Resolutions.  People seem divided on the notion.  Some are in the strictly disciplined camp of making resolutions and starting them immediately on January 1 (usually starting with “never drinking again”).  Then there are the militant eschewers of resolutions.

Okay, so there may be 3 camps related to resolutions.  The third being those of us in the “apathy” camp.

I think I quit doing resolutions in my twenties, possibly due to years of what I perceived to be “failures” in the resolution department.  Probably should’ve made a resolution to be more self-forgiving.  Or self-tolerant.  Back then, missing the mark meant failure.  In that regard I’m glad I gave up on resolutions.

Now, I view January as a time of regeneration and renewal.  Literally and figuratively.  I swear it’s like every membership and subscription we have for our businesses is due in January.  Besides that, though, it’s when I get to recover from our season, take a breath, and look forward to the next season.  What will we change?  What will we keep the same?  Where do we think our time and money was best spent last season?  What about this coming year?  What the hell is that oozing black sludge in the bottom of the “crisper” drawer?

Things get weird during the height of our season.  Sometimes  last year I didn’t even have clean underpants.

We started a winery in 2019.  (Sound of maniacal laughing.)  Our reasoning being that if THAT business were to fail, we could at least fail with a basement full of wine.  We don’t have enough freezers for the horse meat that would be generated from our trail ride business failing, which was an oversight on our part.

These businesses — a winery and a trail-ride business — make for an interesting life.  Usually, interesting in ways that make you question your sanity.

I *thought*, based on the collective advice I gathered from Google searches, that this blog should be about running our business and maybe help others start their own business.  But then the blog just sounds preachy and possibly would be removed from the internet for inducing comas.

And everybody says “lifestyle blogs, man, that’s where it’s at.”  Whatever “it” is, “it” isn’t here.  And lifestyle blogs seem to involve a lot of recipes.  That was seductive — I cook a lot so that seemed like a natural fit.  Look out Pioneer Woman, here comes Uncorked Cowgirl!  But the problem with blogging recipes is that I spent more time writing about the recipe, taking pictures for the recipe, and editing pictures for the recipe than I did actually enjoying the recipe.

So, screw it.  I’ll never be “those” types of bloggers.  At least, I’ll never be prolific or successful at those types of blogs because I don’t love them.

I think I was really trying to feed into the mentality that I often get from people when they say, “you’re living my dream life”.  Everybody’s pretty sure that my perfect husband and I flit around, wine-glasses in hand, with our super-fabulous-wine-friends and take a break from that only to flit around on horses.  They assume that’s 95% of our lives.

Incorrect.  That’s the kind of stuff I might put on Facebook, but has no basis in reality.  In fact, we spent a whole year hot-wiring the Jeep because every cent we earned was going toward our business rather than luxury items like ignitions.  And there are weeks, especially during the season, where I look forward to not riding a horse.  If I so much as have a sip of wine before 5 pm, it’s all I can do to stay awake the rest of the day.  I don’t think I’ve “flitted” since about 1978.

We do have super fabulous wine friends though.  They are probably about as exhausted as we are.

Back in the late ’90s I used to write these “journal entries”, which were basically blog posts and mostly centered around my travels.  They were letters to my family back home, in a way.  Short little snippets from my adventures — observations of how things were done where ever I was, customs, thrills, spills, foods, just whatever struck me.

That’s the kind of blogger I am.

Which means I probably won’t be an Amazon Associate or make a fat stack of cash from affiliate links (not that I’m opposed to the idea).  And I won’t be the Pioneer Woman (sweet relief!) or Jenna Kutcher or Pat Flynn or (insert gazillionaire blogger name here).

I just want to connect with folks.  That’s what the businesses are all about.

Same with the blog.