This marks the fourth Christmas we’ve been together on our little farm. We’ve had a good year financially, and we’re all about as healthy as we’ll ever be. Mom is busily decorating the house, while the rest of us are shopping.

Don’t worry, Mom can’t go into any town without shopping, so she’s been active at WalMart, and other places. As for the rest of us, I think we’ve done our part to help the economy in small stores, box stores and online.

We’ve each had a hand in helping to decorate our home. As you can see, there are more than enough Christmas stockings on the fireplace brick. In addition to our four stockings, there’s one for the six dogs, and one for “the boys”… neighbors up the road that we play cards with most every Sunday afternoon.

This next week, Mom will begin baking some cookies, as well as planning our Christmas and New Year’s Dinners. I heard her say something about a corned beef that needs to be eaten. I really hope that’s not on either menu.

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With winter still two weeks away, I can safely say this is the warmest, wettest fall I’ve seen in 5 years. Normally our ground is frozen by the first of November and stays that way until sometime in April. Also, we don’t normally get significant snowfall until December.

This year, our ground freezes at night and thaws during the day, making for a muddy mess when we’re doing chores. We’ve also had several inches of snowfall, which has melted each time, thanks to the warm temperatures.

There was a week that was quite cold, dropping into record low temps, but that’s it. We had to break through about 4 inches of ice on several of the animal water barrels.

I just heard that chances of a White Christmas are slim this year, the first time in 5 years, too.

I remember the first December I got here (2006). It was frigid. It snowed a lot. I didn’t think I’d ever see green stuff. Temperatures stayed below 0 degrees F for almost a month, and then still didn’t get above freezing for several months. I think it was sometime in April before we saw the first signs of spring.

If winter is going to be late, it’s a good thing we’ve held off on breeding the sheep. We didn’t do that until November, so we’ll have lambs in April. The cows are bred and expected to calve in May.

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I thought yesterday would be a quiet day. Mom, Cindy and Bev had to go to St. George for Dr’s appointments. I stayed home to doggy sit with Chewy and the rest of the pack.

Boy was I surprised when they got home and announced we’re going to Cedar City to do our Christmas shopping. We left in such a hurry, we even forgot to bring our lists… not really a smart move.

After dinner at Panda Express, we headed to our local Wal-Mart. I know… we’re supposed to support our local businesses. We’re doing that, too, on the next trip.

What was really a hoot is that here we are, all trying to shop without each other knowing we’re doing, without our “size and model” lists. We either ran into each other in various departments, or had to find each other to get a size or model of something.

We took Chewy with us, so she wouldn’t have any accidents in the house. We’re not too sure she’s completely housebroken. Besides that, the rest of the pack (especially Daisy) needed a break from the action. I don’t think Chewy slept 45 minutes all day long.

Before heading to Cedar City, we made a detour to Enterprise to the bank. While there, Chewy and I went out so she could “do her business”.  Sure enough, she left a nice big gift on a dead plant… oh such fertilizer!

She travels nicely, snoozing or chewing on rawhide or a cotton rope toy. When she gets bored, she climbs into a lap for a nap.

Once in Cedar City, we put her crate in the backseat and her in the crate.  That ensures no accidents, and no chewing on the upholstery or anything else. After dinner and shopping, Cindy and Bev took her out to “do her business”. The river rock landscape got the better of her, so she laid down to puddle… so cute.

She slept all the way home, better than a 1 hour drive, so was wide awake for hours, telling the rest of the pack about her exploits. Of course the rest of us really wanted to sleep. She quieted down sometime after midnight.

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The other day,  I wrote a post about being at a crossroads with advertising and driving traffic. I’ve been searching since then, as no one posted any comments for me.

While blog-hopping through my Adgitize friends, I came across “Ask The Blogster” and he mentioned Zemanta. So I went looking. This may just be exactly what I’m looking for.

It provides “contextual advertising” through text links, is fully customizable, and very easy to use. You can pull photos which have been vetted for licensing, etc. If you’ve been writing about a particular topic, you can easily link to all your old posts. By that, I mean the Zemanta tool will help you make sure previous posts can be easily found.

At first glance, this tool appears too good to be true.

I’ve read through their site and am totally impressed as they are receiving venture capital funding, have been in business for about 3 years, and have over 2 million downloads. The tool works either as a Firefox extension, or you may download it and use it as a plug-in. Oh, and did I mention… it’s free!

That’s right… it’s free! Their whole purpose is to help bloggers write better. We’ll have to see how it improves my writing. As you use this tool, there are also ways to drive traffic to your web site and to earn affiliate income through Amazon.com.

Here’s what I really hope will happen. As I return to writing on a regular basis, I plan to submit this blog as well as one or more of my other blogs to them for their related articles pool.

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Our sheep came home last week, and along with them was a new Border Collie puppy. That means we have a full six-pack of dogs again.

This little gal is Cindy’s 60th birthday present, as all the other dogs belong either to Mom, Bev, or me.

“Chewy” (named for her chewing on everthing) is really precious and precocious. Cindy got her at about 8 weeks old, and within a couple days, she knew her name, and very soon learned “come”. Now she also knows “sit”, and has begun working on “down” and “rollover”.

She’s met all the animals, and has discovered that most already have some respect for her… more than you can say for the rest of the dogs. They maul her and run her ragged. Makes for a very tired puppy by day’s end.

Potty training has been going well. She’s figured out that you go “outside” to make a pile, sometimes, if the humans are fast enough, she gets outside to puddle too.

Since she’s a “special” dog, Cindy has set her up with her own blog. You’ll definitely want to check it out. She’s had some pretty good adventures already.

As for me, I”m considered “Auntie” and get a “good morning” romp before I’m even out of bed. All the other dogs jump all over me, so she is getting in on the same play.

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As you may know, I’m one of “The Four Country Gals”. We’re a real-life Golden Girls, to the point where some of our neighbors actually have us on speed dial as “Golden Girls”.

There’s Mom, who is actually Cindy’s mom. There’s Cindy, Bev and me. Neither Bev or me are related to Cindy or Mom, so it’s just like the “Golden Girls”… only we’re a “country version”, living on the high desert of SW Utah.

The other evening, I was watching the news and saw a segment about how more unrelated women are now living together, especially one’s who are or have reached retirement age. It makes perfect sense to have more than one person living in a house or apartment.

Years ago, when I returned home (Oregon) from the east coast, my mother and I chose to share a mobile home. I had thought seriously of buying a nearby home, but knew that with her health issues, I’d be there more than half the time… No sense in paying two mortgages.

So, if you’re reaching your golden years, and face the prospect of living alone, look into ways to find roommates. It will help with expenses, loneliness, and boredom. It’s never a dull moment around here!

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I’ve been blogging along for several years and have reached the point where I would like to sensibly, discreetly, and responsibly monetize this site.

Here’s where I need your help…

Please share with me as to what you would want to see… What you don’t want to see, etc.

As you can see, I use CMF Ads, Adgitize, Google Adsense, Clickbank, Amazon (may delete that), and am considering adding other affiliate sites as long as they’re highly targeted.

It appears I’ll be deleting BlogCatalog as I’m not happy with their new platform. Do you know of any other social networks to help drive traffic to this blog?

I write this blog so I can share our experiences here on the high desert. I’ve heard from many that they really wish they could share our lifestyle.

There are two strategies to my “monetizing”… one to increase traffic and one to earn a few pennies by sharing products and services we use.

I really look forward to your comments.

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