Christmas Letter 2025

2025 was a crazy, busy, often terrible, but overall wonderful year.

Sunshine and I started out the year with his very first ride! During which, all five minutes of, he was perfect. Then the weather turned miserable and he got a very long break.

The cold held most of the month. The children spent that time building big muscles as they performed their winter duty of breaking ice. And there was a lot of ice to break. They got very good at it and a bit grouchy as the ice they had to break got thicker and thicker.

Once the cold snap finally broke Gus got busy and built himself a go cart. Not one with a motor, but one that rolled nicely down hills. He used whatever materials he could find laying around the junk pile. Then not wanting his creative spell to be broken, he designed the sledding contraption. A big plastic culvert got rolled up on blocks, then an old mattress spring, another junk pile find was placed under the end of the tube. It’s a wonder no one has broken any arms playing on these wonderful toys.

They save the arm breaking for more traditional pastimes.

To celebrate Gus’ birthday in Feburary, Elly and Gus went sledding with their big cousin Cade. After sledding, as they were headed home the two bigger kids dog piled on Gus. His arm got caught underneath. The doctor confirmed it was a buckle fracture. No separation of the bone. Instead it was compressed and slid sideways while still together. Terribly painful but only requiring a splint, not a full cast.

To celebrate his birthday in a hopefully more fun way, the kids and I met their grandparents in Omaha for a quick weekend visit and trip to the Omaha zoo.

In March Larel’s eSports team got to compete remotely, always far better than having to drive! Cousin Cade and a couple other kids fought their way to a third place finish in Fortnite.

Just before calving started in the end of the month my horse Rusty and I made a Guinness World Record attempt. We tried for the most tricks by a horse in 3 minutes. With all the reputable friends we could find watching we managed to do 33 tricks in right at three minutes. It looked good but we would have to wait for the officials to decide. Waiting is difficult!

Calving went without any blizzards or major hiccups. Both of Elly’s cows managed to calve in the same day giving her a one day calving window. Both children got to help me with pulling calves this year. Gus wasn’t so fond of it. Elly got to be a pro. She would glove up and have everything ready to go as soon as we had the cow in the chute. It was much easier with the pro along to help.

Elly took a break from her calving duties in early April for her first middle level dance. Her cousin Ava came over and helped her get her hair done and clothes chosen. She looked gorgeous and had a great time dancing with all her friends.

With the weather getting a bit warmer we made the evening check of the cattle into a family activity. We would all bundle up and grab our lights to walk out in the dark and cold to check the cows. The kids wrestled and played and we all tried to scare the others in the dark. The cows got checked. Making it a family affair made it all more fun if not more efficient.

May saw Larel back in the field discing, getting them ready for corn planting. The kids and I started making the rounds of fence lines getting ready to turn cattle out to pasture.

News came from Guinness about Rusty’s record attempt much quicker than it did for Ghost. He had done it! Rusty earned the title of most tricks by a horse in 3 minutes at 33 tricks!

We worked calves towards the end of the month. The kids are getting big enough to be good help there too. The neighbor kids came over and they made a great branding team. While we were working the girl who had my old horse Jerry came by to bring her back to me! I had given her Jerry because I was busy having and raising babies. Now that she was busy with little ones of her own she was letting me have Jerry back. At just the perfect time for us too.

Elly has been watching gardening shows with her father and wanted to put in a flower garden of her own this year. In between getting corn planted, Larel worked a patch of ground for her as he got the rest of his garden ready. We all hurried and got seeds planted, following the garden design she carefully made up. We got the planting done just before they headed off to spend a couple weeks with their grandparents.

While the kids enjoyed their adventures in Illinois Larel finished planting his always gorgeous garden. I put the finishing touches on my second book then hit the publish button. This was when I discovered that in the middle of summer with children home, the garden going full swing, and all the summer work going on is a bad time to publish a book. Despite my lack of attention it managed to make number one new release in whichever horse category.

Once the children got home from their adventures around the big city they dove full on into summer fun. They swam, feasted on fresh garden vegetables, fixed tanks, checked cows, we even made the local parades, carnivals, and festivals. Unfortunately Larel was too busy taking care of the farm to make almost any family get togethers. We missed him! But there was work to be done.

School starts way too early in August. But, with enough horses for all of us now not only could we all go for rides together but it was much easier to pick kids up from the bus on horses. After the first time when I got to very carefully carry Elly’s backpack with her school computer in it hooked over my saddlehorn I learned to let them know I would be picking them up horseback and to leave breakable things like computers at school.

After working well all summer the pivots decided they had had enough and began to break down constantly. The children work best (work hardest that is, without being distracted constantly) when they are separate. So Elly was chosen as pivot repair assistant while Gus got to go help me during those times. She became quite skilled at helping remove tires and replacing pivot parts. She’s not going to grow up as one of those girls who don’t know how to do the work around the place!

The whole family pitched in again when it came to getting the wheat planted. It took all of us to get the machinery over to the wheat fields. I drove the persnickety old stick shift seed truck. Larel brought the tractor and drill. The kids followed behind with the pickup so we’d have a ride home. Gus is great help with all things that need driven, tractor or pickup. He became a pro at filling the planter and would like to be allowed to drive the tractor. He’ll have to wait a little longer for that.

As soon as the wheat was planted and coming up nicely there was a downpour just over the wheat fields. Neighbors reported over three inches of rain in a very short period. The water came down so hard it washed over the road. It also washed out large parts of the otherwise nice wheat crop. After being so dry last year now it was washing out. It always has to be something.

In the end of September I caught news of a trick training clinic coming up near by. It is so seldom that I get a chance to attend horse events in my own area of training that I immediately jumped at the chance. Elly and a friend came along to play. Elly brought Rusty and I got to play with Sunshine. It was great fun and we learned quite a bit even if the training style was different from our usual. Both horses have new bow styles added to their repertoire. After being the one teaching others for so long it was great fun to be the student again.

The day after the trick training clinic my dad came to stay with us. He spent the month of October remodeling a cabin we have had sitting in our backyard for years now. The kids have been complaining about needing rooms of their own. Our house is tiny and doesn’t belong to us. There was no where inside to move them to and no adding on. So we kicked them out. With dad’s help the cute but bare cabin became a cozy little cottage just the perfect size for a room. Both children got to learn about wiring and carpentry as we worked along side him to get the job finished. Snug, warm, and now darling he made it just perfect.

So both children moved out to share a different room. Oh well. Maybe one will move back in some day.

We had an impromptu Halloween party and sleepover to break the cabin in. Friends came over to ride horses all afternoon. Then we carved pumpkins and toasted hot dogs over a campfire. It was the perfect housewarming party for the kids’ new cabin.

For Halloween the kids came home informing us of their plans for the night. Guess they’re getting all grown up. Gus had group costumes planned with his friends. Elly is too cool to dress up so she went as a teenager. But she went right along with them and happily hasn’t decided to give up trick or treating yet.

Larel had to take his eSports team to the east side of the state again for championships in November. They brought home a 4th in Super Smash Bros.

In between that and work he made up a gardening game for his Commodore computer. He and the kids sat down and made the graphics for it. It’s still a work in progress but I enjoyed playing it and it’s nice to see them having so much fun while they learn a little about coding.

With some nice weather I managed to get a few rides in on Sunshine. He was doing so well that Elly even got to get on him. It’s fun to see a horse with so little riding safe enough for a kid to hop on.

We brought cows home in the beginning of December. They were ready to go! With Ghost home I’ve been playing with her, working on teaching her to drive.

Elly had another school dance, Christmas themed. Once again cousin Ava came over to help her get ready. She looked lovely and had lots of fun.

Gus has not been having a fun December. He got his nose bit by a neighbors dog then the very next week had to go in and have four teeth pulled. Baby teeth that weren’t coming out properly. They still hurt to have pulled! Then the next week he caught a door handle to the face. Luckily it only resulted in a fat bloody lip, no more teeth knocked out. But he is having a tough month!

Despite Gus’ misfortunes it has been a pretty good year. We will try to keep him as free of injuries as we can next year and are looking forward to seeing what the future has to bring.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!