#beengonetoolong

Well, it certainly has been awhile since I checked in with a post other than photos to let everyone know what has been going on in our lives!  Amazing, how fast time goes by, as I always say the days are long and the months are short.  I arrived home about two weeks early from my South Pacific adventure, getting into Boston, MA, just one day shy of Thanksgiving.  

Jay and I raise turkeys in the summer, specifically to enjoy at Thanksgiving, and in all honesty, I didn’t want to miss out on eating our farm raised turkey.  That is only half of the reason, though, once I arrived in Sydney, Australia, it just felt like it was time to go home, and so I did.  I did not tell anyone that I was coming home and needless to say, it was the big surprise and shock that I was hoping for, and took Jay completely off guard.  He was over the moon with happiness to have me back home.

December passed very quickly with the usual preparations for Christmas, I spent a week at our cabin in NH, followed by a small road trip to North Carolina to visit my brother and sister-in-law for the Christmas Holiday.  We returned before the New Year to spend New Year’s Eve at our cabin, and enjoy the fresh ice that had arrived for the season.

Shortly after New Years, I started to get the travel bug again, and although I traveled many places, I realized that I had never actually been to London.  I have what one would describe as an obsession with the history of the English monarchy, so I thought why not make a trip across the pond to visit all the sites that have always read about and dreamed about seeing one day.

I spent 4 days in London, and randomly decided to visit Prague, which is now my favorite city on the planet, so far.  I absolutely fell head over heels in love with the architecture, people, and genuine eastern European culture.  I took the train from Prague to Berlin, I did however pause for a moment and considered heading east to Budapest instead of Berlin, however, with only a few days remaining in my short 10 day English holiday, I thought it best to continue west.  Berlin was interesting, another place that I had always dreamed of visiting.  I was disappointed in the militaristic feel of the architecture, very cold and uninviting, however the food was delicious!

I had only had 10 days for a trip, as I had been anxiously awaiting the NH NOFA Winter Conference, I was going to finally see, in person, a role model that I have looked to for sustainable farming practices.  Joel Salatin was scheduled to be the key note speaker and I wasn’t going to miss it.  We were not disappointed, a great day had by all, we met so many interesting people who share the passion for growing, selling, and eating local.

We joined the MWV Ice Fest 2017 the first weekend of February with the Meetup Mountaineers, it was great to see everyone and to have such great ice conditions this season.  We climbed hard the whole the weekend, with the bruises to prove it, only took one fall about 10 feet, however the column that got in my way on the swing down caused most of the problem.