THE BLESSING BASKET

GRATITUDE

If you read farmer Dave's last blog post I want you to know how grateful we are.  After his blog post we received so many calls, messages and cards. Wanting to save all the cards we put them in a special basket that our friend Ken gave us when he stopped by on his way home to New England.  Every time I passed by the basket I felt so blessed and asked the Lord to bless others in return. Your concerns are heart warming ~ I am getting better but not 100% yet. I've had a blood issue and without going into details I am making my own blood again so I am on the right track.

 

THE BLESSING BASKET

 

 

My friend Judy told me that every time her life got better she just went through a battle of some kind. I can relate and felt that this was one of those times. When you don't have your health it's so frightening and really ~ well really.  Farmer Dave and I have so many of the same traits and keeping our plate too full is one of them.  Not a good trait for both to have in a marriage. WE are working at keeping the plate less full. This health scare has changed how we think. We decided to have the shop open only during workshops and small events.  You can never get time back. We decided we wanted to be more free to be at home and travel. Farmer Dave put the reigns on. So once the doctor gave me the okay to get out and move more I tried not to be the jockey on the horse coming out of the gate.  We've seen our family and friends more, hosted a lot of friends in the antique business staying with us,  been away a few weekends, went to a friend's apple butter making gathering and to farm tours ~ (we are working on it!) doing different things we couldn't do when the shop was open every Saturday. At first it seemed odd to leave on a Saturday morning and not have the shop open. We haven't closed the shop ~ it's just half open. We love having workshops with Janice and blessed with our friend Karen who is our right hand gal!  Two of my friends while visiting me one day suggested a "friends gathering" at the shop and with Dave's okay we did it and it was a blast. So much fun we decided to do it for Christmas (November 18, 10-3) BUT one day, a few hours and ~ and ~ asking God

 

~ LET US BE SIMPLE ~ 

 

What I do realize is that I have become a home body. When I was asked to rest before my blood transfusions I thought it would be hard. It was a little hard but I didn't hate it.  I read A TON and now TOGETHER WE dream of our future with many more blessings to put in bigger baskets yet!  

                                                                      SO HOLD ON!

with humble gratitude, love to you all, Audrey Ann



 











She's either killing me or keeping me young!

I started this post in my mind right after my brother's anniversary party and
last summer and
right after my birthday and finally here it is. Thank you for all your birthday wishes.

At my brother's party someone said "boy Dave you are so busy!"  "We see it on Facebook."
My reply was Yes, Audrey is either trying to kill me or she's making me young.
Really I love to joke and she has endless energy which is catchy and keeps me young.

We have always been open sharing our lives.  Many times we say, "this would make a cool blog post" and go on our way. Now we love to share on Instagram. We love to share and blog...we never have time.  Maybe now we will.

So what do you want to do when you retire?
After I retired from the steel mill I taught welding in steel mills, cut grass at a local cemetery, owned an antique business, while moving a house to our property and taking care of 20 acres.

One day before an open house I overheard my bride say to her friend Bobbette
"I looked out the window and David was taking all the sheep fence down and I cried"
The sheep fence was bad and needed to be taken down.  But I didn't know. She didn't tell me.

She never told me that...secretly...she wanted sheep again. She married "FARMER DAVE"  but she was a real shepherdess.  We had about 50 head at one time. Two pastures, two breeds, two rams in the right places, she delivered the babies in difficult births, she bottle fed the lambs if needed, nursed sick ones back to health, helped with docking, sold the meat, clean and carded the wool, dyed the wool, took felting lessons at a local college. Of course she misses it. I tried shearing them once but we won't go there. It was her passion. And mine. I have always loved having animals. 

I know we cannot add another thing to our plate.  Something has to give...another grandson is being born...corgi's seem to arrive here quite often...we rent out our 1824 farmhouse, photographers rent from us, there are workshops here at the farm and now my bride has been under the weather. The doctor scared us.  He said she has to rest. Rest is not in her vocabulary. Something has to give.  I say "we" but I won't hear of a Christmas open house.  You can not rest and have an open house hearing the words of the doctor in your ear "this is real."  And I am tired.

This is a bump in the road for her.  Our Fall Gathering at the shop will be our last big event for a while. We don't know how long. We might be open every day in a year or two...we might close the shop...we don't know.  We might have a friend's gathering again. We might have sheep shearing days again.  She might have a Dye and Pie Day sharing her love of dyeing wool and making pies. We will continue with workshops, making candles and renting out our farmhouse. That's what we do know.

What is your dream when you retire? We had to have this hard discussion.  Hard because it's hard sometimes to change things in your life. Change can be for the better but can be hard. We aren't 20 or 40 years old any more. WE want to see our children and grandchildren more. WE want to have animals again. WE want to travel to more fairs, sheep and wool, tractor and antique shows.  WE want to share our passions that have melted together through the years.

And what we do know is that we are very blessed to do what we want to do.  God is good.
  Thank you for always supporting us in so many ways.    
                                                                                                 farmer Dave