Happy Birthday Time Capsule

Today is my mom's birthday! The whole family surprised her a day early. We helped her celebrate with lunch and a cake. Her birthday party wasn't complete without a homemade gift. The kids gift this year was to add to the time capsule that we buried on her birthday five years ago, June 16, 2016. 

I looked up my blog post from 2016 to study the picture of where we buried the time capsule. It was right next to a tree. It wasn't the best place to bury it but it was easy to find. Getting around the roots wasn't as easy. 

Once the metal coffee can was carefully dug up, we were all disappointed that it had rusted through the bottom. We found the wet remnants of drawings and pictures. The small ninja turtle toy made it without too much damage. My mom added some fabric and one of her smut books to the coffee can five years ago. The fabric came out somewhat rusty but otherwise in tact. The book was a wet mess. 

The metal coffee can was a bad choice so we replaced it with a plastic ice cream bucket. We dried the fabric from 2016 and added that back into the bucket along with the small ninja turtle toy. We added the following new items to the bucket: 

• Our pandemic masks
• A Pokemon card
• A laminated Flat Stanley my son made for a school project
• Perler bead art
• A name snowman my daughter made in Preschool
• My mom also added another smut book

We put everything in zip lock baggies and secured the bucket with duck tape. Hopefully, this will keep everything in tact. We buried it back under the tree. I marked June 16, 2026 on my Google calendar. I doubt we will forget this birthday tradition but now I will get a reminder. 

Happy Birthday Elmo! 

(Elmo is the name my nephew gave my mom which is what the grandkids call her.)  

2020

2020: You              . (Insert whatever descriptive word that comes to mind.) For me, it's a few swear words that I won't mention. When the swearing dies down, I think of it like I would my own child. It was challenging, it tested our patience, it made us cry but it also brought great joy in sweet little things. It also brought great strength that we didn't know we had.

This was our 2020 year:

January: We built a greenhouse from scrap material. We started our first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) which was a subscription for pork and chicken. 

February: We grew and harvested lettuce and broccoli sprouts. 

March: 75 Red Ranger chicks were made comfortable in the greenhouse to protect them from the cold. 

Our first and second grader were adjusting to homeschooling. 

April: We planted potatoes and onions in the garden and added a compost pile. Six Hampshire pigs arrived. They braved the April snow.  

May: We started our Saturday morning no contact pork and chicken deliveries. We continue to make those deliveries to our customers. 

June: We started our Farmer's Market season. Our first chicken egg that was incubated completely by a hen, hatched on Father's Day. We named him JJ, Jeff Jr. He is a beautiful rooster that crows every morning at 6am. (It's still dark outside JJ.) 

Our second grader made his first communion in a socially distanced masked mass. 

July: We expanded to more chickens and more pigs. 

The kids enjoyed running around, playing in mud, eating out of the garden, and petting the pigs and chickens. 

August: Deracho hit. We lost electricity for a week. Our family and friends helped us with whatever we needed. 

September: The kids started back to school in person. Jeff was permanently laid off, so I went back to work as a substitute teacher. 

October: Jeff shuttled the kids to and from school, played with our 4 and 2-year old, worked on beautiful cars, and was a gentleman farmer. 

November: We continued meat deliveries every Saturday morning. Jeff got a job with a local manufacturer. 

December: We made plans to expand in 2021 while we balanced working and child care.

2020: you may have been a doosey but we'll always remember you.