2010 went by in the blink of an eye, or so it seems. Time passes faster every year that I'm alive. I feel like I was a kid for a hundred years, a teenager for fifty, and a young adult for only a few months. I guess I was a bored kid.
Despite its speediness, 2010 holds many memories, both good and bad. This year, I said good-bye to two of our pack members, Malakai the cat and Logan the ferret.
Losing Logan was particularly sad. I've experienced plenty of pet deaths, just because I've had plenty of pets. Losing family dogs (Lady, Barkley) and cats (Chessie, Lucky, Tiny, Mr. Big) was always tough, but they were primarily my mother's pets. I didn't have a huge attachment to them, and they didn't pay too much attention to me (I was an obnoxious kid). I've owned a guinea pig, lizards, fish, and (tons of) hamsters, but their life expectancies were short. Though I cared about each one immensely, they were but little creatures with little lives.
The ferrets, on the other hand, were the first high-maintenance, long-lasting pets that I owned. You get pretty close to an animal you care for every day for five or more years. Logan had an especially distressing end (
Adrenal Disease), and a 2 AM euthanasia wasn't how I thought I'd say my first real good-bye. I don't know how I'll manage losing my other pets. I don't even want to think about it.
Onto more cheerful memories! In January of 2010, I upgraded to a more expensive DSLR. I took photos with it all year long. I love capturing so many memories. I also bought a waterproof point-and-shoot later in the year, to capture what the DSLR could not.
This past summer, I moved out of my parents' two-family house, and into a house about thirty minutes away. I don't know how long I'll be here, as I pine for a less urban area, but it's been a learning experience thus far. Mostly, I've learned that I am a bargain-hunting machine that managed to furnish most of our place from Craigslist finds.
This year, I've met so many new people and have made lots of new friends -- mostly thanks to Dexter. I took my first dog-powered ride through the Pine Barrens. I've spoken to dozens of mushers and learned so much about dog sledding. I bought my first dog cart, and I'm looking into my first sled.
2011 holds a lot of big plans and expectations. I'm planning my first vegetable garden for the spring, and looking into preserving as much food as I can for the colder months. It's a small step towards homesteading and being more self-sufficient, but you've got to start somewhere. Backyard chickens and a bee hive will have to wait until I've got more land and the appropriate livestock laws.
I'll be adding dog number two in 2011, one way or another. I've got my sights set on a planned breeding for this spring (a Seppala racing line mixed with a champion show line). My modest little sled team may not win the gold, but they'll provide enough dog-power to keep me entertained. And who knows, if I luck out and finagle a way into the mini-farm of my dreams, maybe I'll have the resources to add two or three more dogs.
I'll end with my "resolutions", as it seems pretty appropriate to mention them.
- Buy less, recycle and reuse more.
- Replace store-bought groceries with home-grown and home-made food as much as possible.
- Travel. Before I tie myself down to a farm that I'll be afraid to leave.
- Exercise. Duh.
- Read. I got a Kindle for Christmas -- I have no excuse not to use it.
- Create. Learn to knit and crochet. Grab a sewing machine and reconstruct thrift store clothes. Draw! Paint! There's so much left to learn.
So ends another year. Thanks for reading. If you're a friend of mine, thanks for being one. If you're a stranger, why not
drop me an e-mail and change that? Seriously. If 2010 has taught me anything, it's the importance of learning from others. So in the spirit of
Jagazine (rest in peace), dare to share. Let's do a blog link exchange and make an ever-expanding network of ... well, whatever we want. The sky is the limit.
