blueberry patch just a few miles down the road too.

In late Sept/Early October we took our traditional family trip to the Upper Peninsula. We stayed at the Straits State Park and had one of the most fantastic campsites looking right at the Mackinaw Bridge!

We also took a hike up Castle Rock

As you can see, we also added on a new pet. Jake! He was a rescued Jack Russel Terrier pup. We only had him 24 hours before we left for our camping trip but he did fantastic. A sweet little thing!
On October 10th we had another first experience in our home. Unfortunately it would be a bad one. Due to some blind spots and a little bit of a lack of judgement on my (Amanda) part, the children and I were in a wreck just 1 1/2 miles away from home.

As you can see, the damage stayed to the front. It spun us around 180 degs but our injuries stayed to some bruising. If I had been just a little further into the intersection, the driver that collided with us would have hit Sarah. The other driver got away with just a cut to her forearm from broken glass. She actually went into the ditch but she did so in the most safest way possible. Everyone walked away from the accident with relatively no injuries despite how bad the vehicles looked. Because the accident was deemed my fault, our insurance would not cover our vehicle. It was quite an inner battle I dealt with for the following weeks. On one hand I was thanking God that I did not bury any of my children. On the other hand I was dealing with tremendous guilt. I should have sat at that intersection a moment longer and it would have all been avoided. I don't know WHY I didn't see the woman but I know somewhere along the line it was Gods plan. In the end it turned out alright. James bestowed upon me a great deal of patience and grace. My children are alive and healthy. And I was able to see once again, that I have some tremendous friends. I had people from my facebook who sent me money to help replace my van. These people have never even met me but they did something great to my heart. This was the third year in a row, roughly the same time of the year, that I had suffered something terrible happen to me. Each time I had people come out of the wood work to give me love and compassion that I did not believe I deserved. Finally this year I told God I really do understand now and to please not try and teach me a 4th lesson! LOL! (last year I flipped the Jeep on ice and the year before we had our barn burn) I really have some amazing friends :)

A few weeks later Noah and Tyler had their birthdays! Tyler turned 9 and Noah turned 8!

The children and I started getting into genealogy through ancestry.com. I have learned a whole lot about our family history through this website. I had no idea that I am greatly German! My whole life I had thought I was mostly polish but through my family tree I now realize I am at least 80% German. The Hepworth side of the family had a lot of English. I was even able to find photos of ancestors from many many generations ago. My interest in family history and bugging my Grandma Wheaton with questions caused that she was able to get some pictures for me of her side of the family. It was soooooo neat!! My Great Great Grandma through my Grandmas side of the family is where I get my looks and even my love of hobby farming.

One of the neatest thing I found would be a picture of my Grandmas father, William Wiley. I see where Tyler gets his looks!

The children and I will be doing a big "school" lesson matching where our relatives originated from. I even have the date of arrival to the US and we will be making time lines.
The last big thing of 2011 was the arrival of Fern. We learned that raw cows milk is also drinkable by those who are lactose intolerant. I also needed a good source of non-chemical fertilizer for the garden. Fern is a 5 month old Jersey Heifer calf. It will be about 1 1/2 years before we can get milk from her but through her we will eventually make most of our own butter, cheese and will haveo ur source of unadulterated raw milk! She is an absolute gem!

Well that pretty much wraps up our 2011. It was a wonderful year and I ever so much look forward to seeing what 2012 brings us. I fully expect a year of great gardening, trips to the Ludington State Park, fishing at Hamlin lake, Canoeing, hobby farming and just enjoying every bit of whatever life brings us. We plan on raising twice as many meat chickens and to continue raising our own farm fresh eggs. So much goes on around here and it is creating fantastic memories and excellent learning moments. Thank you for taking the time to read our 2011 Letter :) Stay tuned in about 365 days to find out how our 2012 turned out!