Dear Family and Friends,

2021 brought us many precious memories, along with caretaking responsibilities, weather challenges, and difficult goodbyes.

The two most recent residents of our family farm moved to their Heavenly Home exactly six months apart. My brother-in-law’s mom, everyone’s beloved “Mema,” went to be with Jesus on February 2. After almost two years of her cheerful personality on the farm, her absence has left a void in our hearts. In April, Merritt’s 93-year-old maternal grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. He went to be with the Lord on July 2. Grandpa Mann’s kind, quiet presence is sorely missed. We’re so very grateful for the gift of the year and a half he lived on the farm. The hours spent by his bedside singing hymns were some of the most beautiful moments of the year, as earth met the edge of eternity.

In March, I was able to spend a very precious week at my grandparents’ ranch helping them out. In May, I got to return with the children to celebrate Papa’s 90^th birthday.

When the kids and I found ourselves quarantined away from home, my parents’ empty rental house made it an adventure. In our five days “camping” there, the children were able to make fun memories in the home where I spent my first nine years of life.

In February, we met up at an Airbnb in Bend, Oregon, with my youngest brother and sister and their spouses; then our family visited Smith Rock State Park and Crooked River Canyon. We got to see my other brother and his family this summer (it had been two years!), and finally meet my youngest niece. We four siblings weren’t all in one place at the same time this year, but at least we all got to see each other. Four of the five siblings in Merritt’s family were able to get together at once, as well.

June brought extreme high temperatures and ushered in the hottest summer on record. Merritt was irrigating fields non-stop from late April to late September. We spent many evenings in the river until the smoke kept us inside enjoying the air conditioning whenever possible.

May brought our fifteenth wedding anniversary; September marked 25 years since our families met in Yellowstone National Park. God gave us two new nephews this October, one on the east coast (whom I can’t wait to meet!), and one on the west coast (whom I’m delighted to have close enough for lots of snuggles!).

Despite reduced work hours due to additional responsibilities, I’m thankful for another profitable year in my work on WordPress websites for authors and bloggers. A fun side project was helping my friend Christy publish her third book, The Christmas Cactus. Fridays at farmers market with Merritt (and Ruth!) are a nice change of pace to end the week before Saturday bookkeeping for the farm and my business. I love to read, especially to relax after a long day; I just made it to my Goodreads goal of 100 books for the year.

In addition to growing four cuttings of hay during a drought, Merritt made many wooden trim pieces for a local boat company, as well as assisting in the garden and with general farm management. His hours in the shop and tractor are prime time for podcasts and audiobooks, so he’s listened to over 50 audiobooks this year, most recently finishing the classic Les Misérables (67 hours!).

Our four children are growing up so quickly, amazing, amusing, and humbling us by turns! We’ve been thankful for my sister Jessica’s assistance in tutoring them again this year, through weekly visits or Zoom sessions (until her own tiny student arrived, lessening the lesson frequency a bit for the moment!). The children each wanted to fill you in on the highlights of their year…

Sara (age 6): Hi. Some of my favorite audiobook series this year were The Wingfeather Saga and The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates. My favorite winter activities are snowmobiling, decorating the house for Christmas, giving presents, and licking candy canes. My favorite outdoor activities are riding my bike, jumping on the trampoline with our cousins, swinging, climbing trees, having picnics, swimming in the river, and watching Monarchs fly by. I liked spending time with Great Grandpa. Another special thing this year was going to my great grandparents’ ranch and playing with some cousins there. I loved the beautiful views on the trip to California, and it was fun to see the dirt change from brown to red. Another one of my favorite things this year was visiting my grandparents in Oregon; it was fun to swim in my great grandma’s pool. We got to stay at our grandpa and grandma’s rental. It was like camping except it was in a house; we got to sleep on cots with sleeping bags. There was a huge old tree and a rope swing with knots on it so that we could climb it. My favorite songs right now are “Jesus Loves Me” and “You Are My All in All.” Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Daniel (age 10): My favorite thing I did this year was hatching chicks with my incubator. I hatched 46 chicks for my flock—losing only one chick after it was hatched. I sold over 60 dozen eggs this year. I just completed an alphabetical reading of Gail Damerow’s The Chicken Encyclopedia. I also like riding my bike, climbing trees, racing with my sisters, taking walks with my chicken Roundhead, and snuggling with my 1-year-old cat Nibbles.

Mary (age 12): I like to paint, experiment with photography and lighting, and write letters to my four pen pals. This summer I enjoyed riding my bike off ramps, climbing trees, and knitting washcloths. I enjoy working on the farm and getting nice and hot, then going swimming in the river with my cousins. I experienced the hardship of farming during a drought year as I grew radishes for our store and markets; I grew sixty-six bunches in all. My favorite subject in school this year was spelling. I entered in the VFW Patriot’s Pen essay contest and placed third at the local post. I also got to watch my darling cat Corona grow to be a fuzzy fluff ball of fun. This year I wrote in my diary almost every day and have nearly filled it. I have read almost one hundred books this year. My favorite book of the year was Catherine’s War, a graphic novel by Julia Billet. I cannot believe this year is almost over! 

Ruth (age 14): The highlight of my year was working at farmers market and on our farm during this year’s long hot summer. This is my last year of school before high school, and I’m struggling through Pre-Algebra and Ancient History, as well as American studies and Greek. (I may have complained quite loudly on many occasions about the long, impossible-to-pronounce names of Demosthenes, Pericles, and Aristides. And why-oh-why do you subtract a negative number from a positive number when the problem says you’re supposed to add?!)

I entered a phase of World War History mania and found the literary treasures of Rilla of Ingleside and Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl. My most re-read book this year was Girl Warrior by local author Carmen Peone. My mom and I worked together reading, re-reading, and proofreading Mrs. Christy Martenson’s newest book, The Christmas Cactus, and were almost as proud as the author when it finally went into print. I also finished and edited several of my own novellas!

Aunt Jessica began to give me piano lessons and I am happily wandering through a wilderness of bass clefs, treble clefs, bar lines, and more note types than I can name or remember. I also had to get glasses, since I inherited an astigmatism from both sides of the family. But now I don’t get headaches when I read.

I filled two journals with the happenings of 2021, read over two hundred books, and my Veterans of Foreign Wars essay placed second at post level. I celebrated my 14th birthday and enjoyed a horridly, wonderfully chaotic year.

Death. Drought. Difficulty. “Because things are not agreeable,” said Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, “that is no reason for being unjust towards God.” So we’re thanking Him for fifteen years of marriage, four precious children, and all the memories we’ve made this year. We’re grateful that He sees and bottles our tears and are trusting the next year to His great faithfulness.  

Because He Lives,
Merritt & Gretchen
Ruth, Mary, Daniel, and Sara

Photography: Hannah Acheson Photography