Happy New Year from the Housman Family!
News from 2015
January
Emily met her boyfriend, Joe. :) I turned 44. Mike and the boys went on an ice fishing trip to Lake of the Woods and stayed at Sportsman’s Lodge. Mike started taking guitar lessons and bought another rental property.
February
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| Old people hockey team (Mike and I (middle) and two other couples) |
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| Working on the rental house |
March
Emily started working at Papa D's coffee shop and soon became manager. Brandon and Sam have been dating for one year now. We tapped our trees and enjoyed another season of making maple syrup.
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| Ben tapping tree |
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| Stoking the fire in the sugar shack |
April
Emily is continuing to teach piano lessons, which she really enjoys. Our first batch of broiler chicks for 2015 arrived at the farm. We raised a total of 750 chickens for customers this year (that includes a few for ourselves too. :) We finished remodeling rental properties.
May
We said goodbye to our wonderful dog, Jackson. He was run over by a truck and had to be put down. He was 11 years old. It was a very sad day! :( On the bright side, Jonny’s dog, Rosie, had her first litter of puppies—7 in all, and Sally also had a litter of puppies. We planted the garden. The boys had a piano recital, and Ben had a violin recital. In the video they are playing a duet. Mike turned 45, and I took my final and finished the Herbalist program with The School of Natural Healing.
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| Jonny and Ben with their music teacher. Jolene has been teaching our children for the past 13 years. |
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| Ben planting potatoes |
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| Em and Joe cleaning the coop |
June
Mike and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary by taking a 3 day trip to Grand Superior Lodge on Lake Superior. The turkeys arrived on the farm. This year we raised around 80 turkeys. Emily turned 19. Jonny had a mandolin recital. We butchered our first batch of chickens.
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| Lake Superior, Duluth |
Jonny looks very serious when he is concentrating. He does actually enjoy playing mandolin. LOL!
July
We celebrated Independence Day with friends, playing lots of games.:) Jonny made an awesome cake for the celebration! We butchered our second batch of chickens. All the puppies when home with their new owners, except Little Lady. She was a puppy from Rosie's litter that we kept for our breeding program. Gardening is in full swing!
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| The dads are trying to beat the boys in tug-of-war. :) |
August
Ben and Jonny were in the play “Pinocchio” at our local performing arts center. They were vermin brothers and had a blast. Emily and I helped with makeup for the performances. The boys also hosted an Airsoft party for their friends (actually, I hosted it!) :) Brandon started selling cars on the weekends at Porsche, where he has worked for the past few years managing
inventory. He is really enjoying it. In the pictures, we are touring the new facility which is really close to where he lives. Canning season started!
September
We butchered our last batch of chickens for the season. We participated in the Red Rooster Day parade for commissioner Housman. :) This year (2016) Mike will have to decide if he wants to run again. Ben and Jonny started 9th grade at Housman Academy:), and I started the Master Herbalist program with the School of Natural Healing. We had another litter of puppies. The boys and I got to tag along with Mike to a conference he had at Breezy Point Resort. We played for a couple days while he attended meetings :), and then we spent an afternoon skating the Paul Bunyan trail before heading home.
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| At Breezy Point |
October
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| Scary looking family! :) |
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| Happy Birthday to my boys! |
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| Airsoft party |
November
We had a great hunting season this year! The kids and Mike all bagged a deer. :) Mike, Em, and Jonny all got nice bucks. Ben got a nice doe, but he would have preferred a nice buck. :) Joe (Em's boyfriend) also joined us, and he got a nice doe too. Mike canned many quarts of turkey and venison. Thanks to a wonderful farmhand, we were able to get away for a one week vacation to Breezy Point in November. My parents joined us up there too. The day we got home from vacation, we had another litter of puppies. Whew! That was close! :)
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| Hunting with my hubby :) |
The last month of the year brought two more litters of puppies! Emily's dog had her first litter and so did Ben's. We currently have 28 puppies on our farm! :) The boys had their Christmas recitals for piano and violin. And finally the ice has frozen over in Minnesota (It has been a warm winter), and hockey season has begun! Yay!!! :)
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| Christmas breakfast at Grandma and Papa's |
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| Emily is in the purple coat and white helmet. |
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| Hockey on New Year's Eve |
We praise the Lord for his goodness and mercy towards our family in the past year, and look forward to seeing His hand of blessing and direction in this coming year.
Blessings to you and your family in 2016!
5 comments:
Very nice Honey!! you did a great job!!
What a year of accomplishments & fun...(great photos)....Thanks for the superb update:)
Very cool, like it. thanks
Dave Jorgensen
Very nice! And if danny had known you guys played airsoft, he would have been over there every weekend! He's an airsoft fanatic, and hardly ever gets to play. People over here are always WAY to busy to have much fun!
Great letter! What an awesome year! Miss you all so much!
Love, Aunty
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