2015 Objectives

I am big on planning your journey in life.  Nothing happens by chance.  If you want it, you plan for it, and you revisit your growth goals on a regular basis to stay on course and adjust as needed.

My ten personal 2015 goals in no particular order:

1) Walk more plus exercise 30 minutes every other day in addition to walking at least 5,000 steps each day.  Fitbit makes this easy to track.

2) Eat healthy snacks - goodbye junk snacks. Hello more home grown produce and gardening!  I will begin my raised bed gardens in February this year.  I have green onions, radishes, and lettuce mix seeds ready to plant.

3) Scrapbook more - so many pictures, so many papers, so little time! At the end of the year, I want to give scrapbooks as gifts to my family.

4) Spend more time golfing. Shave off 6 strokes for a better golf handicap and play in the local chapter championship.  Can't wait to get out to the golf course to try my new petite woman's clubs!

5) Stress less; practice yoga more.  Gout is a painful form of arthritis.  Acute and chronic at times, my gout is aggravated by stress.   Even cutting out all meat, shellfish and beer doesn't help if the stress level remains too high.  Lately I've been walking with glass shards piercing my toes.  Gout causes uric acid to remain in your bloodstream and get deposited in joints like knees and toes.  Gout symptoms are always exacerbated after any particularly stress-filled period, which in this case was the death of my sister.  Miss her so much even though we rarely agreed.  Not a day goes by that I don't want to talk to her.

6) Set up multiple streams of income; this is a pre-retirement plan to have sufficient income once I don't work full-time.  My Etsy business is  "Ladies Tees and Such" and I am working to stock it.  Nothing in there yet.  Also will be on Tradesy and E-bay.  Considering renting a local booth at an antique mall.   (I get the retirement question all the time:  when are you retiring?  Answer:  I will always work at something. Work is critical to my well-being.)  I have sold z-e-r-o e-books, so that is a 2014 disappointment but I will continue to add to my e-books list.  Never give up!

7) Continue to improve musically; I have specific goals like better breath control and phrasing in voice and playing my flute at Church.

8) Create a waterfall add-on to our little pond and landscape around it to make it a true oasis to enjoy in the morning and evening.

9) Explore new cooking techniques and cuisines;  take some vegetarian cooking classes.

10) Do spiritual journalling.  I love to write and I love Jesus; I am fascinated by allowing the Holy Spirit to write through me.

As far as my 3 - dog farm objectives:  I am getting out of beekeeping.  After much thought, I realize that my property does not sustain enough nectar sources to keep bees.  I will be selling my hives and equipment.  Sad about that but it is the only conclusion I can make after trying for 5 years to keep bees.  I will post an inventory of every thing I have bee-related and a estimated price for it all.

When Winter is in Alabama, Where are the June Bugs?

I am enjoying the bitterly cold weather by sitting inside on my couch and looking through my seed and plant catalogs planning for that first day of vegetable gardening.  There is something to be said for staying inside and close to a fire.  We have been eating the canned and frozen produce from our gardens this winter too.  We enjoyed the last of the freezer pesto sauce made with my garden's fresh basil.  It was so very good and I want to be sure to have more fresh herbs in the garden this year.  There is joy in planning which seeds and seedlings will be tried in the garden.  I am already dreaming of an early spring planting day for radishes, green onions, peas, and lettuce.  Can't wait to try some of the new varieties of these plants.

I regret I have not taken a vacation day from work to turn my garden soil yet.  Why would one turn soil on a cold winter day?  Glad you asked!  We have something in the soil that loves to overwinter in their grub state and emerge late June to early July ravenous for fresh summer produce, the Japanese beetle.  Their better known name is June bug and they are as insidious as kudzu in the South.  These bugs love to eat summer vegetables and herbs, particularly asparagus, basil, okra, peppers and greens.  They can be very destructive to gardens.  I wish that I had turned up the gardens before this latest cold snap hit to expose and freeze these free-loaders.  Right now they are enjoying their life living a little below root level in our gardens, laying low and waiting for warmer weather like us.

During winter smart farmers will turn up the soil in an effort to organically control these nasties. There are other, natural ways to control them like nematodes, and Milky Spore products.  I've had dogs that relished eating these insects once the grubs morphed into their adult beetle form and the dogs would run crazy eights in the yard catching one after another.  My Dad said he would catch them as a kid and tie a thread to them and watch them fly in a circle.  (My Dad told stories like that one and I could never quite believe it - seeing is believing - it is hard to tie a thread to these critters.)

Many home owners battle moles not realizing that the moles (and skunks) are digging in their lawns for Japanese beetle grubs.  The home owner tries to kill the moles not realizing that they need to treat their lawns for grubs and get rid of the mole's food source.  If you have a mole you can trap it; and many traps will also kill it.  Generally moles are solitary creatures but can have an extensive network of tunnels. which only attract more moles when they find an empty home.  Rather than battling moles, battle the grubs.

June Bug Life Cycle: University of Arkansas