Dear Family and
Friends,
We
hope your Christmas was wonderful, full of family and fun. We did have good
intentions to send this before Christmas, but it seems that one small mistake
on a zip code can actually send ones Christmas cards to Michigan, thus causing
a major delay in their delivery. So instead we want to wish you a Happy New
Year from the ‘Baldry Farm’.
I
guess I can officially call it a farm due to the fact that many animals do live
here and Ryan (the farmer) seems to spend a lot of time with these animals. So here is an update from the adventures
on the ‘Baldry Farm’. Since there were no new children added to our family this
year we thought we’d better increase the animal numbers instead. I can’t say
they all faired well but they did bring hours of enjoyment to our family. Some
highlights included a mama pig, chasing squealing piglets, bottle feeding lambs,
riding the sheep, being chased by the ram (he loves to head butt us), playing
with rabbit’s that now run wild and spending hours playing with kittens. Despite their cuteness these furballs
started an epidemic of ringworm in our kids and everyone else who came in
contact with them. (I guess you probably shouldn’t let your children bring stray
kittens home).
Apart
from these new additions we also survived our first calving season. From this
adventure we learned three things: #1 Ryan does love taking care of the cows but
he has lots to learn. #2 It was a great lesson for our children about how
nature works, their eyes were definitely opened and #3 I discovered that I am usually
the person who is home when these cows give birth. (I did freak out when the
first one was born, but quickly discovered they mostly do it on their own.)
We
planted an enormous garden this spring. It was a family event and everyone
helped. I am not sure everyone enjoyed the work but I loved it. I had a hard
time leaving the garden to take care of my house and family (the garden seemed
easier).
Our
five children are growing like weed’s: Caroline is 10 and she had her appendix
out this year. She loves anything
creative and her highlight of the year was going to the musical “Wicked”. Reuben
is 8 and he was baptized this year with his two Steed cousins. He is an active
boy and loves everything about farm life. He is currently begging to have
chickens (maybe next year). Ava is 6 and she broke her collarbone this summer
when a dog pulled her to the ground. She started grade one this year and she
loves reading. Margaret is 4 and she is our “girly” girl. She loves to play
pretend and has an obsession with treats. As for Rose she is our very active
two-year old. She loves to color on herself, destroy things and recently poured
a gallon of milk on the floor, apart from that she is a real sweetie. Ryan
broke his collarbone while skiing this year and had surgery on it. Of course it
happened right before calving season, but it didn’t seem to slow him down for
long. Thankfully he is still teaching school, and he is enjoying coaching the
junior boys basketball team this year. As for me, I am just trying to keep my
head above water. This past summer
I took a Kodaly music course down at BYU for two weeks (yes it was wonderful). So I am trying to teach a little bit of
music and I continue to try to find time to play the cello.
We
are enjoying our adventures, the good and the bad, and we look forward to what
awaits us this year.
Love,
THE BALDRY’S
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