Halfway Through 2023: How the YouTube Channel (and the Farm) Is Going

We’re halfway through 2023, and if you’ve been following along on the GFY Farms YouTube channel more than here on the blog lately, that’s not by accident. Most of what’s happening with me is on the farm, so it’s showing up there first. But I wanted to take a minute to catch the blog up on what’s been going on in my life.

First off — these past few weeks have been crazy.

A few weeks ago, I got poison ivy. I never get poison ivy! My face was swollen, I was itchy everywhere, and I finally gave in and got steroids from my doctor. Thankfully, that cleared it up.

Then Chris ended up in the hospital. He’s out now, thankfully, but when I was headed back to the hospital the second day, I got caught in a hail storm with at least ping-pong-size hail — on the highway, with nowhere to hide.

And to make matters worse, we had not put the windows back on Chris’s Jeep yet. So when I got back, it was flooded. I ended up pulling out all the carpet and taking out the drain plugs.

It was a week.

Deb with a swollen face from a bad case of poison ivy

Cracked windshield of Deb's Jeep after being hit by golf-ball-size hail, viewed from inside looking out

Hail damage on the hood and windshield of Deb's Jeep, viewed from outside

Chris's Jeep Wrangler with doors open, airing out after flooding

ATV covered in wet mats and carpet pulled from the flooded Jeep, drying in the sun

On a lighter note, this year has already taken me to Key West twice, each trip a couple of weeks long. Both times, it was just me, flying in to stay with my elderly aunt so my cousin could get a break from caregiving.

It was a different kind of trip than my usual RV adventures — less sightseeing, more settling in and making myself useful. Since I can work remotely, I was able to bring my job along and still carve out a little time to explore. One of those outings was a visit to the Key West Artisan Market, which ended up turning into its own video.

Deb and her Aunt Sharron taking a selfie together in the pool

View of Key West from the plane while landing

Walking into the Key West airport from the tarmac, with a building sign reading Welcome to the Conch Republic

Evening sunset from Aunt Sharron's balcony, with palm trees in the foreground and a sailboat out on the water

Back on the farm, spring kicked off with our first batch of day-old chicks for the year arriving in April. Not long after that, we also added geese and turkeys to the mix — although the turkeys didn’t exactly turn out well.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it here on the blog, but in February we got our first pigs on the farm. And then, just a few months later, in late May, we got our first litter of piglets.

And they are so adorable!

Four piglets standing in their hut, with the mother pig in the background

June brought some fun outside the usual farm routine, too. We took Chris’s Jeep out to KRocks Recreation Park for the Sunflower Trail Ride, where I rock crawled a Jeep for the first time.

It was a bit muddy — but it was loads of fun!

Deb and Chris standing in front of the Jeep

Side view of the Jeep with the top off, covered in mud

And in between all of that, there’s been the usual daily mix that makes up most of life around here these days: chickens, goats, geese, pigs, and all the other things that come with living on a farm.

If you missed it, I also shared my go-to cinnamon roll recipe back in April — Deb’s Best Homemade Cinnamon Rolls. Still one of my favorites.

If you want to follow along with what’s happening on the farm, the YouTube channel is probably the best place to find it. I’ve been spending a lot more time filming and putting videos together than I ever expected, which is probably why the blog has been a little quieter.

And there’s still plenty of 2023 left.

Who knows what the rest of the year will bring? I know I have at least one more Key West trip planned later this year — and this one will actually be a vacation.

Thanksgiving in Key West? I think I can handle that.