Well, since Jan 12th, I have been battling a very bad cold, and of course after about 4 days of having it, I managed to share it with Crystalie!

It is one of the worst bronchial colds, we both have had in years. We both ran temperatures, along with chills, and lots of coughing and serious hacking. Then of course it moves into your head and nothing tastes good, and the biggest challenge is drinking lots of fluids and getting lots of rest between coughing spells.

I did not miss ay work days, but I maybe should have stayed home more than I did. But after 11 days I still cough occasionally, and I have been sleeping better.

Other than that, we did get our Christmas decorations down last weekend, but it was an effort for both of us to get motivated, and get it all done. Needless to say we took lots of breaks and spread it out over last Saturday and Sunday.

Crystalie is still coughing also but she is fighting it and trying to work on small projects, and cleaning the house trying to get rid of this nasty bug!

All in all we both are starting to feel human again, and hopefully the next week will be more productive for us both.

We have had company since Christmas Day here at Coffee Lake Farm. Rebekah and her Mom and Dad came to visit us, and her dad, Grant had to take care of some business locally also.

But during the visit, Rebekah celebrated her 8th birthday, which happened to be her golden birthday on Jan. 8th. Above you see the beautiful cake her mother Ricki made, it was a 7 layer cake, with rainbow colors for each layer. We had some of the Stanley family here to celebrate her birthday with pizza and cake.

During the visit Rebekah has been learning to ice skate, her dad and mom have had her down on the ice almost daily for some refreshing exercise and fresh air. She has gotten pretty good, and enjoys it a lot, because in Washington, where they live there is no frozen lake to skate on.

We have experienced some weird weather here in the last week, we've had rain and warm temps, followed by a cold snap that put us below zero last night. Needless to say everything is icy and slippery. Along with the weather, I have been suffering from a cold, and I thought I was out of the woods earlier this week, until, yesterday when I came down with it all over again, bad cough, chills and a temperature at times along with a stuffed up head and general achiness all over. We are usually pretty healthy here, and seem to avoid a lot of colds and flu but not this time.

This morning I fed our llamas and horse another bale of hay and checked their water supply, and also played fetch with Smarkle, while doing all of it. Smarkle lives for chasing the bright green tennis ball all over the yard. You can't go outside where she isn't dropping a ball at your feet waiting for you to pick it up and chuck it so she can run and fetch it and bring it back to you.

Hopefully the next few days I will get over this cold, and take care of some projects by next weekend. I need to run some garbage up to the garbage facility in Aitkin, and all the Christmas decorations need to come down and get put away for another year!

We all know that it is now 2013, and it looks to be a very busy year around here!

With the closing of the Wooden Nichols Store, and moving it all home into our new storage shed...a 28 ft semi-trailer and my shop. We have it all stuffed to the rafters! Well almost, the plan is to reorganize some of it when it warms up a little bit. When spring comes we hope to have occasional sales here at Coffee Lake Farm, so our shoppers can see all of our work here at the farm!

All of our animals are fine and as you can see we have lots of snow. Pedro is enjoying some sunshine which was just before Chrsitmas in this picture. He is standing on the old pushed up manure pile, it is amazing how much the llamas like getting on higher ground.

We are currently enjoying the company of Ricki and Grant and Rebekah from their home in the state of Washington. Having a few extra people makes the winter days go faster, and we are easily amused by Rebekah, who will be 8 years old soon.

We are looking to a family Christmas this coming Saturday, which will feature a great meal and gift exchanges. It is always a very special time and I hope those of you who read this also have had a Happy Holiday season!

This years goal for my blog is to post weekly so I can keep you all amused and caught up on events here at Coffee Lake Farm!