HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The first New Year's greeting on January 1 occurred in 45 B.C. in Italy with the adoption of the Julian calendar.
Yes, I am old, but no, I was not there to take part in the first happy new year.
I am not sure that it turned out happy.
The year 2017 turned out to be a good one for me and my house. There were some setbacks but there were many blessings, as well, and by year's end, the blessings outweighed the setbacks. I give credit to Our  Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The national news media would have us believe 2017 has been a terrible year; moreover, they seem to indicate that no year will ever be good as long as Mr. Trump is the president. Well, we elected him, and there are reasons we elected him, and I wish the Republican Congress would help him do what we elected him to do.
That is enough of that. For the most part, I live quite locally, starting right here at The Ozarks Almanac, the office of which is in our home here on what I like to call Mountain Meadow Farm. I like to call it that, though it is in no way a farm. Not yet. There is still work to do, but I remain positive regarding my role in the world of agriculture.
Concerning politics and government, my interest is in local government, a subject I have long held close to my heart. Local government is what is most important, I think, for it is the government that touches me the closest every day. The streets I drive on, the electrical lines to my home and office, the law enforcement and fire protection--these are all the result of local government. So is the education our children receive, and the care we receive in our county-owned regional medical center.
By day, I work for a big-box Fortune 50 home improvement store, doing primarily manual labor. By evening, I work for a local newspaper, covering local government.
I try to work in some postings here, but I have been sporadic at best. Nevertheless, I have a growing readership, primarily of people who used to live in Rolla, Phelps County, the Missouri Ozarks, Missouri, and of people who want to live in a rural or small-town place like this one.
So to them, and to you, I say, as I suppose they did in 45 B.C., "Happy New Year!" It's been a good year in 2017, but it will be a better and happier one in 2018 with our faith and our works.