Bless me Readers for I have been absent. It's been 17 long months since my last post. 

Where have I been? Location-wise, still here at Rancho Laurena doing many of the same things I had before, housekeeping, knitting, farming, being driven slowly out of my mind by children that I sometimes wonder why I had until I remember how much I love them. 

For some of those 17 months, I blogged on a site called Open Salon. If you want to look me up there, I was/am the Pretend Farmer. For a while, it was great. Unlike here, I got LOTS of comments! And, since I am nothing if not an attention whore, I stayed put. I exercised my writing chops slightly differently than I had here, broadening my horizons a bit. Since few knew my true identity, I sometimes wrote about more private things than I did here. I even penned a little fiction. Also and most importantly, I made friends, many virtual friends, some of which have become friends in real life, friends I am going to do my best to keep lifelong. 

Unfortunately, as often happens in this convoluted world of ours, things went south. The ability of a reader to remain anonymous while commenting on a blog post turned certain participants' remarks nasty and personal. I don't know about the rest of you but I have enough real drama in my own life than to ask for more from a group of strangers. For this same reason I have no desire to watch The Real Fake Housewives of Any Place, Jon and Kate Plus Screaming Children and Tabloids, or The Bachelor and a Group of Slutty Women Doing Their Best to Undo Decades of Work for Women's Equality. My posts slowed down, then stopped, and I have been blog-free for six months. Long enough break, don't you think? Shall we get back to tales of farming and family, exhilaration and heartache?

Starting tomorrow, I shall do my best to catch you up on what you've missed, what is happening, and what we've planned. The Grim Reaper in the form of bobcats, mountain lions, lightning, and illness has unfortunately visited; yet, On We Farm with glee and gusto. We have ruminant shearing, chick rearing, and garden growing to look forward to as well as cheese-making, yarn spinning, and menu concocting. Also, Rancho Laurena is going co-op! City dwellers and suburbanites alike will be able to adopt their own farm animal(s), learn about their comings and goings, and partake in their output, scat included. Woot I say, 2010 is shaping up with excitement and glee!

Yes, Gentle Readers, I am back with determination. Please join me on this journey we call farm life.