Merry, Merry Christmas from the Caldwell Family

There are not enough stars in the sky for all the wishes we send to you and your families during this special season of the year.  We wish you good health and happiness!  We also wish you much many, many more blessings!!

Here’s a little update for you of what the farm and family have been up to in 2019:

Work continues on Heather & Joel’s new home here on the farm and if all goes well they should be officially moved in spring of 2020.  They’re very excited as are we. 

Heather opened her new business HCJ  Tax and Accounting and has an office in Salem and in her home.

Joel is working himself to death with his masonry business. 

Victoria finished her first semester in Radford University and is working as a Behavior Specialist at New River Valley Community Services.  She just recently received her letter of appointment into the Education Program at Radford. She also made the Dean’s List the past two semesters.

Shawn is working hard as a Project Engineer at Gay & Neel Engineering in Christiansburg and has been traveling a lot to New Jersey to see his son, Declan.  He also just completed and passed the Engineers designation which I can’t remember but what it’s called but very proud of him.

Declan turned three this summer and he came to the farm to visit with his Mom and Grandmother twice this summer.  He’s such a beautiful little boy.  Eddie and I are so fortunate that our two kids live close by!!

The doctors have given me a couple scares this year with first a breast biopsy for a calcification cluster which turned out benign and then during my annual exam they found an irregular heart beat but all is well with that .

Eddie is well but for a bad thumb which he jammed to the knuckle and after seven weeks he has lost the nail but it has given him a fit and prevented him from doing work on the farm that he hoped to complete.  All in good time is my motto for the year!!

We celebrated our 47^th wedding anniversary on February 4^th with a road trip in the mountains AND he found us a new elkhound pup named Sadie.  She’s beautiful and all puppy though she turned a year old in October.  Eddie also got him a new hunting pup, Butch, to trail along with his older hound and train him the right way!!  He just turned five months.  WARNING:  Puppies are not good for flower gardens!!! L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just finished calving season for 2019, my duck is laying beautiful eggs for my baking and we had one bull calf we has to bottle feed last spring and summer.  He just went to market and out-weighed all the calf herd!!  I raised 18 new chicks for replacement stock & they included Speckled Sussex, Buff Orpingtons and Columbian Wyandottes.  They’ve just started laying eggs for us.

 

 

 

 

 

We had visitors most of the summer and so enjoyed all of them and hope for the same in 2020.   

Dean is doing well and turned 60 in March and Dreama turned 70 this month.  Both are happy as clams!!

Our honeybees died out last year but we had wild swarms come to the hives late in 2018 and spring 2019.  All are alive and well and they produced over 130 pounds of honey for us and it sold as fast as we could get it off the frames.  Shawn and Victoria are taking up the same hobby and hope their hives will do as well for them in 2020.

Eddie had excellent luck fishing during the summer and we have a freezer full of catfish, striper and muskie.  (Best eating you ever had, Red Lobster ain’t got nothing on us!!:) 

He’s in the process of buying a “new used” farm truck because our old Chevy S-10 just about tripped over 200,000 miles and isn’t sounding very good.  The newer one is the same color and make but only has 103000 miles so he thinks it will make it through at least another 10 years like the old one.

I cut off my seven year old ponytail in August and it feels so weird I think I have a wig on most of the time!

I finished Victoria’s 2018 Christmas quilt in October and now trying to finish a Redwork quilt I started five years ago.  I’ve decided it’s time to complete all these unfinished works of “art” before I start anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been very negligent with my blog this year but still keep it going with occasional posts so watch for it at www.countrygirllifeonthefarm.com when you get a chance.  I’ve also still got my cleaning business going but not taking on any new clients.  I love the ones I have and they’re so special to me. 

Now, I’m dreaming about my gardening projects for spring. Eddie is gifting me a greenhouse for Christmas!  I’m so excited and because my granddaughter has also become quite the gardener this year, I’m hoping we spend a lot of time together in it.  I’m also looking forward to getting some of our fruit tree and grapevines pruned.  The pruning we did last year on our Wolf River apple tree proved to be very productive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m so hoping you will all come visit our country home in the mountains of Craig County!!

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New  Year to all!!  Love ya!!    Come see us when you can!!