It's been a whirlwind year for us at the Retreat. We've kept busy with guests at the BnB, made new friends and hosted returning guests, held house concerts at least once a month, had a few groups come over for wood-fired pizza dinners, and done lots of maintenance work on the house and yard. And I'm not even going to get into my health/heart issues during the year!
We still enjoy the gorgeous sunsets from the front porch on most evenings.
We just can't seem to let go of volunteering and both Andy and I are still serving on a few boards of nonprofits organizations. After some serious health problems, I've promised myself I'm going to back off of some of those thankless and stressful positions this year. The things I enjoy most -- my gardens, working with children at the art center and the local public school, organizing the house concerts, and working with the Keep Oklahoma Beautiful group -- are going to be my priorities this year.
Keep Oklahoma Beautiful gave Phoenix Circle Foundation a small grant for a teaching garden, and I got several local young people needing community service hours to help set up the garden and plant. We composted our kitchen scraps and added sheep and cow manure to amend the sandy soil and build up rows. Another KOB project that we organized locally was the annual Great American Cleanup, with volunteers from the local high school, 4H, Mercy Hospital, Roman Nose State Park staff and members of Friends of Roman Nose State Park. My efforts to get some recycling going in town are going well, with collection bins at RNSP General Store, the Watonga Airport office, and Hot Dog Joint in Watonga. We have to take what we collect to a recycling center 40 miles away, but it's nice to get out of town -- kill two birds with one stone.
KOB awarded Phoenix Circle Foundation their Environmental Excellence award of Affiliate of the Year for 2019. Our foundation was chosen from cities, nonprofit groups, volunteer groups, civic clubs, from all 77 counties in Oklahoma. What a surprise it was! We were happy to bring the award to Watonga and share with all of the people who volunteered and helped us.
This summer we opened the Art center on Saturday afternoons for kids to come in and just create. We provided all of the supplies, and it was so heart-warming to see how their interest in art and their confidence grew each time they came in.
Drew was commissioned to design and paint a statue of a bison for the nearby town of Okeene, and it as unveiled in November. It stands outside of a gift shop called The Corner at the main intersection in Okeene.
Drew has gone back to school at Southwestern Oklahoma State University to finish his degree and wants to teach art to young people. He is great with kids.
I was asked to do an art "curriculum" for three groups this year: the high school "Eagle Flight" students, the County 4-H kids, and the middle school gifted and talented students. Watonga ArtWorks then hosted an exhibit about Ledger Art during the Watonga Cheese Festival, and had a drawing for a copy of the book, "The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle."
In October Andy and I got to take a trip to New Mexico, saw one of his old classmates and his wife, and attended a wedding at the Rio Grande Gorge. We stayed at three different B&B's, in Albuquerque, Taos, and Santa Fe. It was a true adventure .... a long story I won't include here.
Drew and Jenna are spending this holiday with Jenna's family back east (Tennessee and Maryland) with their dog, Martha. Our dog Sadie misses all of them, as Andy and I do too. We are staying home to take care of all of the animals -- dog, cats, and sheep. Just before Drew and Jenna left town, one of their sheep dropped a lamb and we are expecting another any moment. The lamb is just too cute to even try to describe!! I'll post photos later.
We hope everyone's holidays are all you could wish for, and that the new year brings joy, peace, good health, and new adventures!!
Andy and Linda Barrett
