A New Year's Review
As the holiday season comes to a close,
I find myself in a state of
wonderment....
Not only has Santa Claus come and gone,
so have the 12 months in 2018 passed me by!
Where did the year go?
Here's my proof that
time flies when you're having fun...
Our first litter of grandchildren puppies arrived
last December 19th...
what a joy it was to watch nine little puppies
sleep, eat, poop and play!
that seven weeks went waaaayyyy too fast!
Handing them over to new parents was pretty tough on me.
Finding good families was my only solace.
We are still getting pictures of our puppies
in their happy homes.
This was part of the adoption contract, you see!
Grandma wants pictures!!
the puppies eventually got big enough
to get outside and play,
and boy did they love to play
in the snow!
 |
| February 2018 |
Nine pups and mom and dad
all day in and out of the house
Mr. Sall stayed home with them all day long.
Sall Farm doesn't have a fenced in backyard,
so we were on constant look out
counting...
1,2,3
4,5,6
7, 8, 9!
There was always one or two wanderers.
 |
| March 2018 |
By spring we were back to normal and
planning the next pickle crop!
The skies were beautiful as usual,
filled with thousands of ducks, geese,
and cranes.
Spring time was here....
not quite,
spring calves were coming,
but not spring temperatures!
A late snow fall filled our yard up
with drifts of snow. Our dogs were
the only ones not complaining about
snow in April...
The spring trees arrived before spring-like weather!
With snow and mud on the ground, the high school
kids came to help me unload the semi load of tree stock
for Jerauld Conservation District.
Eventually the weather warmed up
and a Tree Crew was reborn!
Jerauld Conservation District tree crew
was hard at it for 4 weeks of hot and dry weather!
One thing is for sure about Mother Nature...
and that is,she's very unpredictable
(especially in South Dakota)
the weather went from cold and snowy to
hot and dry!
Here on Sall Farm
We are lucky to have water hoses to water our garden,
unfortunately farmers don't run hoses out to water
the tree belts that we plant for them.
So all you can do is pray for rain
or hope that the farmer will
take the effort to visit his trees with a
truckload of water!
Eventually, the rains came for some.
Rainfalls were spotty, but at least the air
got cooler and brought some relief...
sadly we thought about widespread wildfires
in Colorado and California, as our
South Dakota sunsets were
affected by the traveling smoke!
In June Mr. Sall was busy building us a deck!
Finished in time to spend the whole summer from this
great spot that looks over the back yard and out to the garden.
Summer nights by the fire-pit and being
entertained by the grand-kids.
It doesn't get any better!
Although the trip to Colorado to see our
nephew get married was right up there!
With our girls at the farm and the trip to Colorado,
June was possibly the funnest month thus far!
It was back to tending gardens, mowing, watering,
and promoting trees and conservation in July...
 |
| Shakespeare Garden |
I did not take time to photograph my own flowers
and took very few in our vegetable garden!
Busy,Busy,Busy!
Our pickle harvest started in July.
That meant don't stop canning until September!
Pickles,
Garlic,
Onions,
Peppers,
Dill,
Tomatoes, Tomatoes, and more Tomatoes...
Salsa and Hung Hot
until the cows came home...
I didn't get the salsa smell out of my kitchen
when it was time to get our newest venture
off to the presses!
Sall Farm is the proud owner of this trademarked
vintage License Plate Topper!
We are now selling them on our new website
With the 100th Anniversary Pheasant Hunt
just around the corner,
we got the commemorative Topper
listed in the "South Dakota Magazine"
Gift Guide Edition.
August was the month of new additions...
we added the license plate topper to
our list of business ventures
and Jazz added 10 new puppies to the family!
Yep, you read that right...10 pups again!!
Our August and September suddenly
had 10 whole new meanings
as we were grandma and grandpa all over again!
It was not in the plan, but we made it all work out
and we did love every minute of it!!!
Right up until my little puppy video went
viral on instagram and I started getting
calls and messages from all over the world!!
Yikes!
Here they are, all ten pups where they did not sleep all night!!
They snuggled up with their Momma every night
inside our house where we dutifully checked on them
like babies every 2 hours!!
And so the little golden retrievers were all
delivered to their new homes from North Dakota to Oklahoma
and it was already time to start Pheasant Hunting!
October was here and I grabbed my gear!
Your faithful field photographer spent every weekend
with Pheasant hunters from North Carolina to Texas.
Thousands of photos were taken and fall was in the air...
what was I saying about time flying by??
Dogs, People, Pheasants, and time...
check out more photos from this year's
Pheasant Hunting Season
at
I treasure the time I get to spend in the fields with
so many interesting folks that
love the outdoors as much as I do!
speaking of treasures...
these are my most valuable of treasures,
my 4 grand kids and my better half!
We got to enjoy Thanksgiving with all of them.
Sunny Oklahoma was the place to be for great food,
and loving family time!
We got home to cooler temperatures
and skies getting hazy with moisture in the air...
Again Mother Nature was up to no good and
gave us some blustery weather before it
turned back to clear and beautiful.
I was able to do two more hunts before the
snow and icy rains came to mess up our December!
Luckily we had good traveling weather to spend
Christmas in Kansas City...
Union Station was all decked out and festive,
and a theater show of "Mary Poppins"
was just what the Dr. ordered for this Grandma Sall!
and now you know why
I don't have time to blog anymore!
New Year's Resolution #1: To blog at least once a month!!
Happy New Year!
Lisa
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