d1 Christmas letter

It is that time of year were I am excited to go to the mail box and receive Christmas cards from friends near and far. I look forward to seeing pictures from old friends who have a bigger waist line and a receding hair line, and of course their beautiful athletic successful kids. I really appreciate the Christmas cards and letters that are a single spaced one page letter that explains their wonderful year. This year I would like to try to write one of those letters describing mine and Janelle's experience on the d1.   I thought I would try it on my blog before I send it out to all my friends far and beyond: please let me know what you think before I send…

     Dear Friends,

                        As 2016 comes to an end, Janelle and I have been reflecting on the years past, and we have been really appreciative of our good fortune, family, friends and health.  

Janelle had neck surgery last year and fortunately everything went well. But during the surgery, her vocal cords were damaged. Janelle’s voice all of sudden turned into the sound of a Minnie Mouse’s voice.  It was funny at first, but it eventually turned out to be very annoying, especially when we were sorting cattle.  As she tried to yell at me to cut off the black baldy heifer, her tone changed from a cute Minnie Mouse voice into a poltergeist devil voice. Janelle’s vocal cords eventually recovered and it has been refreshing to hear her voice yell at me as I let that black baldy heifer through the gate.

     Last year we finally had a real winter.  After two years of drought, the snow fell and covered up the little feed we had. On New Year’s Day last year, I was ready to call the Sheriff’s department to report that someone had replaced our cows with skinny weak cows, but the d1 left rib brand showed up well on those skinny ribs. We quickly started feeding and we only lost a couple of cows.  As you know, green grass grows underneath that winter snow, and we had one of our best growing seasons ever on our summer pastures.  We had some outstanding looking calves this fall, some of the best we have ever seen. Obviously, the cattle market did not care how good our calves looked this year.  As I opened that envelope from the auction yard that contained our check of hard work, I anticipated another year of good fortune.  I reluctantly[d1]  revealed the amount of the check to Janelle, and she said: “what the f___! How the hell are we going to pay our loans?” As always, I quickly came up with a solution to our problems. I have several old empty water troughs filled with empty beer cans that should make a large redemption. If I win both of my fantasy football leagues with the combination of selling our mistletoe from our infected oak trees, we should be able to make our loan payment.  If not, I will send a link to our Go Fund me web page.

We are currently involved in a new kitchen remodel project. This fall we had a busted hot water pipe underneath the house that we did not know about for a month. A word of advice to all home owners; if you notice a lot of condensation on the inside of the windows, a noisy hot water heater, a bubble on the kitchen floor and a weak well you might have a burst hot water pipe underneath your house. Call me Mr. Obvious, but we found the leak and my plumber friend Nick fixed the pipe.  Fortunately Farmers Insurance knows a thing or two because they have seen a thing or two.

Here on the d1 we always seem to have challenges, so we own the challenges, fix the problem and move on to enjoy the great things that happen every day. We hope you and your family have a great Christmas and happy New Year. Please keep in touch and we always have a warm fire at our house and a good cocktail, even though you might need to sit on a box that reads kitchen supplies.

Merry Christmas, Don & Janelle

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