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Hi Everyone,
This week has been full of pleasant surprises. Sometimes it is very easy for me to get discouraged in life—I like things perfect, and I have a tendency to see the things that are out of order and get discouraged, instead of focusing on the things that are doing great and being encouraged. This week though I could not help but see the sweet little delights of life popping up here and there. There were so many blessings to count….
The Blessing of Singing
I have finally heard the Phoebe bird singing to itself in the mornings, and sometimes throughout the day. When I checked my calendar, I saw that it was the same week in October last year that they returned to the farm. So I guess they arrive in Florida around the 15th of October.
The Blessing of Green
On Monday I noticed a carpet of little green plants popping up all over one of the garden beds. I was so excited. About a month ago we cleaned up the plantain herb bed, and sprinkled the seeds all over the bare ground. I have to admit that I cannot wait until they have nice big leaves so that I can harvest them and dry them so that I can make more salves. Then on Tuesday I found that the mullein was also sprouting in the mullein bed. I have never seen a mullein seed, I just take the dried out flower stalks and beat them all over the freshly weeded dirt and hope for the best. I never know if the seeds have already fallen and blown away by the time I get around to “harvesting them”. In the Echinacea bed I was delighted to find new green growth on most of the plants that we transplanted from another bed—that means that they are going to survive. I also found three little borage plants in the Echinacea bed. I was ecstatic because I had not purchased any of those seeds yet this year, and we really love to have borage plants in the spring garden. They are a beautiful plant, and the flowers when frozen in ice cubes make lovely additions to cold drinks. Those three plants came up from seeds that dropped from the plants last year. If you want plants to self-seed, you have to keep the ground bare—you cannot mulch it. In the past I would always mulch the mullein bed, but the next year I would have to transplant mullein from all over the garden where the seeds had blown to and found dirt to sprout in.
The Blessings of Team Work
The chestnuts have been falling for over a month, and we do not have time to harvest them—instead we have been fattening cows on them. Then a few weeks ago two families contacted us to see about coming and harvesting chestnuts. They came Tuesday afternoon, and there was about twenty of them. They picked on halves, so that in the end they were blessed with many five gallon buckets of chestnuts, and so were we.
On Wednesday we were once again blessed with the help of the Crane’s. They are willing to do anything that needs to be done on the farm, and there was a big variety this week. On Tuesday Mom and I had stood in the driveway discussing the fact that we needed to package eggs—but the other fact that all we wanted to do was go to the garden. Not only do we enjoy working in the garden, but we also had a list of things that needed to be cleaned up and done before the Farm day on Saturday and we had people strolling through the garden. Knowing that the Crane’s and Steve can make quick work of packaging eggs, we opted to spend our time Tuesday in the garden and allow them to package the eggs on Wednesday while we milked the cows. After the eggs were all packaged then they helped bottle the milk, put back the cows, clean up the milking parlor, and pack the order into the van. There was still time to spare, so one made quick work of broadforking a new onion bed for me, and then he joined the other in helping Mom and Steve clean up walkways in the garden. I laugh every time I look at the blooming goldenrod that we consider a weed in the garden, knowing that the van Trapp family had a special place in their Austrian garden for Genuine American Goldenrod. It always amazes me when we find “weed” seed for sale in a flower catalog.
The Blessing of God’s Healing Power
Have you ever thought how terrible it would be if every cut, scrape, bite, break, sprain, or infection never healed. What if we had to live our lives with every sore we ever had—in its raw state? Papa has teased before that the stores would be selling all kinds of “skin glue” or “skin patches” if God hadn’t made our bodies to heal. Two weeks ago our worker Moises sprained his foot real bad, and the inability to walk on it prevented him from coming to work. We greatly missed his help that week, and we were so happy that God was having mercy on him, and has healed his foot enough for him to return to work last Monday. He cannot run a race on it yet, but he can walk, and he can stand—two simple things in life that he could not do two weeks ago.
The Blessing of Friends that Help Teach Patience
On September 3rd, we planted our garden—in seed trays. Three weeks later they were ready to be transplanted out into the garden. One bed was ready for the little transplants, and so we transplanted the Swiss chard into its garden bed. A week later the whole area had sprouted a solid carpet of chicken feed. Sue and Leo, who have been volunteering to play in the garden with us, wisely counselled that we dig back up the Swiss chard and cover the whole garden in silage tarps in order to kill off the unwanted sprouts. They also advised us to transplant all the little seedlings into bigger pots—and so we spent the day potting around 400 plants. Three weeks later those plants were growing like weeds, and were getting pretty tall, lush and healthy looking—and were more than ready to be moved out to the garden bed where they will grow throughout the fall, winter and into the late spring. On Thursday Leo and Sue came over to help in the garden and when they pulled the silage tarps off the only thing they found growing was the impossible to kill nut grass. So we dug them up, and Leo made two more garden beds while Sue, Mom and I transplanted the collards, kale, broccoli, cabbage, Swiss chard, bok choy, cauliflower and lettuce into their new beds.
The Blessings of Deadlines
There are always things that need to be done, things that you want to get done, but cannot find the time to do. There is honestly nothing better than a deadline to help you get the things done that you want to do—but cannot find time to do. It never fails that the garden becomes on the wild side during the summer. Once fall begins, we start cleaning it up little by little. When we plan events though—it helps us to move mountains in a short amount of time. Friday’s goal was to finish weeding around the rose bushes, pruning them, and putting wood chips all around them. We had already swept and washed most of the walkways, but there were still some scraps of wood to pick up here and there. By about 2:00 we were done with what we wanted to accomplish in the garden. Now it was time to head to the kitchen where I had to make yogurt, lip balm, lotion bars, and soothing salve. While I worked on all that, Mom cleaned up the kitchen and poured up the kombucha. I found out that I was low on olive oil, so I could not make more lotion bars—but that was okay, I had my hands full with the lip balm and soothing salve. I managed to get the containers all full by 4:30—and all they had to do was cool off. So Mom and I headed to town to get a friend a wedding gift and to get some much needed groceries. By the time we got to the grocery store I was so tired, that I ended up just getting the bare necessities. It was 7:30 by the time we got home. We brought home salad from Panera Bread, and then we made some chicken and bean soup. My sisters stopped in for a short visit, and after we ate we had dishes to do, receipts to make for the Gainesville delivery, and labels to put on all the lip balms and soothing salves. We finished around 10:00—and I couldn’t get into bed fast enough.
The Blessing that God Controls the Wind and the Rain
Last Sunday I saw that the weather men were predicting rain for Saturday—the day that we had planned for a Farm tour since March. Usually October is our dry month, and you can plan anything in October and not worry about it getting rained out. Well, there was 100% chance of rain predicted for Saturday, and it only grew worse as the week went by. I put on our website that the tour would go on rain or shine—but not everyone wants to “play” in the rain, including my Papa. We got up at 6:00 so that we could get the chores done before the event began. It had been raining through the night, but by the time we got outside it had calmed down. While areas around us were predicting heavy rains and tornadoes, we had cloudy skies and a gentle breeze. A little after 9:00 two families showed up early so that they could watch us milk the cows—and they got to meet our new cow Daisy who was the Poster Cow for our advertisement of the event. There were thirteen children and four adults, and they hung out with us until about 1:30. They not only got to see us milk some of the cows, but they were able to watch us bottle the milk and the kefir, and the children helped put the bottles on the shelves in the walk in cooler. Then the hayride began. We first drove down and around the pond when Papa dropped us off and then headed back up to the field where the sheep were. He let them out and we got to watch as the sheep ran down the lane, into the pond field, and on into their new pasture. Then Papa hooked the tractor back up to the hay wagon and we headed up to the chestnut orchard where the Murray Grey beef cows are getting fat on chestnuts. Now remember, we were on a hayride—and cows love hay. The children couldn’t have been more excited to be surrounded by about fifteen cows including the bull that were happy to eat hay right out of their hands. Getting out of the field was a little tricky—I had to drive the tractor out while Papa kept the cows in. We then drove into the laying chicken field where Sheba came up to say “Hello,” and to check us out. Papa picked up a chicken so that the children could pet her, and then she “flew the coop”. Our next stop was the broiler chickens and the heifer calves. The last stop was the garden. At that point Mom came and lead them through the garden while I went and finished packing the order (she had packed most of it), and finished up the receipts for the Gainesville order. When I was done I tagged Papa to go and pack the order into the van, and then at 1:00 Mom left to make the delivery and then to go to a friend’s daughter’s wedding reception at 4:00. Papa and I finished the tour with the two families, and shortly before Mom left another young lady showed up for the tour. She has a major interest in farming, and wants to learn all that she can—especially about gardening. Instead of a hayride, Papa gave us a tour around the farm in the Gravely. While we were strolling through the garden, a thirty second heavy misty rain blew over us—and then it was done. It was the only rain we had on the tour all day. We had a lovely time, and everyone really enjoyed themselves. When I asked if they had all learned something, one of the boys said yes, “Fences in the city are nice, but country fences are mean (made of hotwire that can give off a good electrical shock).” I asked him if he learned that from experience, or if he had just taken our word for it—he said that he had taken our word for it. I told him he was very wise—if more young people would learn important truths by word of mouth, instead of ignoring the advice and getting hurt in the end.
Yes, we had lots of blessings to be thankful for this week. How many blessings can you count in your life last week?
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare