This year we’ve had a few requests to make our annual “A Year at Curbstone Valley Farm” calendar available a little earlier than usual, to allow plenty of time for shipping before the holidays. So here it is! We now have the proofs in hand, and are very happy with how this year’s calendar has turned out.
Our proof copy just arrived!
The calendar is something we put together for ourselves. It’s fun each year to look back on pictures from the farm the previous year, rather than stare at a generic wall calendar. We use a print-on-demand service, so our calendars are simply printed as they are ordered, making it easy for us to offer copies to anyone that would like one.
We had a few technical difficulties assembling this year’s calendar, as the farm’s main computer recently had a major meltdown. Our priority was salvaging data, but the entire operating system, and all the software we use had to be reinstalled before we could finalize the proofs. I had hoped to have the calendar available over a week ago, but needless to say we got a little sidetracked.
This not something you ever want to see on your computer monitor. It’s also why data backups are important, especially for bloggers and photographers!
This type of unpredictable digital behavior is exactly why I continue, even in the 21st Century, to rely on pencil and paper for keeping our schedule on track. Don’t get me wrong, I use computers every day, and they once were my livelihood, I just don’t trust them. Computers, tablets, and smart phones can, and often do, fail. Hard drives crash, digital synapses implode, and bits are subsequently scattered across the digital ether with little to no warning. In other words, I often find them to be wholly unreliable. It’s one thing for the computer to be offline for 3 or 4 days, but that’s not an option for the farm!
Thus far though, pencil and paper has yet to fail me…unless of course I forget to write something down in the first place…ahem!
For the calendar this year, we’ve chosen to stay with the same layout as we have the last two years. It’s a large-format twelve month calendar, printed on gloss-white paper, and spiral bound, with a hole for hanging, at the top. Each month is a full page measuring 13.5 x 19 inches tall.
Each page measures 13.5″x19″ with plenty of room to write (click image to enlarge)
The consensus was to stick with the multi-image format that we used last year, so again for 2013 there are three of our favorite photographs from the blog to highlight each month.
There’s plenty of room to write important dates, and events, and the major US holidays are noted throughout the year.
Each calendar page contains an assortment of 3 images that were taken around the farm this year
The print-on-demand company needs approximately one week to fill orders (US domestic), and does ship internationally, but may need a little more lead time to complete international orders, so order early! If you’d prefer the calendar be formatted with international dates of interest for where you are (Canada, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, France), contact us directly and we’ll try to make that available for you.
Of course, this year the most noteworthy event on the farm was the arrival of our first dairy goats, Lotus and Minnie. As we mentioned previously the girls made the cover, and are also featured in March, as kids, and again in September, all grown up!
The cover girls…Minnie & Lotus
It’s not all about the goats though, as there are also photographs of the gardens, honey bees, native bees, poultry, and native plants. For a full online preview, click through the forward and back buttons at the bottom of the box below. You can also preview in full screen mode:
Our 2012 Calendar was very well used this year, and helped us keep the barn building and tomato grafting on track. Hopefully this edition will keep us organized next year too, as we have no end of projects left to complete!
To order, either click the box above, or the “Lulu Buy Now” button in the right side bar. Enjoy!
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Each calendar is $28 (US), plus shipping.
Now through November 23, 2012, get 20% off when ordering 1-9 calendars! Enter coupon code “CHRONICLE” on checkout at Lulu.com Note, this coupon can only be used ONCE per account.
Awww, how fun that the goats made the cover! It’s a beautiful calendar full of memories!
Thanks! I’m very happy with how it turned out this year, and at least I know that, unlike my computer, it won’t crash! 😉
Great looking cover! The girls are very photogenic. I’m not sure if we will create a HA calcendar this year or not. As for the computer meltdown, I do know the feeling. And as an IT guy I always have backups of my backups, just in case!
We had a pair of mirrored drives, and an external backup. Ultimately, only the external backup survived, which proves you can never have too many copies of important files! We’re now looking into using an offsite Cloud backup service, just as extra insurance!
Well my plan to make my own calendar did not happen this year…love yours and the cover this year.
They do take some time to put together, and sometimes other things have to take priority. Ours almost didn’t happen either! 😛
Love that picture of the girls and thanks for the reminder about backing up. I think I need to do a major back up of photographs in the coming months as I’ve been very neglectful of that lately.
Most of the data on the computer that crashed was images. It’s amazing these days how large a volume of data can be accumulated just from photographs alone! 😯
As always, you’ve chosen a wonderful collection of images. While the goats are delightful, my favorite images are the bees and honey for July. This post reminds me that I need to start getting organized for my own gift calendars! (How did it get to be November already??)
I have no idea how it got to be November so quickly! I swear we were just bottle feeding those goats, as babies. It doesn’t help that here, in early November, the weather is as warm as May or June! Late spring weather makes it even easier to be in denial that the end of the year is fast approaching!
I just love that cover picture! Such personality shining through! The shot of your computer melting down is super scary. I hadn’t really thought about backing up my photos before. Losing everything could be quite distressful. Thanks for the reminder!
I love it too, mostly because it’s impossible to get both goats facing the camera at the same time while they’re being still! 😉
It’s definitely good to look into backing up your pictures. It’s so easy to take them these days, as they’re digital, but ensuring they’re preserved and safe in the long term isn’t as easy. I’ve started grouping my photographs so that copies of my best original image files are put in a folder separately, and backed up in multiple places. If I tried to back up everything in more than one place, I’d need to buy a LOT more drive storage! 😀
Your calendar looks great! I love the cover girls shot!
My husband fusses at me because I don’t put my schedule and important appointments on the computer but instead rely on an old fashioned daily planner, which I keep handy in my purse. I jokingly call it my brain. I recently panicked when I couldn’t find it and was wishing I had put the important things on the computer as a back-up. In the end it turned out OK when I found it – in my lunch box I carry to work!
A beautiful calendar, Clare. I really like the goats on the front…a perfect choice. One thing that I think would be nice is if Lulu allowed us to add more options for garden planning on these calendars. It was an interesting process to create one, however.