Seasons Greetings!
Another year is ending and here’s another newsletter pretending we are adventurous and interesting.
Here’s the scoop on what 2024 held for our family, whether you asked for it or not.
We are experiencing country living at its finest. We had unwanted squatters move into our pantry.
This required poison for both ants and rodents, as well as putting certain food containers in an extra layer
of plastic. There was substantial evidence of how well the poison worked in the ant carcasses on the
canned fruit, but so far the only evidence of rodent activity is missing poison pellets. It was a good reason
to disinfect and vacuum the pantry out more than once this year. Our large picture windows try to lure
birds to their death. We average about one bird a month that will fly into a window at break-neck speed.
Most are only knocked out for a minute or two, but we sometimes get casualties. We attempted to send a
skunk living under our shed to its eternal reward 3 times before it finally gave up the ghost. I was relatively
sure it was a zombie skunk after the second time. If it had crawled out of its grave after the 3rd try, I would
have been certain.
We had two major building projects. Our property had a slab of concrete just begging for a greenhouse
when we bought it 12 years ago and now we finally have one. We discovered a build-your-own
greenhouse kit at Costco and Ryan happily snatched one up in the early spring. After assembling the
greenhouse, Ryan brought his heating mats and various supplies out of the garage and grew many more
seedlings than we needed or used. And we gave away a bunch too. He’s got plans for a new project this
coming year. Potatoes from seeds. (Not to be confused with “seed potatoes.” This literally means tracking
down potato seeds from a WSU extension site in Prosser.) Our other building project was to build a better
chicken coop with proper windows and doors to replace the plywood structure the sheep had rubbed on
until it nearly collapsed. It was looking pretty sad. I navigated Facebook Marketplace and tracked down
used doors and windows for cheap, and Ryan bought the rest of the supplies. It turned out pretty well as
we’ve learned many, many thingsover the years with all of our various DIY projects. We don’t have to crouch down to fill feeders or
collect eggs anymore, so that’s an improvement.
Emma (21) is working in Florida, answering tech calls in customer service for a car company. She is
becoming a true Floridian, needing a coat when the weather cools down to the bitter temperatures of
60-ish degrees. Emma navigated another hurricane season, only losing power once as Hurricane Milton
blew through her area. It had calmed to a category 1 by the time it reached the east coast.
Elizabeth (19) finished her freshman year at BYU-Idaho. She moved back home in April and got a job in a
warehouse processing asparagus and then cherries. It was monotonous and mind-numbing, but the pay
was good and she felt it was a little superior to last year’s job. She was trained to do quality control and
she liked that much better. We left her at home to work while we took our family vacation in July. She is
positively thrilled with the privileges of being an adult. We took her back to Rexburg in September to
continue pursuing her art degree. She hit the jackpot and has an apartment on a 4th floor which makes
for some heart-pumping exercise every time she leaves and comes back. It is quite the climb, but very
near the art buildings on campus.
Annie and Maddie (16) have reached the magic age where they can drive themselves to early morning
seminary! Hallelujah! Even though they are completely separate people and have their own likes and
dislikes (including their mutual dislike that I am lumping them together here), they are both taking French,
are both FFA officers (Maddie secretary and Annie treasurer), and both quit band. 4 band teachers in the
last 5 years was just not a journey they wished to continue, alas. They have whole-heartedly embraced
FFA. This year they participated in the FFA Creed recitation, Ag Science fair, livestock judging, apple
judging and potato judging, and other various activities. We have personalized blue corduroy jackets to
prove our enthusiasm. Annie had an epic case of beginner’s luck and got 4th place out of about a hundred
kids who judged/graded dairy cows at the fair, all from the knowledge she got from her dad in the 6
minutes of explanation before the field trip that day. Maddie was diagnosed with a “deranged meniscus”
this year and spent several months going to physical therapy twice a week so her leg would stop hurting.
Ryan got to experience a dream come true this summer in seeing the chuck wagon races at the Calgary
Stampede in Canada. We based our family vacation on the fulfilling of this wish. He also kept us well
supplied with onions, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers. And potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, beets, cabbage,
broccoli, and butternut squash, etcetera. Ryan keeps dinner time entertaining recounting his various
experiences with students as a principal of an elementary school. He is a well paid janitor on occasion,
and likes playing football and soccer with the 5th grade boys because he feels like he has amazing skills
against kids half his size. Ryan went to a Spanish dual language conference in Santa Fe with co-workers
from our school district where he discovered his palate is not refined enough to appreciate squid ink rice
(weird) and truffle french fries (gross). He was recently released from the church High Council and called
into the Elder’s Quorum presidency. No more monthly talks!
I feel like I can maybe consider myself a “real” runner now. I’ve run two 5k races that took me less than
30 minutes to complete. Ok, they are also over 29 minutes, but I’m still claiming it. I also figured out that
compression socks are amazing and do nice things for my legs and feet when I run or on my feet for a l
ong time. Who has been holding out on this information all my life? I volunteer at the Columbia River
Temple once a week, and teach the 6-8 year old kids at church. I can claim the privilege of being
summoned for jury duty this year and actually having to go in for a day. Yippee. Oh, and I’ve decided that
cats are superior to dogs because I have yet to meet a cat who responds to seeing me by getting its
teeth as close to my person as possible.
We are grateful to have made it through 2024 in one piece. Our mechanic said it was good we replaced
the brakes in my van, Ryan’s truck, and the 24-year-old Buick (the new-to-us car we let Annie and Maddie
drive) in the month of October because he wasn’t sure how many more stops they would have been
good for. If our luck holds, Elizabeth’s Jeep will also need new brakes when she gets home again.
Fingers crossed!
We wish you all peace and love and laughter this Christmas season. We are so grateful for this time of
year, to remember and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Merry Christmas!
With love,
The Kannely family
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