2024 - How was it for you?

I know it hasn't fininshed yet, but at this time of year I sit down and write a review of our year for friends and family. Sometimes there are big changes, sometimes nothing much seems to have happened - until I think of all the little things that build up into a different picture to this time last year.



I've had a pretty rotten season in the garden. Some of this I hope I will learn from - letting the birds prepare my seedbed, rather than them digging it up after the seeds stared growing for example (!) Others I could have done little about - the weather was pretty much without a summer for us this year so everything that did survive the birds was a little slow. I gained and lost a member of staff in the shop, but the situation we now are faced with as a small business in the UK means that is probably just as well. My husband has made a change to his work that I hope will make him happier and give him more time, if not more money. We still have health and happiness and two dogs. I'm trying now to prepare more raised mini hugel for planting more berry bushes, which if not immune to the vagaries of the weather, at least don't need so much maintenance once planted...

How has your year been?

My year in review.

Gardens - I learned what tomato volunteers are... about a hundred of them across three raised beds. Free tomatoes! My brassicas did not do so hot but I think that has to do with where I planted them and the sun/shade those areas receive. My biggest wins were reclaiming more lawn space in the name of creating new garden spaces. I moved roughly 40-50 yards of woodchips to replenish existing wood chipped areas as well as expanded. I grew my first ever successful watermelons as well as had great yields on my few pumpkin plants. A big lesson I learned this year was with intercropping and edible polycultures. I had my first real season for seed saving, we will see how germination rates look next year.

Life - I got married. That's pretty neat. Great success! I transitioned from working in a manufacturing mill with swing shifts (Rotating what I work every week) into a day job which has significantly improved me mood. Regular sleeping hours and not having to try and hide from daylight is a true blessing.

Critters - My pup and my chickens have had a great year. No big issues and I feel like I have figured out my routines to keep up with all the maintenance items involved with them.


All in all, 2024 was good to me. I'm hoping for a better 2025.

Healthwise it's been a wonderful year for Steve and I...continuing our own personal ' health insurance' of walking and hiking and belief in food as medicine.

Sadly though, we are at an age where many of our oldest friends are passing on and it's hard to say goodbye....a reminder of how fleeting this life is.

Gardens good...projects slow...todo lists as long as ever but with more perspective...looking more at things we leave behind, done or undone, for the next owners/caretakers of this house and land.

My gosh. It's been a heck of a year. There was way too much "medical emergency" type stuff going on (first my husband, then me).

A lot of things simply got shelved this year. Goals like "finally taking those dance lessons" and real vacation and working on specific garden objectives simply were pushed aside. I really had to prioritize everything to get through it, particularly the month of taking care of my husband and then the three or so months of endless and constant medical scans/consults/panic followed by post-surgery.

I did learn a bit, so it was useful....
As mentioned- limits and saying no. I just had no other option. I had to compartmentalize everything, and (for example) I have one day to do X things, they can either schedule it that day or stuff it. Similar with the usual family drama, I've been drawing firm lines and not budging.

This year I basically have been without a car and it's been fine, mostly because I'm too busy to go anywhere (home office). That's nice to know.

Work, sigh. It's unpredictable but I'm not complaining. Work was supposed to be slow this year but I'm ending the year with my hair on fire and it looks like while the money may not make it into the account by year end, I will probably bill what looks to be the best year yet (which is nice, since last year was about even with the year before and I like to see some growth). Several years ago my goal was to REDUCE my workload and finish working in the afternoon to spend more time in the garden. Considering the current Economic State of Things I've reconsidered that and will save that for my retirement; in the meantime I'll be working this weekend and indeed til New Year's Eve.

Other than that, all the systems I put in place this year for water storage and stored food/goods and preparedness really came through. We had some weather early in the year that required the water and the stashed stuff really came through when I couldn't get out of the house.

I know in some ways this was a real crap year, but I also have to celebrate. My man nearly died, but now he's fine. I had cancer, then I didn't. I got my hand fixed in the bargain, which was long overdue. My kid is closer to graduating college and got a great internship. Robots were supposed to take my job but it's still looking pretty good.

(My dog is still a monster who needs to take anxiety medicine, so I guess you win some, lose some).

2024 was a lost year.   Minimal garden.  Most of our energies went into my wife’s health issues.  But, so far, those have turned out well.  I have managed to build anew, expanded chicken coop.  I also achieved a successful genealogy hunt of my mother’s side of the family. She had always told me she didn’t know who her parents were.

I have been lucky to have had good health my whole life.

This years was spent going from one doctor to another without any answers.

I am happy to just take it one day at a time and accept what comes my way.  Though this year my family decided they wanted to find out why I have this or that.

I have appointments with all those same doctors in January probably getting the same answers.

I like what Judith said about walking, hiking and food as medicine ...

I also believe in drinking lots of water, doing breathing exercises and using T-touch.

In the garden, we had an exceptionally long cold/wet spring that stunted just about everything. In what would normally be midsummer, that gave way to a drought that we're still experiencing. It's been the worst year for growing since I started caring about that. Fruiting perennials were all strong and alliums and potatoes were fine. Everything else sucked.

In terms of health it's been rough. My wife is dealing with hypertension. I concussed myself on a boulder in June and am still recovering. Later in the year I injured my back pretty good. On both of those, I think the worst is behind me. My daughter and wife both caught Covid for the first time, I avoided it by hiding in the basement for two weeks which grew quite tiresome. And finally, my dad just had his second heart attack two weeks ago. Right at this moment I'm battling a migraine -- I know it's temporary but it's making everything seem worse. My normal annual cycle is to gain 20 lbs over the winter and lose 19 lbs over the summer but I lost so much of the summer to injuries that I didn't shed that weight and it looks like I'm still inclined to gain a bunch of winter weight. I'm already fat so that's a significant concern.

My daughter graduated with Latin honors seven months ago (yay!) and is growing despondent about the job market (boo!).

My new manager (one year in now) fired both of my department peers and replaced them with one new guy and has charged headlong into changes that seem good on paper but always come with a heavy cost. I'm theoretically a programmer but I spend 99% of my time fighting support fires that I'm poorly equipped for because we've gotten rid of the right people for those problems.

The year has been stressful in other ways as well.

(LOL...aren't I a wet blanket!)

I can sort of summarize 2024 in three phases according to the semester.

Spring Semester (January 1-about June 1)  Crazy busy!  Wonderful!  One of the best semesters (and years I ever had).  In fact, it might have been the single best semester of any that I have had in my 28 years teaching.  I was taking graduate classes (two of them!) and teaching A.P. Psych which by the Spring was all new material to me.  But I had two excellent classes and by the time that the semester was over, I don't think that there was a dry eye in either class as none of us were really ready for the semester/year to end.  But of course, it had to end and it makes a wonderful memory.  I will retire in about 6 years and I want last spring semester to one of my best remembered semesters for me to contemplate when I think about my career.

Summer (June 1ish-August 10ish)  Crazy busy with a dash of more busy!  I took two classes over the summer which finished off my graduate course work.  It was great to get them finished, but I really had to work to get them over and done with.  In June, my family took off for a week-long vacation, but I stayed at home working on course work!  The week after my family got back, I headed out to an A.P. Psychology conference (also a week long!).  And then by July, I was right back taking classes again.  I got absolutely no gardening done, nor did I the year earlier, but I just accepted that these were two summers that I would not garden in order to get this last phase of my education finished.  I got my classes finished after school started and I submitted my transcripts before the new contract began (which is always September 1).  This meant that I got my raise this year instead of next year!  Woo Hoo!!

Fall (August 10-December ish)  Mostly good, but not quite as great as last year.  I really can't complain, but this year has been closer to average than what last year was.  Now my average is probably much better than many other teacher's average so I won't complain, but I have had just a few more headaches by comparison to last year, but nothing that I can't handle.  One of my highlights was when two students from last year, now off at college, called me during a passing period.  We had a nice chat!  

Overall, 2024 has been very, very good to me and I am thankful for all that I have received over the year.

Eric

Wulp, I torqued my (already bad) knee, early in spring, then kept reinjuring it, so not much got done, that I'd hoped to do - and I hardly got to ride my motorcycle. And we lost some livestock, causing much heartbreak. The bees got to keep almost their entire year's production, because they cross-combed badly, and I wasn't willing to fight them for it, with a gimp knee slowing me down. Likewise, the blackberries & persimmons were left to the wildlife (& bees). The trees that fell and the ones we had cut down all still lay exactly where they dropped, so we had to buy firewood - and about 7 boards on the deck need replacing. John hit a post with the car, messing up the front quarter panel, drivers door, and back door just enough to break the seal, so water comes in, and we haven't been able to get that fixed, yet. And, last, but not least, our youngest daughter, who just got married 2yrs ago, is now going through a divorce.

The year was not a total loss, though. The pickling cuke harvest was the best I've ever had, and the few tomatoes we harvested (weather weirdness) were excellent. There are elderberries from a volunteer, that I found by the big garage, that are tincturing, and I'm relatively sure that elderberry and both of the ones I intentionally planted last year (that didn't flower, this year) will likely give a more abundant harvest, next year. I *may* have collected enough mullein for the winter...maybe. We got some plumbing issues taken care of, the gutter on the north side of the house has been replaced/ upgraded, and we haven't had any more flooding, since. There are a dozen beautiful, healthy, sweet Buff Orpington pullets in the back portion of the coop, due to start laying (hopefully), in February, with a pair of 'free' cockerels that will be ready for freezer camp, in January (we have a wonderful, proven one that we are keeping, instead of the bratty, hand-raised ones we didn't order or want!). And, I'm finally going to be able to start my oils, salves, tinctures,balms, and linemints, in a couple days.

There's hay in the barn, the freezers & pantry are stocked, the feed bins for the birds are full, goat breeding season went into full swing, yesterday, and my knee seems to finally be responding to the exercises. My son is coming, with 2 of his step-kids, in early January - for a whole week, to learn some of my herbal techniques, firewood management, sourdough baking & management, and some fiber arts, as well as to help get all the goats stats and groomed, pictures, & chipped, so they can finally be recorded, so their babies will bring a much better price, next year. And, though she's going to be an extra week getting here, due to the discovery of a couple tiny hernias (very common, in little dogs, something to do with being squished through a tiny passage, at birth), my new puppy will still be home with us, well before Christmas.

Well, 2024 can be summed up as the Year of the Plumbing emergencies.
We don't have mains water and one water tank sprung an invisible leak - replaced and the leaky one turned into garden yurt - entrance cut in, now serves as storage. Hey - an opportunity for creativity.
Next the septic sewage system backed up.  Reason tree roots had found a tiny crack in the pipe.  Can't blame 'em really, we had a very dry year. Cleared that,and then next the soakage line from the septic tank blocked - yes, you guessed it - more tree roots.  Still working on that one with copper sulphate, after pulling out the worst of the blockage.  On the bright side, the "big stink" (Really, I couldn't smell it) got blamed on my lax attitude to housework. Hey - there's always something more interesting to do! Fingers crossed that's it (till the next time).

Good things in 2024:
Good vacations, lots of visiting, singing at faires, we moved to a more conveniently located apartment.  Figured out radishes well, blueberries doing well, enjoyed amarynth and sour clover volunteers.  Lots of swimming in the river..

Bad things in 2024:
My father-in-law wrecked our car, so we ended up with a different one.  Our new balcony which was full of shade from the dense maple foliage proved to be difficult since there wasn't enough sun for most greens and vegitibles.  Fortunately they trimmed in Oct. so hopefully next year will go better, plus I got some grow lights for supplamenting come spring.  Our friend lived in our living room for a month and a half, I mean that's not a bad thing but it taught us a lot about how much we can handle re. other people staying over.  Familial stress.

It's been something of a rollercoaster year here, where much of what I hoped for and planned didn't happen, but there have been unexpected blessings, too.

Family - Dad passed away peacefully in December last year after slowly losing himself to dementia, and within a week, Mum was in hospital seriously ill. She pulled though and is still living life as fully as she can with multiple health problems, even learning new crafts at almost 90! I feel for my sister who cared wonderfully for Dad and didn't get a break before Mum needed so much more support. Hubby's mother passed away last month at 97 after surviving a nasty fall in early September but being left bedridden. Hubby himself is doing a little better physically after having a pacemaker insertion last November, but is struggling to deal with long-term mental health issues, his mother's passing, and some associated family drama.

Health - We both had Covid earlier in the autumn and neither of us have fully recovered. The ongoing fatigue and supporting hubby with his mental health issues feels as if it is sucking me dry at times. Also I developed an issue with my knee, six weeks laster it's still very painfully and limiting my mobility. That's frustrating as I want to be more active, not less! On the plus side, I am eating healthier and inching toward my healthier weight goals, even without being able to do as much walking as I'd like.

Pets - My beloved elderly cat's health slowly deteriorated this year. Though he had a good summer and enjoyed time lazing in the garden, in early September one of his health issues suddenly worsened significantly, and we had to say goodbye. Thankfully our four rescue cats are mad and happy and healthy, and we gained a new cat at the start of the year, a sweet, funny little thing,  given to us by a neighbour who was no longer able to care for her.

Writing -  Yay! A breakthrough over the two years of writer's block I'd experienced after grief over losing three close writing friends shut that part of my brain down. I finished a new book which has been well-reviewed by readers, and am half-way through another. It feels so good to have that part of myself back! Not so yay - book earnings are down significantly on last year, about 30%, which seems to be something most of my author friends are experiencing too, even the more prolific ones who spend way more of their book promotion than I do.

Finances - With reduced income but a rising cost of living, I've looked at ways to be more frugal and thrifty and reduce our household spend. I'm buying less, and letting go of a fair bit of stuff and selling it on ebay. A big positive  for me, as I badly need to declutter! When I tot up the end-of-lear household accounts, we won't have moved forward by much, but we won't have moved backwards, either. That's a win, considering we had big vet bills and some essential-but-expensive plumbing work done.

Garden - The UK garden had the summer with no summer, while the Bulgarian garden had way too much summer. My seed grown hazelnuts there fried in the heat, and without water, nothing but weeds grew (and mostly not useful ones!). Apple, pear, and peach crops all failed due to lack of water, but the trees are tough and should survive, thanks to the autumn rains arriving on time this year.  It was a good year for apples and elderberries in the UK and I managed to preserve quite a lot. In Bulgaria, the plums and quinces thrived despite the heat and drought, and my neighbour showed me the local way of preserving plum compote. Unfortunately due to all the challenging stuff in September and ongoing, I haven't been back since early August, so missed the quince harvest and the autumn plantings I hoped to do. I have no idea what I'll find when I get back to Bulgaria in the spring. I'm hoping some of the hazels survived.

Overall, I feel positive. I'm more at peace spiritually and emotionally than I have been in the past, going deeper into trusting God and resting in Him. Its a good feeling! I'm looking forward to another new year, bright and shiny and full of opportunity.

Edited to add - I remembered more good things - the daily habits I got back into! Hubby and I are walking every day, even if only a short distance; I'm slowly making progress with learning Bulgarian; and I got back into daily journalling, something I thing very helpful.

Warning:  Philosophical Waxing ahead,

Upon further thought about my last post, I am forced to conclude that 2024 was not only a great year, but perhaps one of the greatest ones of my live!

Really, the roots of 2024 began in 2023 where I petitioned for and established my A.P. Psychology class, an endeavor that I had aimed for for many years.  While I had been taking numerous graduate classes in 2023, I deliberately took the Fall semester of 2023 off from graduate coursework just to get my A.P. classes off to a good start--and they were wonderful!  Better yet, my regular class was amazing as well.  In fact, I had one student in regular psychology during Fall 2023 that decided to take AP Psychology the next year.  She is an amazing student.

On a different note, school year 23-24 was my youngest daughter's junior year in high school and as I primarily teach juniors (US History is almost all juniors and psychology has many juniors), this was the gossipiest year I have ever had--but in a good way.  So many of my students constantly inquired about how my daughter was doing.  Also, I had several students in class that had been my daughter's friends since kindergarten.  It was amazing to see upper classmen students who I first knew as rug rats playing with my daughter in my house.  Throughout my career I had always been secretive and cagy about exactly where I lived, but by last year, the secret was definitely out!

In January of 2024 I had a former history student, by then a Senior, who had enlisted in the National Guard while still in high school.  His Guard duties revolved around him being able to finish school (of course!).  And this kid LOVED the Guard!  This is what he was made for (though I think he will go active shortly after graduation)!  And one of the incentives that the Guard has for new enlistee's who have not yet gone through basic training is that they can get a promotion by recruiting someone else into the Guard.  This student enthusiastically sought out new recruits and eventually was promoted from E-1 to E-2 (his first promotion).  This student came to me and asked/practically begged for me to go to his promotion, so I went.  And when I showed up at the armory, I was definitely the odd duck, the only person wearing civilian clothing.  Eventually, the Sergeant -in-command approached me and asked me what I was doing there.  I told him I was there for the promotion of said E-1 soldier.  He then asked me what relation I was to this soldier (from basic appearances, it is glaringly obvious that we are not directly related by family).  I then told him that the soldier in question was my former American History student as which the Sergeant said "Oh!  Do you want to promote him?"  Of course I told him that I would be honored.  And shortly thereafter, after other young soldiers were getting their promotions, the Sergeant stated that they were going to shake things up a bit, brought me front and center, and I got to pin (actually Velcro) the new rank insignia on my former student's uniform.  I have to say that I was extremely proud of my student and I was greatly honored to be a part of his promotion, even if my part was only symbolic.

By Spring 2024, I was back taking graduate classes again and my  AP classes were delving into new territory.  This was an extremely busy time of my life,  Pretty much daily I was doing extensive reading/writing for grad school and researching and preparing lessons (and stories!) for my brand-new section of AP Psychology.  On top of that, I needed to make a whole series of tests which conformed to AP standards.  Fortunately I had a test generator, but I still needed to manually import these tests into a different format that students could use/take tests in class.  It was a lot of tedious work!

By May, 2024, the whole semester of very hard work paid off.  The class and I really bonded.  On the last day for seniors, we took pictures, said our goodbyes and there was barely a dry eye in the classroom.  We all saw each other again at graduation and I met many of the parents who gushed with thankfulness.  This was a wonderful. humbling experience for me.

Summer began, but my work never ended.  I was going full-throttle on taking graduate classes.  On top of that, I needed to take another AP training course as the fundamental format for AP Psychology changed!  That conference was a week long and overlapped with my last week of one of my graduate classes.  This meant that I had to have all of that week done the week prior (more like two weeks prior).  June was a really jam-packed busy month for me.  My whole family took off for Gulf Shores to play on the beach, but I had to stay behind to get my work done.  My wife even tried to get me to go along saying that I could work on my classes during the drive and in the hotel.  I had to explain that that was a completely unworkable solution as I would be constantly distracted.  I stayed behind and got about three weeks worth of work done in one week,.  It was busy but it was good to get that done.  The week following I headed to Kentucky for my AP conference (another week).  When I got back I was pretty beat, but another class was just two days away.  I took on that class and got it done just as school was started.  I finished, got my transcripts and submitted them to the district office, expecting my raise to come next year.  To my surprise, I got the raise this year!  I am now at the very top of the salary scale!  Woo Hoo!!

Starting the Fall Semester, I have another wonderful AP Psychology class with many wonderful students, several of whom were my students from last year from various classes.  And yes, there have been a few challenges, but nothing that I can't get through.  I was absolutely blessed to have an observer student for the fall semester.  This a pre-service teacher who is observing and getting to know the ropes of what a day in the life of a teacher is like.  I love to mentor a new up-and-coming teacher so this was a great opportunity.  Also, we just had a great deal of personal commonality so it was great to have many wonderful conversations.  He student teaches next semester and I wish the absolute best for him.  And I have a new pre-service teacher for next semester, one who is at a lower level than my last one and may continue to be assigned to my classroom to eventually be a student teacher!  This would be a wonderful opportunity to mentor another pre-service teacher.

And as I am writing this, I can't ignore the fact that after this year is over, I only have 6 years left before I retire.  In fact, that retirement date is even closer than it looks as I have to put in a non-revocable letter of intent to retire four years prior to retirement in order to take maximum advantage of a retirement incentive.  This means that I really have to commit to retirement in just two years after this one!  That would be 26-27!  This sounds so early to me, but I want to retire while I still really enjoy teaching.  If I were to get to the point that I was just worn out and no longer enjoyed teaching, then that situation would benefit no-one. A grumpy, exhausted, worn-out teacher only hurts students, the school and him/herself.  At this rate I think that can retire and still think that I did something that i truly loved for 34 years and then leave knowing that my job is complete and then collect my pension and move on to gardening more.  And as I think about my career in general and 2024 in particular, I am extremely proud of so many of my students and I feel blessed to have been a part of their success.  Just before Christmas Break began, student emails and letters poured in thanking me for being their teacher.  One called me an "eccentric yet splendid teacher" (I like this part), while the another exclaimed how she was thankful that another AP Class did not work out (she joined AP Psych a bit late) because AP Psych is the one class she actually looks forward to every day as she looks forward to my "non-lecture lectures."  This is mostly a reference to my story-telling in class.  I was truly humbled and blessed by these letters.

In summary, 2024 was a busy, chaotic, wonderful adventure.  I really had to put in a lot of effort, but I don't think that the year would have been worth it without all that effort.  I can truly say that I accomplished something!

Eric

Eric

well, after two years where important people in my life died and the majority of the year was spent in a grieving process, i had hopes that this could be a more normal one. and i guess it was until the floods after hurricane helene completely destroyed our small town downtown and so many other local places, things, and lives in late september. so the grieving continues!

and i’m probably getting better at working through that grief (both in the direct processing personal grief way, and just getting tasks done while still in the throes of it). and our little one is getting bigger and more able to be on her own or help with things, so progress is happening on various projects a bit more steadily. it’s never all bad.