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Hi Everyone,
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers! I hope that you have had a wonderful day. I have a standing tradition of picking Mom a bouquet of flowers from the wild—or in the past few years, from our garden. I was too busy yesterday to pick a bouquet, and had plans of going to the garden with Mom when we got home from church and strolling through the garden together gathering flowers. Alas, the storm clouds were brewing when we got home, and poor Mom who didn’t even get to go to church because she has a cold, was too weak to even go to the garden. Even though I wasn’t able to go out to the garden and pick a fresh bouquet, the two plants that will be coming in the mail this week will supply her with a longer living bouquet of flowers. Mom has wanted clematis for years, and I decided that this was the year to fulfill her dream. Clematis’s look best when intertwined in a rose bush—so of course a rose bush is coming in the mail with her new purple clematis.
Workouts with a Purpose
Life here on the farm this week has definitely eliminated any need for a membership at some gym. I am one of those who only like to “work out” with a purpose. For me the best cardio workout is done by using the shuffle hoe and weeding all the walkways between the vegetable beds. Half way through it my heart is pounding out of my chest. By the time that is all done, I am really ready for the sofa, but no there is more to do. I give my triceps and my biceps a good work out as I shovel dirt from the compost yard, and then use the garden rake to spread it around in the beds. Next there are deep knee bends and stomach crunches as I squat and bend over to plant all the white flower plants for the white flower bed. The shoulders get a good work out by pulling weeds—the size of the weed determines the amount of exertion to the muscles. Steve was getting his workout by removing an old woodchip mound that had become infested with nasty weeds. He shoveled it into the wheelbarrow, and then wheeled it out to a bull hole. (Yes, bulls dig holes big enough to plant trees in.)He didn’t need to walk on no treadmill, for if he wasn’t pushing the wheelbarrow, he was being dragged along by the tiller as he tilled up the weedy dirt around the pumpkins. Yep, by the time 4:30 rolled around Monday afternoon, not a one of us needed to head to a gym—a tub soak and the sofa sounded better. That had to wait though until after we cooked dinner.
The Perfume Factory
You can tell that May has arrived even if you do not have a calendar to tell you so. As long as you have a nose that works, you can tell that it is May. Two of the most pungent smelling trees bloom in May—the chestnuts and the mimosas. The mimosa has a pretty pink fiber optic looking flower that is so delicate—it has a very strong, but sweet smell. The chestnut on the other hand has long white tassels that have a smell that causes a sense of nausea. The smell is foul to me, and someone described it as a Sulphur smell. I read that it is a smell that could ruin a back yard barbeque. I totally agree—it is not the romantic smell you care to enjoy while eating breakfast on the porch. We have six acres of chestnut trees, and mimosas dotted all around us, therefore, we smell like a perfume factory lately.
The Skinless Caterpillar
Back in December right before the first freeze, we worked hard one day to cover our caterpillar tunnel with plastic. It did an excellent job all winter protecting the crops from damaging frost and freezing temperatures. As April rolled around, the days began to get hotter, and the plants began to suffer a little from the heat—but there was no time to remove the plastic covering. Tuesday was the day that the tunnel made it to the top of the priority list. As soon as we finished milking the cows, and bottling the milk and kefir it was going on noon—so we broke for lunch. When lunch was done we headed to the garden to unhook the wiggle wires from the ends of the plastic. Then we unstrung the mile of rope that was crisscrossed back and forth over the top of the plastic to hold it down. Two people stood on each side of the tunnel and we tugged on one rope, then the people on the other side would pull it their way. Then they would tug on the next rope, and they would pull it to the other side. We did that back and forth until the rope was all unstrung, and wound up on a spool. Then we grabbed the plastic and slid it off of the tunnel—leaving just the ribs of the caterpillar exposed. Once the 60 feet of plastic was on the ground we each got a corner and began the process of folding it up. Once it was folded into a very long and skinny rectangle, Mom and Papa began to roll it up to the other end. Papa then tied it up and Steve buried it in the garden shed until next winter. Once the winter veggies are finished, we are considering buying a shade cloth to go over the caterpillar frame and raise a batch of chickens in it so that they can compost all the garden scraps.
Finding a Mate
I wish that finding a mate was as easy as the local bluebird has made it out to be, but then I do have pretty high standards. The back yard bluebird had no problem finding a mate though—even though the story starts off sad, it does have a happy ending. One day last week Mom came back from the garden and detoured over to the bluebird house. When she peeked inside she was horrified to find a beheaded female bluebird. Mom took her out, and saw that she had been sitting on four eggs. We are not sure what would get into a bluebird nest and only eat the head of the bird. L The next day we were all ready to cry as the male bluebird would sit on the roof of his nest, then fly down and look inside, then fly back up to the top and chirp away bemoaning his loss. For days he did this—frantically looking inside searching for his wife, then sitting back on the roof calling for her. He knew that someone needed to be sitting on those eggs. Then a few days later a new female bluebird arrived! J The old eggs were bad by now, but the new couple wasted no time in building a new nest—on top of the old nest. They have been fluttering here and there, flying in and out of their little home. Now we shall wait and see what happens next.
Three Crazy Days and One sick Mom
When I spent hours and hours planning the dates that we would get baby chicks in the mail, and the dates that we would harvest them, I did not look at the gardening calendar at what dates were good for planting and harvesting the garden. To my dismay the last two times we have harvested the chickens; the garden calendar also said that it was time to plant parts of the garden. I have to say, that if we didn’t plant according to the moon we would never find the time to plant our garden. So, in three days we had seeds to plant, chickens to process, and veggies to harvest—and to make matters worse, Mom was very sick with a cold. She had very little energy, and we had no help. Thankfully we did have Moises to help with the cows while we milked, and to wash up all the milking equipment. Thursday morning Mom was not sure that she could do anything—but deemed it best that we start processing chickens that day so that we did not have to do all of them in one day since Mom felt so bad. Energy was low, but a steady determination helped us to accomplish our tasks that lay ahead. Our day started outside at 8:00 with milking and Papa gathering up 20 chickens. When the milking was over, Mom rested while Moises and I bottled the milk. Then Mom and I set up the Poultry Kitchen for butchering and we were ready to begin by noon. It was 1:15 when we finished the last bird, and 1:45 when we had everything iced down and cleaned up so that we could go eat lunch. After lunch Papa (who was still recovering from his cold) told Mom to set a 30 minute timer so that they could take a nap in order to have enough energy to finish all that had to be done. I headed to the garden to plant the Chinese red noodle beans (after I pulled all the pea vines off of the trellis and fed them to the chickens, and weeded the bed). Then I planted some zinnias in the rose bed beside the Garden Shed (after I weeded it, and added a wheelbarrow of compost that I shoveled out of the Poultry compost yard). I thought that I needed to replant a bed of okra—but to my delight it was up and growing (maybe I had already replanted itJ). I then gathered some carrots and onions for dinner. As I was cleaning them up the bell at the milk house rang—we had customers. So I headed up to take care of them. Then I had to make yogurt and get my chicken in the oven for dinner, hang clothes on the clothesline, and head back to the Poultry Kitchen to help Mom package all the parts from the chickens that we had processed earlier that day. We finished there around 4:30 and I headed inside to do the dishes for the day. At 5:00 I grabbed my purse and the van keys and headed to Publix to get some groceries. I got home around 6:15, and while Mom put the groceries away, I finished dinner. Then there were dishes to do, and two bottle lambs to feed—that was just the first day.
The second day (Friday) found us exhausted from the day before, but another day was starring us in the face. We milked the cows, and then Mom went to rest. Moises bottled the milk by himself, and I bottled the kefir. Then I headed over to the Poultry Kitchen and got it all set up. It was 12:30 when we were ready to process the last 20 chickens (our plan is to process 40 chickens every two weeks, but preferably all in one day). It was around 2:00 when we were done and ready to fix lunch. At 3:00 we headed back to the Poultry kitchen to package the chickens—some whole, and some cut up. At 6:00 we were all done and came inside and crashed on the sofa until 6:30 when we convinced ourselves to get up and fix dinner. When dinner was over we relaxed a little more before Mom did the dishes, Papa fed the lambs, and I put together the orders for the Gainesville delivery.
Saturday we had another busy day, but we took it at a slower pace. We got the milking done, and then Moises and I bottled the milk—Papa came to help after he finished all his morning chores. Then I packed the order for Gainesville and finished up the receipts. After lunch I crashed on the sofa for a little while. When I woke up, Mom and I looked at gardening pictures and videos. Then we headed to the Poultry Kitchen to package chickens. I helped Mom package the whole chickens, then while she cut up 8 chickens I headed to the garden to harvest two beds of carrots and about two beds of Vidalia onions. I planted carrots every month all fall and winter. I found out that you cannot plant a row this month, then another row next month, then another the next—because the first row gets too big and overshadows the second row and stunts the growth. It is best to plant a whole bed at a time. I also planted a different variety every time, so now I know which ones I do not like and which ones I do. When I got back from the garden, Mom had all the chickens cut up and packaged. She was labeling them, and I came in to weigh them. When we got them to the freezer, I began to cut the tops off of the carrots while Mom cleaned up the Poultry Kitchen. When she was done she came and helped me cut the tops and the roots off of the onions. We ran out of time to pack the carrots in sand, but the onions we did get laid out in the new shed so that they can cure. It would be nice to have our make shift “Root Cellar” done in a few weeks when the onions will be ready for storage. In the past we have stored them in the cooler—but 36 degrees is too cold and the onions freeze. In our pantry it is too hot, and they sprout. It was after 6:00 by now, and it was dinner time.
Yep, it was one busy week. Hopefully this week will not be so full.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare