One of the first things I shared on steemit was our son's wedding last August. The happy couple are quickly coming up on their first anniversary! They still have their steemit accounts and intentions of getting active again but raising three toddlers pretty well chews up their time these days!

In September, I shared the view from Brundage Mountain, our local ski resort. They offer mountain biking in the summer, or you can just go up and check out the amazing view.

By October, I had learned to take selfies for the epic selfie contest hosted by @papa-pepper. I was using this new-found skill to join other contests too, like the beer challenge by @craigcryptoking.

It took a bit of prodding, but I soon had my husband in on the silliness, too!

Before long, I was dragging the entire neighborhood into the game. Moments like this make you REALLY love your neighbors!

In November, I shared my love of the shiny and won a 2017 Steemit Round from @papa-pepper with this contest entry:

In December, I shared the musical um... "talents" of our local Whoville Choir. We may not sound that fabulous, but our little community LOVES US and we love to sing for them.

Even my sweet, delicate fellow choir members got in on the selfie contest...

In January, I took you all along to our favorite restaurant and we all sat at "r" table and had a toast to the new year and the older me! This b-b-q joint is a ways down the road for us, so we only get there 3 or 4 times a year. Behind @warpedweaver is a brand on the wall M/C - our initials. We have been in there when the place was nearly full, and that table has been open and waiting for us almost every single time... It is totally "r" table lol!

February saw two new additions to the homestead, as Stinkerbelle and Tricksy both delivered their first healthy calves and Bessie Moo became a grannycow!

March was when I decided to try to park my truck in the creek. I am going to have to drive back out there soon and see how it looks. That area is probably burned off now.

April, of course, brought spring showers...



The rain, of course, led to May flowers (not the ship...)



June brought me new shiny in the mail!!! 2018 Steemit rounds, fresh from the mint!

July brought the fire. Going through photos to make this post was a little hard. I have hundreds of pictures of flowers and trees that are probably dead now. I KNOW it will regenerate the forest, but it is still hard. Those plants are alive, they are my friends, I grieve their loss. That does not diminish how grateful I am that it got no closer to us than this:

Here we are at August again...
We just had our wedding anniversary and we shared that with you all, too...

A full year of memories, and I have barely scratched the surface of what steemit has meant to me. I am a writer, just by nature. If you took away my keyboard I would get a pen. If you took away my pen I would scratch in the dirt. I just WRITE, it is how I process information. The ability to come here and just WRITE, about whatever strikes my fancy on any given day, has been an incredible gift. To be able to make a little crypto is a nice bonus, but coming here is where I learned what crypto was all about. The crypto would never have brought me here without the writing aspect. I had been pretty anti-bitcoin before I came here for an education. Finding the steem-silver-gold community here has really helped me blend "old me" (a silverbug) with the new crypto-updated me. The artist community here has inspired me to get back into writing poetry and making music, a HUGE thank you to @enginewitty, @angelveselinov and @luzcypher for their support of steemit's artists, even the hacks like me! There was even a "Vision Quest" going on for a while that helped me get back into creatively expressing my spiritual side (thanks, @cabelindsay!) My photography skills are MUCH improved, thanks in no small part to the great photographers here like @tattoodjay. I HOPE my blogging is also better, I do want to thank @c0ff33a for inspiring me to try some new things and up my blogging game.

I thought I would be like "Permaculture Woman" here but it turned out there were a TON of people who already understood the concept and were doing a fine job teaching it. I still owe @mariannewest some podcasts, this living dynamo is one of those people. I am still not disciplined or good at it but with her help, I learned to do podcasts because of steemit.

He has left the platform now, but I still want to give a shoutout to @libertyteeth, the first "old friend" I found here, and I found him almost immediately. He and I were buddies back in the Ron Paul campaign on an RP forum. Indeed, the only "old buddies" I have found here are liberty lovers I met along the way... I find that to be among the BEST things about steemit. Liberty is well understood and appreciated here!

One last "thank you" to the youtuber who convinced me to come check out steemit, @joshsigurdson. I am not going to try to list everyone I would like to thank, there have been just so many kind words and deeds on this journey I would miss too many people if I even tried. Let it suffice to say this has been the most amazing online experience of my life. I have laughed, cried, bitched, moaned and threatened to leave over and over but the truth is simple: This platform is STILL a one of a kind, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it, sharing this grand adventure with YOU!

In the coming year, I HOPE to focus a little more on the art and music, although I seem to be getting sucked back into politics these days so do not be surprised to see more commentary on that topic, mostly as it relates to things like the metals market and TRUTH. Funny, but I find politics a much better arena for disseminating and discussing real, core truth than religion... lol! I also hope to improve my photography skills. I am blessed to live in SUCH a beautiful place, I hope to share that beauty more effectively. I look forward to keeping up with the friends I have made and making new friends. I had hoped to help host a Pacific Northwest Steemit Meet and Greet with @arbitrarykitten this year but her life got tossed through a tunnel, maybe next year something like that could happen...?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP AND SUPPORT!

Here's to another GREAT YEAR AHEAD!