2024- Year in Review!

Homesteading- 
This year marked the start of my putting old knowledge to use and new knowledge to the test. Originally I started fiddling with homemade salves as a way to remedy my husband’s chronic nerve pain that we’ve been dealing with with high powered medications. I was hoping with a little knowledge and learning I could make him a topical salve that would ease his pain- and my dandelion stuff did the trick! That led to making numerous balms/salves/tinctures for common ailments and hubby specific ones- like Daisy Fleabane/Mullein tea to control his asthma and expel lung ailments like flu and bronchitis. I also made a crazy good couple of tinctures for immune boosting (one with elderberry and one with rose hips and orange peels) as well as a straight Fleabane one for those lung crud days Hubby gets now and then.

We are even planning out a large medicinal herbs garden for next spring- herbs for us and herbs for our friends and families. I even hope to maybe start making soaps and lotions next year! And also an heirloom veggie patch as well to bulk up our already extensive canning supply.
 I also started very successfully doing water propagations of plants- mostly Pothos vines and Monsteras, and now have even more house plants than ever before! But just think of all that fresh oxygen! Plus keeping them all clean and healthy has become a bit of a anxiety reducer.

Nature Photography- I’ve honestly photographed more nature this year than humans, which is okay and not okay- probably just a swing of time and I’ll be loaded again with human photography. I do have a handful of concepts and model at the ready for when we have a lovely blanket of snow. Until that happens- I’m completely okay with photographing Mother Nature and all her splendor. Taking the time and slow moments to photograph the small moments of beauty that get passed by in the great rush of life's daily adventures.
People Portraits- Like I hinted at- human photography was severely lacking this year. But when I did get to make portraiture magic- I certainly did, including my Creepshow 2024 tradition. And apparently learning and getting pretty darned good at photographing Mars and her magical Fire Dancing.

Pets- This year, Frank celebrated his official one year birthday. Watching him grow and change into and adult cat has been fun- almost as much fun as watching his relationship with Lola mature. This summer we had a health scare to deal with from Lola- for a brief time it seemed like hard decisions were to be made. But it turned out to just be a routine UTI that medication remedied after expensive ultrasounds and x-rays cleared her of the tumor concern the vets had.
We also unfortunately had to watch the decline of Skjit’s health to the point where the extremely heart wrenching choice was to be made to ease her over the rainbow bridge after being my faithful Calico shadow for 18 years. I’m still not healed from that choice two days before my birthday in October, but each day it hurts a little less. I rescued her from a cardboard box left in a blizzard outside of a pet shop, no bigger than a soda can. She never developed into a large, bulky beast like Frank and Miss Meow both are- rather staying on the very thin and fragile side of shapes. She had her own personality right up to the end of her days. Cuddling on her terms and with whom she chose. But in the end, she held onto my arm and peacefully fell asleep, crossing the rainbow bridge where so many of her animal siblings were waiting for her.
In August, Miss Meow appeared in our lives- begging for food and cuddling late one evening. I hurriedly made her beds in the garage, a litter pan, and fresh food and water. Every day I would spend hours out in the garage cuddling and loving on her, trying to figure out if she was indeed pregnant, curing her of fleas and tapeworms. By early September, she decided us humans were pretty darned cool and strolled right into the house. She's developed such an amazing personality and has become the cuddle monster we’ve always wanted in a cat- Skijit was never really a cuddler, and Frank certainly would rather bite, fight, and make you bleed rather than cuddle. She’s helped me heal a lot since the loss of sweet Skijit.

Places- 
Hubby and I took only two distant trips from home- a 24 hour backroads adventure to Frankfort, MI and back home- the only rule- no highways traveled. Of course one of my photo buddies and Lola tagged along! And an afternoon adventure to Detroit. Other than that- most of my places visited were local haunts- Holland for the sunsets and Tulip Time. Wandering behind closed doors and finding neat places in Grand Rapids. And doing a crash course in studying on how to photograph flying aircraft for a day trip to Muskegon for the airshow. Didn’t think I had a snowball's chance in hell of learning everything I needed to learn before taking on that adventure- but I wanted to make sure I got good images from hubby since he so deeply loves those warbirds. I even dipped into the massive pool of knowledge my Canadian friend has to learn everything I could in the week before going.

Maybe there will be more travel next year… Maybe there won’t be… Who knows. But I sure do have fun shooting while I take adventures- local or otherwise.

Solar Storms-  This year our sun is at solar maximum- a super fancy science term for long evenings outside with my camera catching the gorgeous wonders of the night sky. In the beginning of 2024- I would have never imagined I would have gotten such a crash course in astrophotography. It interested me, yes, but seemed out of my reach as far as the learning curve necessary and my incredible lack of attention span to absorb all the numbers and figures- but again, I’ve surprised myself yet again this year. Honestly the amount of time spent shivering and staring up into the heavens this summer has given me tons of practice. According to the science type peoples- we still have almost a solid year of these amazing light shows ahead of us!!

There are no lofty goals or lists of things I want to shoot this coming year. As it happens will be how it goes. I'm trying ti change small things in my life as a way to manage my anxiety issues- and the pressure of an accomplishment or goal list will feed the beast I'm trying to tame. So this year- we'll just have to see what happens and when :) See you in 2025!!