First off, a few short thoughts about 2010.\u00a0\u00a0 As a milestone year in my life (I hit the big 5-0 along with about a bazillion of my friends) it was kinda “meh.”\u00a0 I got older, I got fatter, I got poorer.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s about it.\u00a0 Some good times, some tough times.\u00a0 Made a few new friends, lost a few dear friends.\u00a0\u00a0 Struggled to pay bills.\u00a0\u00a0It was definitely a holding pattern year.<\/p>\n
Still, looking back at it all…..<\/p>\n
The year started quietly enough. \u00a0January<\/strong><\/span> was pretty much down time.\u00a0 We got a few farm projects done, like clearing all the Virginia Pine from our hammock hill, and my brother Geoff came with his boys to take home some sheep to their new farm, but otherwise it was the calm before the storm…<\/p>\n …. of February<\/span><\/strong> and the Snowpocalypse<\/a>!\u00a0 Keith took a week off of work to help with lambing season and boy was I glad he did!\u00a0\u00a0 By now you probably have heard whole gory story of two back-to-back snowstorms that left us in the Mid-Atlantic without power and 3 ft of snow on the ground and drifts up to 5 ft.\u00a0\u00a0 It hit just as our ewes were about to deliver.\u00a0 We were snowbound for days.\u00a0 No heat but for the fireplace, no water but for melted snow, and worst of all – no interweb!\u00a0 Luckily we had laid in plenty of supplies for lambing season anyway, so we didn’t starve.\u00a0 But it wasn’t fun hiking a quarter mile through thigh deep snow to get to the barn to check on the sheep.\u00a0\u00a0 Luckily the tractor was able to start, and with huge effort, we were able to clear some outdoor space for the sheep (it was wall-to-wall 65 pregnant ewes and others in the barn) and clear a path on the driveway with the tractor.\u00a0\u00a0 The tractor became our link with the outside world.\u00a0\u00a0During a lambing emergency we met the vet with the tractor at the farm entrance.\u00a0 He left his truck in a snow bank on the road, put all his surgery supplies in the tractor bucket, and climbed in the bucket himself for the ride to the barn!\u00a0 Dr. Tom Massie<\/a> truly is a local treasure – especially when he had to perform surgery by flashlight in our barn.<\/p>\n February Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’2373′]<\/p>\n Lambing continued in March<\/span><\/strong> as the snow finally melted and rains pummeled us.\u00a0 We finally hit our long sought for goal of 100 lambs – the\u00a0 actual final tally this year was 101!\u00a0 You can see some of those lambs participating in the annual lamb olympics here<\/a>.\u00a0 Given the continued sluggish real estate market, I wasn’t in the mood for, or the position to have, a lavish 50th birthday party (like some of you (and you know who you are!<\/em><\/strong>) who celebrated their milestone year in Miami, Key West, Palm Beach, Manhattan, Paris, Tuscany, Almafli Coast, Castles in Germany, etc).\u00a0\u00a0 Keith agreed with me, and promised a quiet dinner \u00e0 deux to mark the occasion.\u00a0\u00a0 So imagine my surprise when I show up for a pre-dinner drink at the Watergate and find 50 or so of our closest friends there to celebrate.\u00a0 If only I had known I would have shaved!!\u00a0 Towards the end of the month, our house cat Calisto’s kidneys failed and we lost her.\u00a0 She was a completely neurotic little thing, but a good kitty and will be missed.<\/p>\n March Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’2387′]<\/p>\n This April<\/span><\/strong> was more radiantly spring-like than even April deserves to be.\u00a0 Everywhere was lush greenery and blossoms and buds.\u00a0 The farm never looked better.\u00a0 For the first time ever even our apricot trees bloomed out of control to give us our first apricot crop.\u00a0 Aside from the always fun day at the ODH races, some highlights from the month were farm visits from friends, the Murphy\/Golder nuptials, and a Cajun feast cooked for us by the multi-talented John Bourgeois<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 This year our kitchen garden<\/a> got kicked into high gear too! We replaced the cedar boards on our raised beds and finally laid down the gravel paths.\u00a0 It made all the difference – see for yourself in the photos below.<\/p>\n April Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’2398′]<\/p>\n If April was radiant, May<\/span><\/strong> was lush.\u00a0 Everything was blooming at once. The real estate marketing was picking up.\u00a0 Life was good.\u00a0\u00a0 And then came the blankety.blankl.blank.beaver!\u00a0\u00a0 This critter had decided to take up residence in the pond and selectively gnaw down every single (expensive!) tree that I had planted.\u00a0 Nothing could dissuade him leave, so Jeremy the farm manager was tasked with his removal.\u00a0\u00a0 After spending an entire day at pond’s edge, Jeremy declared that the beaver<\/a> must have moved on for good.\u00a0\u00a0 But the next day, there he was again.\u00a0 This time Jeremy was determined to get him – and get him he did!\u00a0 After a fierce gun battle in which Jeremy was convinced that there were two beavers popping up in the water, he swore he shot the beaver dead.\u00a0 But where was the evidence?\u00a0 A day later a floating beaver corpse made an appearance.\u00a0 Never before have I been so happy to see a creature dead.\u00a0 The rest of the month was pretty stress-free.\u00a0 Great farm visits from friends, fun parties, and a great yacht tour aboard Trip & Alan’s Tally-Ho<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 We made hay at the end of the month and took in 57 gorgeous round bales.<\/p>\n May Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’2422′]<\/p>\n June<\/span><\/strong> started out pleasant enough but soon grew but hot, hot, hot.\u00a0 There were 18 days with the temps over 90 – and no rain.\u00a0 The pastures shriveled up before our very eyes.\u00a0 So did the real estate market.\u00a0 The irrigated kitchen garden did okay, but everything else was dry as could be.\u00a0 It was a quiet birthday for Keith and he got a quiet birthday present – 3 mute swans cygnets to replace the swan brothers Castor & Pollux we lost last summer.\u00a0 These three, promptly christened Sauron, Daphne & Apollo, are now his absolute favorites and he spends more time with them than he does with me.\u00a0\u00a0 It was sad saying goodbye to friends and neighbors Roger and Sophie Scruton<\/a> as they moved back to England, but we hope they’ll come visit often.<\/p>\n June Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’2448′]<\/p>\n I don’t think there was a single day in July<\/span><\/strong> that the thermometer dipped below 90 degrees.\u00a0 Plenty of days it would exceed 100.\u00a0 And not a drop of rain to cool things off or green up the pastures.\u00a0\u00a0 It was awfully stressful on the lambs.\u00a0 Instead of growing like weeds on summer grass they were losing weight from heat stress.\u00a0\u00a0 When the heat, weight loss, and weakness from heavy worm loads got too much for the wee beasties I made the decision to put them in the barn and feed them hay.\u00a0\u00a0 This was a first in 13 years of shepherding, but we probably would have lost half of our lamb crop if we hadn’t done so.\u00a0\u00a0 Despite the oppressive heat, the garden produced an astounding variety of beets, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.\u00a0 The heat (and aggressive predation by Jeremy) seemed to have knocked out the annual squirrel devastation of the fruit trees, so that this year we could harvest a wonderful crop of peaches and pears too.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chef Keith took the summer’s bounty and prepared two absolutely stellar al fresco dinner parties at the farm, and I actually made a passable peach sorbet for dessert.\u00a0\u00a0 Keith’s swans soon outgrew their small wading pool and graduated to a small penned corner of the pond, and then a few weeks later, they were big enough to have the whole pond as their playground.\u00a0 Despite the heat, my sister-in-law Beth was brave enough to drive cross country with kids and au pair in tow for a two day visit.\u00a0\u00a0 My nephew Grant took to farming in a big way.\u00a0 I expect plenty of work out of him during summer vacations when he’s in high school!<\/p>\n July Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’2457′]<\/p>\n August<\/span><\/strong> was still hot.\u00a0 We set a record for over 60 days of non-stop 90+ degree weather this summer.\u00a0 It totally fried the pastures.\u00a0 The sheep rallied a bit, but they were still stressed and not growing well.\u00a0 Some rain at last provided relief mid-month.\u00a0 The swans grew nicely under Keith’s watchful eye.\u00a0 Dinner parties in the orchard continued and Chef Keith expanded his repertoire for friends Heike and Richard and his sister Barbara and brother-in-law Brian. Ask him about his roast beet and goat cheese salad.\u00a0 We had a great visit to Keith’s sister Yvonne’s place in Charlottesville<\/a>, and being the great winos we are, we also toured some great<\/a> wineries<\/a>.\u00a0 Virginia ain’t Napa, or Mendoza, much less Burgundy, but we’re getting there<\/a>! The highlight of the month was definitely our weekend trip to Saugatuck, MI<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Our yachting friends Trip & Alan invited us to spend some time with them at their summer house in this small artists colony<\/a>.\u00a0 The stunning lakeside landscape was the perfect summer escape.\u00a0\u00a0 CNN came to farm at the end of the month to film a short segment and I had to be heavily edited just to make me sound semi-coherent, but the farm scenery was the main focus of the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n August<\/span><\/strong> Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’3012′]<\/p>\n The start of the fall real estate season in September<\/span><\/strong> usually means a very busy month for me.\u00a0 It’s the best time to look at the lush countryside and fantasize about the Virginia estate of your dreams.\u00a0 Unfortunately, during the great recession<\/a> everyone seems determined to leave those estates firmly in the dream world and not sign on the dotted line.\u00a0\u00a0 This year things were ominously quiet.\u00a0 Now, by carefully hoarding pennies over the past couple of years and strong lamb sales, I’ve been able to keep this whole enterprise afloat.\u00a0 But that has meant no major farm improvement projects for over a year, and certainly no major travel or splurges.\u00a0 So, in a situation like that, when you’re handed a free trip to Europe, it’s probably wise to accept it.\u00a0 And, I, being a wise man, accepted.\u00a0\u00a0 Actually, it was a series of small incremental forces coming together that led to a fantastic and memorable Euro-jaunt for us.\u00a0 The first was sister Jen and brother-in-law Gunter having their third child in July and moving to a small village near the French border.\u00a0 Their new house conveniently also comes with a downstairs guest suite.\u00a0 The second was that, in the endless parade of 50th birthday parties this year, my old friend J\u00fcrgen decided the best way to celebrate his was to invite all his friends and family to all expenses paid weekend at a phenomenal castle hotel in northern Germany.\u00a0\u00a0 The third was the the fact many of the airline miles I had been assiduously saving for the past several years (in hopes of financing a dream trip to New Zealand), were due to expire at the end of the year – and I needed to quickly use them or lose them.\u00a0 It just so happened that there were enough for two round-trip economy tickets to Europe.\u00a0\u00a0 So, the trip was planned.\u00a0 The icing on the cake was a casual comment my sister made about the new high-speed rail link to Paris just minutes from her house.\u00a0\u00a0 The introductory fare was only 29 euros.\u00a0 And, said she, “it’s only two hours, so you can go for the day!”\u00a0\u00a0 A quick poll of Parisian friends found most of them out of town, but one of them, Jean-Philippe (yet another celebrating the big 5-0) insisted that we take his apartment for a few days as he would be spending the month at his house in South Africa<\/a>.\u00a0 It will be sitting there empty, he insisted, so you must stay there.\u00a0\u00a0 How can you say no to a fabulous penthouse in the Marais<\/a>?\u00a0\u00a0Bernard, another friend, said he’d be in town and delighted to take us to dinner<\/a> to catch up.\u00a0 Et voil\u00e0!\u00a0 Ten days in Europe sponging off friends and family.\u00a0 What more could you want?\u00a0 It was more than fantastique<\/em>, it was ausgezeichnet<\/em>!<\/p>\n There were too many great adventures to recount in this space, so I’ll just skip to the most important moment – our last night in Paris after long day of sight-seeing.\u00a0\u00a0 A quiet evening in a tiny but very cozy excellent little restaurant<\/a> around the corner from our apartment, where we sat in the window and watched the world go by, and where the food was simple yet wonderful, and where the owner\/sommelier, discovering that Keith had a palate to match his own, became our new best friend and insisted on opening up bottle after bottle for us to taste (much to the puzzlement and wonder of the other restaurant patrons).\u00a0 It was in this haze of delicious wine, great food, Parisian charm, and simple gratitude for the wonderful life we have together that Keith and I made a decision on something that we’d been thinking about for a long time.\u00a0 We’re gonna get married! <\/em>\u00a0It’s probably going to be a long engagement, as I’m not sure which will take longer, saving the money for the wedding or getting the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA<\/a>.\u00a0 But, like it or not<\/a>, we’re getting hitched<\/a>.\u00a0 I’ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n So here’s the rest of the trip highlights in four sentences:\u00a0 1) Arrived in Germany for brother-in-law Gunter’s birthday party and fun weekend visit with new nephew Henry<\/a> and rest of family. 2) Took the high speed train to Paris for 3 days of sightseeing <\/a>and romantic memories.\u00a0 3) <\/a>Wonderfully fun day visiting Bob & Doris Schmidt in Heidelberg<\/a>, and then off to my old University town of Marburg for a day of nostalgia<\/a>.\u00a0 4) Weekend at Schloss Waldeck<\/a> and in Frankfurt <\/a>to celebrate J\u00fcrgen Reemers’ birthday in high style<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once home from Europe I had two days to round up sheep and drive north to Ontario for my last annual meeting as NACFA <\/a>president.\u00a0 Great fun with the sheep folks (as always) and a fun adventure driving two rams all the way to their new homes in Canada.\u00a0\u00a0 A stop at Niagara Falls on the way back for a short two hours gave me more than a decade’s worth of tourist kitsch experience.<\/p>\n September Photos<\/strong> (Click on photo to enter slideshow)<\/p>\n October<\/span><\/strong> is always a beautiful month.\u00a0 After the hot and dry summer even the very air seemed alive in October.\u00a0 The farm got a new fresh wash of rain and cooler temperatures and bounced right back in all of its autumnal glory.\u00a0\u00a0 No travel plans meant that we could sit back and enjoy it too.\u00a0 The kitchen garden redoubled its bounty.\u00a0\u00a0 Taking stock of things made me glad to have finished the struggles and sacrifices over the past 15 years to get this farm to where it is today.\u00a0\u00a0 The sheep looked great, and the years of constant culling and selection and artificial insemination has really started to pay off.\u00a0 I’m really proud of my flock and think it only needs a little fine tuning to maintain the current high quality.\u00a0 All the earth-moving, planting, and fencing over the years has resulted in a landscape that reveals itself to be even better than that which nature herself created.\u00a0 Keith was making some pretty amazing meals with things plucked right from the garden moments before.\u00a0 We might be a bit low in the cash department, but life seemed pretty much perfect.\u00a0 Too perfect.\u00a0 And, sure enough, just to make sure I didn’t get complacent and too self-satisfied with my life, the fates intervened, as they always do, to knock me down a peg or two (or three).\u00a0\u00a0 Not content to let me hold on to what I have and eke out a semblance of a living, the powers that be decided to take the most tranquil, mellow, and beautiful of seasons to deliver me firmly and decisively on poverty’s doorstep.\u00a0\u00a0 This was accomplished in the usual one-two-hit-him-while-he’s-down style that doesn’t give the victim time to recover or regroup.\u00a0 First, I developed a nasty lingering cough that confounded the medical establishment even as they bled my bank account dry while trying to determine its source.\u00a0 Second, several promising real estate deals dissolved before my very eyes.\u00a0 Third, in very rapid succession, the truck broke down, the car broke down, the well pump failed, the furnace died, the smartphone smashed to bits, the tractor needed repairs, and my computer gave up the ghost.\u00a0\u00a0 In the space of a few weeks, my carefully hoarded reserves which had seen me through the last two years of economic downturn, were completely depleted.\u00a0 By the end of October, I was pretty much broke.<\/p>\n October Photos<\/strong> (Click on photo to enter slideshow)<\/p>\n Needless to say things were pretty mellow in November<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 \u00a0While putting the farm to bed for the winter is always satisfying, this year things seemed a little bittersweet.\u00a0 The last bits of tidying up the fields and trails and winterizing things for barn cats and poultry gives a nice seasonal completion to another successful year.\u00a0 But the nagging question in the back of my mind was, ‘will we still have the farm this time next year?’ Not a question I’ve ever had to contemplate in the past.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We sold Keith’s swan Apollo so that his other cob<\/a> Sauron could have Apollo’s sister Daphne all to herself.\u00a0\u00a0 A quick day trip to Richmond was a good distraction.\u00a0\u00a0Who knew Richmond had such interesting little neighborhoods<\/a>,\u00a0 restaurants<\/a> and museums<\/a>?\u00a0 Actually, Keith’s niece Rebecca knew, and she gave us some great recommendations.<\/p>\n November Photos<\/strong> (Click on photo to enter slideshow)<\/p>\n In years past, Keith’s annual December<\/span><\/strong> vacation week has always meant\u00a0a fun trip.\u00a0 So while poverty dictated a ‘staycation<\/a>‘ this year, it didn’t mean we couldn’t have a lot of fun in the process.\u00a0 We started the week with a farm visit from good friend Frank Brooks from LA and the usual suspects from DC, followed by a family visit to the farm for the annual Christmas in Little Washington<\/a>, and then a day trip to DC for museum hopping and cocktails<\/a>.\u00a0 Another short trip to NYC to see friends, see the Christmas decorations, and eat at another of David Chang’s<\/a> amazing restaurants<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet another day trip to a completely deserted Harper’s Ferry<\/a> was educational, and dinner that night at Volt<\/a> in Frederick, MD<\/a> was, without doubt, the best meal of the year.\u00a0 Amazing food in a fun little town.\u00a0 Christmas was spent with the Miller clan in Virginia and a good time was had by all.<\/p>\n December Photos<\/strong> (Click on photo to enter slideshow)<\/p>\n So that’s been my year.\u00a0\u00a0 Some sad and unexpected goodbyes (Michael Schmidt<\/a>, Kevin Pruitt), a few wonderful highs, deep satisfaction with the two main pillars in my life (Keith and the farm), mixed in with considerable anxiety for the future.\u00a0 Still, I have high hopes for 2011.\u00a0 If the economy can improve (and it must!), and I can keep limping along (and I must!), then perhaps a year from now I can look back at 2010 as a year that really forced me to take stock of the things and be grateful for the things I have that really matter – a wonderful partner, good health, true friends, and a loving family.<\/p>\n Wishing you the same blessings in your life.<\/p>\n Happy New Year,<\/p>\n Alan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 27, 2010 Dear Friends and Family – There was a time, not too long ago, that these annual holiday letters pretty much ensured my status as the king of oversharing.\u00a0 Now, with Facebook, Twitter, and all kinds of other unnecessary competition, rank amateurs are effortlessly outdoing me with every\u00a0breathless posting of their latest thought, … Continue reading 2010 Christmas Letter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-letter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2010banner.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3013,"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions\/3013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Niagara](\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/Alan\/Documents\/My%20Web%20Sites\/alanzuschlag\/Letter10\/9-sept-10.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"October](\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/Alan\/Documents\/My%20Web%20Sites\/alanzuschlag\/Letter10\/10-oct-10.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Keith](\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/Alan\/Documents\/My%20Web%20Sites\/alanzuschlag\/Letter10\/11-nov-10.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"deserted](\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/Alan\/Documents\/My%20Web%20Sites\/alanzuschlag\/Letter10\/12-dec-10.jpg\")
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