Thursday Thirteen #325

I hope you all had a splendid holiday if you celebrate - maybe you're still celebrating?

I thought I'd look back at 2013 today. While it was not the best of years, it could have been worse. Here are some things that happened.

Part of the farm

1. Our farm received the Clean Water Farm Award for our county for 2013. This involved drilling a well, installing miles of fencing to fence off 9 acres of land, and installing water lines from the well to six different watering stations. It was a huge project but the cattle are now fenced out of the ponds and streams on the farm, and those waters will leave our lands pristine and unpolluted. 

My special Santa.

2. I won a lovely Santa Claus statue on December 7. I seldom win things so that made him a special Santa.

3. My journaling class in the spring went very well, and my creative writing class that I taught over the summer showed promise.

4. My writing with The Fincastle Herald, while not increasing as I had hoped, was steady up until I became too ill to work. Hopefully I can get back to that in the new year.

5. I had one article published in a magazine, Roanoke Business.

6. I read or listened to 30 books. This count is down from previous years, as I generally read about 50, or one a week. However, in my defense a lot of these books were nonfiction and/or very long. Also, I have discovered that I don't read as fast when I am on pain medication as I do when I am not. I've also had trouble with my vision.

7. I did not have to have a root canal and I changed dentists, something I should have done years ago. My new dentist is watching the sensitive tooth and she will try first a new filling and then a cap before going to the extreme of a root canal. My old dentist went straight for the root canal, which is why he is now my old dentist.

My walk-in shower has already
proved helpful during my
recent health concerns.

8. We redid the master bathroom. This was a major undertaking that took almost five weeks to complete. It involved tearing out the floor, the bathtub, and the old toilet, and installing new tile flooring, a walk-in shower, and a new toilet. We still need to paint the walls and ceiling.

9. I turned 50 years old. I still can't believe I an antique. Most likely, my life is more than half over.


10. My husband and I celebrated 30 years of marriage.


























11. My gallbladder went kaput, requiring removal, and consequently setting off a chain of health issues that apparently will follow me into 2014, unless a miracle happens in the next six days.

12. I had lunch with my old math teacher from high school, and then finished out the day with a visit with one of my favorite college professors, time spent with wonderful women that left me feeling fine and wonderful for several weeks.

13. We purchased a new bull to service the cows. I haven't been out to photograph him yet.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 325th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.