One of the best times of the year; so great it deserves to be in all caps. Along with
the first snow, spring’s first flowers and summer. Who could forget summer? My point being that here in Wisconsin there are so many great times of year. This is just the perfect time of year right now. Because it’s a change and I LOVE change. I crave it and look forward to it. It’s one of the reasons we moved to Wisconsin from Las Vegas.
It was a jam-packed summer at Lucky Break. We got a new dog - Eleanor, Ellie for short - a Scotch Collie. We had a huge barn sale. We made the difficult decision to sell off most of our herd. We are getting out of the beef business and that really put a damper on the end of the summer. We loved them SO MUCH, but it was time to decide where we were going with that part of our business.
Anthony didn’t have the heart anymore to take cattle to be processed and some of our girls were beginning to age out. It wasn’t a decision we took lightly and while I was pulling for retirement on the farm for everyone, we just don’t have the space, resources or budget for that. So they all went together to a farm up north. The cattle brokerage company wouldn’t tell us where or any other details, we just had to be content with the fact that they all left together. Which was a better option than the cattle auction. It was and still is a source of much heartache for both of us. We’ve got 2 steers left; they will leave to be processed in early spring. It feels so empty around the farm without the herd. It’s been a difficult adjustment, but once again it is our reality of living on a farm.
Anthony and I just got back from a trip to Tuscany celebrating our 20th anniversary. The last time we went on a real vacation was 14 years ago, so to say we were excited, overjoyed and ready for a break is the understatement of the year.
We’ve come back to the farm with so much inspiration and quite frankly, all we want to do is reminisce and stare at the photos and videos we took all day long. We’ve started testing recipes trying to figure out the best and most authentic Cantucci and Ricciarelli cookies like the ones we had in Florence. (this one is perfetto)
But it’s time to get back to work!
What are we working on? The event space, of course. We had hoped and prayed and crossed all fingers and toes that we could make at least one farm dinner happen this year and it did not happen. We were finally approved by the state and township in late June. We spoke with multiple chefs, but by that time in the season we could not make it work.
Then we were cancelled by our insurance company because of the house fire we had last November. The one and only homeowner’s insurance claim either one of us has had in our lives. We are beginning to wonder, will we EVER get to fulfill the dream of having dinners on our farm? Noone wants to insure a house AND a farm, AND cars AND an event space.
As of yesterday, we have found the ONE company that would insure our farm. And a different company for the cars. And now we wait, because we’ve got one more insurance company that (all fingers and toes crossed again) will hopefully insure the event space. Say a prayer for us, please!
Now we are working to get everything cleaned up and prepped for winter. Once we get the green light and are fully insured, you better believe that we are getting back to farm dinner and workshop planning for the 2025 season. Thank you for sticking with us, checking in on us and always wishing us well. We feel it and it pushes us to move forward.
Enjoy the shorter days and giant leaf piles.
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