Happy Yule, Y’all

Normally I would try to find some clever or eloquent something to say. Normally I would be full of glowing praise for the awesome people in my life. Normally I can stand to type more than a few sentences at a time.

As it is, insert clever and/or eloquent thing here.

Y’all are awesome, you know who you are. (Here’s a hint: the list starts with the folks who came out to the Farm last weekend for a feast of roast goat and many rounds of a mead horn around the fire.)

The grove is decorated. Gods and ancestors have been hailed. Food has been shared. The chickens are still- somehow, despite the short days- laying eggs. The goats are fed and happy. The baby goats are a special kind of adorable. (I’ve decided that of the four, the big doeling is definitely going into breeding, the big buckling is definitely being whethered and trained to pack and pull, the little buckling is freezer bound… but I’m not sure what to do with the little blind doeling. Time will tell.) Even the parrot is being cute. (CUTE! she says, over and over and over and over and…)

I finally managed to get a pile of wood split. Thanks to the one of the folks who decided that since he had never split wood in his life, now was a good time to learn, and help someone out in the process. That, for the record, is how you Heathen.

I’ve about maxed out my hands at this point, so I’ll tell you about my name change later. After splitting some of that wood myself, wrestling with a damnably obnoxious buck goat, fixing a garden fence, and today stripping a (frozen from last fall) goat hide to attempt tanning for the first time… my hands are swollen and achy and done.

Happy Yule. Mine has been excellent. It is my sincere wish that by being busy with all of the things and people I actually care about during this season, the coming year will see great progress toward a life from which I no longer require regular and extended vacations.

Hail the Gods.

Hail the folk.

Hail all y’all.