Looking back 2016

[Lowdown3]

Putting up new calendars I found a note on one of the peg boards with some 2016 to do stuff. This was all mostly prep related stuff.

Seems like their is always some carry over to the next year items on these lists. Some things listed were part of longer term projects (how do you eat an elephant? type stuff).

*Finished fencing all the property lines. Done this summer.
*Some cross fencing and tightening up for cattle pasture- last short section finishing today.
*Finish gutters on house and outbuildings. Done. Water tanks in place for catchment.
*Long term project- rip out, thoroughly clean, paint and re-do the interior of a building. In the re building phase right now.
*New stairs for the house- did not even get started.
*Finish 2 more wells- did not get done.
*Dental work finished up for family- done.

Setbacks-

Tore my MCL with an unnerving loud POP! the very first of 16. Sucked to limp around SHOT in January. Doc friend got me hooked up with a $200. MRI and that confirmed partial tear. I was down for about six weeks. After gaining some lbs. the last time I had a knee injury and was out of it for a time, I cut back drastically and wrote down all calories during that time I was out and actually lost about 8 lbs. Went to the physical terrorist one time, he showed me exercises and specific stretches to do, I asked him could I start jogging again and he had me jog on his treadmill and said "just go slow till you feel like it's back to normal." I love medical people like that- not "you must sit on your arse for the next 10 years and take all these drugs" but "listen to your body and how you feel, work back slowly till things feel normal." The time out for that injury slowed down my first couple months of the year. By mid March I was able to go up and freeze my butt off at MVT's first Force on Force tactics class (30 and snowing). I realized that in 30 years, that was the first time I had truly trained IN SNOW!

Now I have to figure priorities in 17 and the works begins again.

What's your plans/goals for 2017?

[norincofl]

Cool. I'll play along.

2016 was a great year for our family. I didn't spend much time training by target shooting, but made time to complete a few endurance events as well as weekly physical training with a barbell and our local rucking group. I pulled a muscle in my back late spring and spent a few months with a chiropractor getting everything put back together. I could still train around the injury but I still lost some strength in a couple of lifts.

The rucking group mentioned above as well as a weekly men's bible study I attend provides the fellowship and community we all need and want.

2016 was spent planting fruit and nut trees. I'm up to almost 30 trees in the orchard. My sweet potatoes were almost all eaten by the local deer population and my yams were laid to waste by an errant slip of the weedwacker. The biggest gardening sucess this year was our cassava beds and chaya. Pest free, drought tolerant and grew like weeds.

I read 3 or 4 gardening related books this year.

I plan to get away in 2017 for a firearms class out of state and one or two endurance events. Will continue regular barbell strength training. The first week or two in January will be spent improving our orchard irrigation system. I plan to expand my perennial vining crops in the spring with more tindora, chayote,yams and a few edibles like pigeon pea and tree collards.

[protus]

16' was my all go wrong year. From injuries..deaths..work..etc.

Got my garden re fenced and tilled...cut wood..started a new hobby. But that's it outside of normal life.
17 is a family joint effort to lose lbs ...get back into our prep routines....

[jimmycthemd]

16 had its good points and bad points.

Bad points:

3 cars totaled in accidents. 2 were my 24yo son. 1 not his fault (broad sided by lady running a red light...no serious injuries), 1 rolled over and a dui...10k so far in legal bills, etc. Again no one seriously injured. My wife and I got rear-ended by a 17yo while we were sitting still, waiting for a vehicle in front of us to make a left turn. Again, no serious injuries.

Got laid off from a job...about 6 weeks between that and finding current job.

The good:

Found a better job working from home. Saving money on the commute and better security since I'm home all day.

Decided not to replace my wifes' car and save the insurance payment. It was paid for and banked the pay-out which was actually more than I thought it was worth. We had 3 vehicles (2 cars 1 truck) and went down to a car and truck. Truck is a 1 ton dually diesel so sucks fuel, but more cost-effective than replacing her car...she's now driving mine (now hers LOL).

Purchased and started using pistol laser trainers, increasing accuracy and allowing me to 'range' different areas around the house/property.

Had bumper crop of tomatoes from the garden. The rest produced 'normally'.

17

The big thing is that our house will be paid off in Q3 of this year (yeah!!!). At that point we will be totally debt-free. We have no vehicle or credit card payments so the reserve accounts will be beefed up significantly (hope, hope).

Now that I'm saving commute time (used to be 3/4 to 1 1/2 hour each way), hoping to resume a decent exercise regimen. Part of the start of this will be a morning/lunch/after work 'walk about' around the neighborhood (kind of a one-person foot patrol). Can't run much at all because of bad knees (military).

Hoping to expand the garden a little but we'll see how that goes.