1) I am thankful that I didn't die "in nasty ways," to quote Monty Python. The year began with me having heart palpitations, and that led me right to the doctor. My blood sugar was dangerously high. 40 pounds lighter and much happier, I'm glad I listened to medical advice and got on a low-carb diet.
Second, it was a "year of the snake," which me dispatching four Copperheads dangerously close to me or our animals. A fifth one bit one of our livestock dogs right on her big nose! She endured and is as feisty as ever.
Then there was the trespasser, armed with a 9mm handgun jammed in his jeans and a flimsy story, wandering around our property. Thanks to a notice and then help from my neighbor Tim, we convinced him peacefully to leave and then called the sheriff. He's never come back (and I know his name and employer).
2) I am thankful that I helped restore a meadow for native birds. Nan has long dreamed of the field across from us going into wildlife management. I am thankful that I found a $450 seeder for $150 cash that makes the job a LOT easier.
My in-laws agreed to let me manage six acres of open space. The photos show the process of mowing, plowing, and seeding cover crops. We worked with our extension agent on a management plan that will reduce or eliminate invasive species, without spraying an ounce of herbicide.
In two years, it will be in wildflowers for quail and whippoorwill habitat. Though our bee hives had a difficult year, we now have ample forage for them: I sowed buckwheat in summer and rye-grass cover crop for winter. The weather was difficult: a spring rain so heavy I got my brother-in-law's big tractor stuck, and a fall drought so severe the rye took a LONG time to germinate. Thankfully, it did.
3) I am thankful that I found the best fishing since the 1980s for me, and I began hunting a bit more. This year I got serious about fishing, again, and I was able to locate a perfect spot (it requires a State Forest Use Permit). I won't tell anyone where it is. My kayak is getting a workout, and we enjoy dinners of panfish.
My neighbor Tim, a fellow hunter, has been out deer-stalking with me a few times. It's great to have a hunting buddy again after 30 years. We have not been a danger to deer, but eventually we'll fill the freezer with venison.
4) I am thankful that I found a farm helper, Quentin Harris, who has carpentry skills. We have worked on a barn roof, jacked up and reinforced a run-in that threatened to fall into a ravine, and cut up a grove of Virginia Pine that fall over a lot in wind because...they are Virginia Pines and that is what Virginia Pines like to do.
5) I am thankful that got an item off my bucket list, one that corresponded with some success as a writer. I have always wanted to drive a manual-transmission car, and a black 99 Mazda Miata nick-named "Marco" came by way in late Fall. I'm enjoying it and so far, the gears and clutch are holding together. I'm still at work on my 74 Buick Apollo, due for priming and painting in 2020, all by me.
I also began writing with a by-line about this and other matters for Hemmings Motor News. That's a great source of pride for me, as great as the anthology of essays I co-edited with my friend and colleague from VCU, Brian McTague.
To add whipped cream on an already high-carb sundae, Fran Wilde (shown here with Lamar Giles, for a reading of stories based on Edgar Allan Poe) visited my campus for a VCU / UR workshop on voice in writing.
I don't know where the road will take us, but may all your friends have hovercraft in 2020. It's about time!
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