Exciting things are happening.

I'll be keeping it fairly short for now, but I did want to send a short update about things on our horizen. I had farm-school this week-presenters were on marketing & time management put on by a western minnesota free range pork producer and also an organic vegetable farmer from our in Hutchinson. Great presenters, as usual, with lots of good ideas and candor. I also got great news from the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) that I qualified for a partial scholorship to the Midwest Organic Farming Conference in late Feb. I'm thrilled to go and see some more awesome presentations, some by educator/activist/farmers that I have already met thru school and lots of new ones. I already bought most of my initial purchase of seeds for the garden and will be putting together some variety of seed/plant starting operations that might include a small hoophouse(plastic greenhouse) so I can get a jumpstart this year instead of having to wait for it to warm up. If we get a similar spring as last year, I want to be prepared. That's one thing they are being very clear about in school-MOTHER NATURE BATS LAST. So make lots of allowances for time, efforts, and budget increases so we're not blindsided by the unexpected. It's better to purposefully control growth than to grow too big too fast and not have the experience and budget to back it up and that's hard for me because it's something I'm really excited about and I want to rush ahead. I'm grateful to have passions in life, though.

And tonight I am hosting our first West Side Crafters Night at my house. It should be a lot of fun and we have about 6 people coming tonight doing various crafts. It will move around with different hosts and will be set on the 3rd Thursday of every month. It's something some friends and I have been talking about some a while now and I'm glad we actually started it.

Leo is doing really well and is excited for his cousins to come today. Eric's brother, Matt, and wife, Brigid and kids: Maria, Sam & baby Elijah are flying in from Seattle today. They are only staying at our house for the afternoon and then we will see them again later in their trip, but Leo is excited to see his cousins. (I hope he gets a nap in today before they come :) ) He has been talking about wanting a skateboard this spring and other activities we do in the summer. I think he is at the age where he understands we don't do the same thing in the winter as we do in the summer, but I think he misses farming, camping, and just being outside in the yard. We are hoping to get some chicks to keep in a small coop outside this spring, so I bet that will be really fun for him. I think it will be fun for him to learn about collecting eggs and feeding the chickens, ect.

Eric is enjoying his new sports a lot. We took an indoor rock climbing class last week and he is having fun with that. Also, he has gone 3 times now with a friend and is learning to Kite-Ski. They ski on Lake Woconia and Eric is doing well with learning how to handle his kit and manage that and skis and the same time.

That's it for now. We wish you all well.