Well here we are. We have made it to December 2020. It has probably been a year that most people can hardly wait for it to be over.
We had all gone into the New Year, last year, with big dreams of winter to be over early, a fine summer a head and travel to see our family. But it would not be so.
The winter dragged on and on with our share of -20C and colder. Finally somewhere around March things were starting to warm a bit. The spring was not too bad, but with the warmer days, it brought high water. With a wet summer in 2019 and then lots of snow over the winter. The water had a hard time leaving as the ground was still so saturated. We saw water where we had never seen it before. It was still in those places in October and November.
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| 2019/2020 winter hives |
But by mid March, life changed. Suddenly Covid made an appearance. People went crazy, buying toilet paper and face masks and selling them on the black market. People were caught in sting operations, reselling masks for over inflated costs. The shelves where once sat toilet paper were empty.
Then suddenly in April, bags of potting soil were no where to be found, as people who had never gardened before, were planting "Victory Gardens". Next, came a shortage of flour, sugar and yeast.
As summer approached, we all anticipated long warm days of endless sun. But that was not what Mother Nature had in store for us. Nope. It rained and rained, pretty well all summer. The poor bees could hardly get out because of the daily rains. It would stop raining long enough for us to cut lawns and tend our gardens. Then by the end of May the mosquitoes came out. They were horrible. We had lived up in the area since 1996 and had never seen them this bad....ever!!! Which led to a severe shortage of Mosquito coils and bug dope. Yup.....so all we could do was scratch and complain about the weather (and hoped that the locust weren't the next thing to arrive).
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| Our little container garden 2020 |
By mid summer, we were all getting use to our new way of life. And who knew at the ripe old age of 62 i would be adding new words to my vocabulary like, self isolating and safe distancing. Face masks were something you wore you when you went to town, along with hand sanitizer, gloves and soap. Everyone were making masks of different shapes and sizes, they had become an fashion accessory...who seen that coming?
Not sure how it happened, but our gardens seemed to do pretty good, considering the weather. Then it hit.....people were buying up all the canning jars and lids. They were no where to be found . Thankfully for the way some of us live.....we had lots of both on hand. By the end of fall, i had put up close to 400 jars of canning. Mostly cause i love canning and i love being able to go into my cold room and find a quick dinner.
By the end of October, thankfully most of the mosquitoes were gone and sugar and flour were back on the shelves. It was now time to get ready for winter. Time to clean up the yard and put away tools and remove batteries out of machinery.
James had no luck hunting this fall, so sadly we didn't get any extra meat to process. I kept telling him whenever he went out hunting...."if you don't get an animal we might have to become vegetarians this winter". But there was definitely a shortage of animals out there as well. But luckily we have enough meat to do us.
Even though this has been a very hard year, life did go on. I wasn't able to go visit my Mum this year, but i do talk to her everyday, I was thankful that my sister lives close to her and was able to see her on a regular basis. I am also thankful for the staff and caregivers where Mum lives, that they have managed to keep everyone safe and healthy. So, not everything was doom and gloom. James and I managed to get so many things done this year. I lost count of how many projects we did. I would make myself a list every week of things I wanted to do. It would of been so easy to sit and whine and have a pitty party. But nothing makes you feel better than when you can cross everything off your list. I was also thankful for how much food our little container garden gave us and for our friends that were in our "Bubble" (another new word)
And here we are in mid December, the snow has blanketed all the muck from the wet summer and fall and made everything looks so peaceful and beautiful. By looking around, no one would ever guess we have lived through the most trying year of, possibly our life time. Christmas will come, we will have a nice meal, with friends and family but it may be in a different way. I guess we just have to look at what is most important to us. For me, its good health, happiness and the love of our friends and family.
From our Hive to Yours, Merry Christmas.
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| James playing during -30C |
