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Hi Everyone,
Today is Resurrection Sunday and did you know that we were all born sinners? Not too bad if all we have to live for is today—but what if there is life after death? Then what? What if we will one day be held accountable for the way we live? The Bible clearly states that the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see—Christ died for our sins, and was buried, and then he rose again the third day—and when we admit that we are sinners, and we look to Jesus to forgive us of our sins and pay the debt that we owe, then He blesses us with eternal life and gives us newness of life.
Speaking of new life—I headed out with Papa to separate the calves for the evening and Papa announced that a baby was on the way. This morning while we were milking we were discussing the toss up of who would have their calf first—Ana who had a large udder, but her bottom was not swelling yet; or Emma who had a small udder and whose bottom was swelling. Emma was due last Friday, but we had no idea when Ana was due—some do their business in secret. As I got closer to the laboring cow I realized that Ana was the winner. We stood and watched her give birth to a nice size, red colored bull. I really felt sorry for Ana—for her birth was not exactly perfect timing. Once we separated the calves, then we put the cows in the green field for a few hours. Poor Ana was mooing after the cows, and mooing at her little calf—she wanted to go with the crowd to “dine out”, but she was a new mother and must stay home and take care of her little one.
I do not know about you, but ever since the time changed I have been extra tired. It gets worse daily—and it sure doesn’t help that this is our busiest time of the year. On Monday I was not the only one tired—our worker Steve was too. So I decided to “gentle weed”. We desperately need to be weeding the long rows so that they will be ready to plant in a few weeks—but we just didn’t have the energy. The raised beds needed a desperate weeding—and the majority of the weeds were nothing more that Carolina geranium. They were very healthy weeds, and were so big that when you pulled up one of them you cleared an area that was a foot square. They were easy to pull, and huge areas were cleared in no time flat. Most of the weeding was done sitting down—yep, it was a lazy weed day! By the end of the day we had made twelve to fifteen beds in tip top shape.
Tuesday brought rain—you know March showers bring April flowers! Yes, I know the real saying is April showers bring May flowers—but hey, we live in the south so things happen a month earlier. The flowers are beginning to pop—especially the roses. Some of the roses bloom in clusters, but some are long stem and I cannot wait to pick a bouquet. I have already been picking bouquets from the garden and after watching a few floral arrangement videos I don’t just look at the “flowers” but I also eye the vegetables and the weeds for fillers in the arrangement. Asparagus tops make great ferny filler, and wild grass seed stems add nice little accents. The apple mint adds some green filler that smells good too! I had one goal on Tuesday though—clean up the kale. Aphids have invaded two rows of our kale and many of the leaves were too big, too buggy and too old to sell. I needed to clean out the bad leaves so that I could figure out what to do with the aphids. We refuse to use chemicals on the garden—and that includes soap since most soap is made from corn and I and some of our customers are allergic to corn so I cannot spray the leaves with soapy water to kill the aphids. I was fixing to test whey, but then I got an article about using Epson salt—I think that I shall give it a try. Kale is one of our best sellers—but I refuse to sell bugs for I always grossed out when I bought broccoli in the grocery store and got it home and found out that it was invaded with aphids. So, even though it was raining, I jumped in the truck and drove out to the garden. I grabbed a big tub, some tools, and stuffed a cushion in a plastic bag and headed for the caterpillar tunnel where the kale was growing. How nice it is to have a covered garden—you can still work in the rain! I cleaned up all the kale and I pulled up the broccoli plants that had gone to seed. Thankfully it stopped raining so that I could dump the tub in the back of the truck when it got full.
I think that right now we could honestly hang a sign that say “Pardon our mess, we are under construction”. Everywhere you look there is a mess. Someone came by Saturday afternoon and said that our place was so big we could use 100 helpers—and he was right. Our milking parlor is getting closer to being done, our septic tank drain field is being dug out and replaced with sand instead of clay, Mom is digging up all the elephant grass, elderberries and mucking the heifer hay barn, Papa has piles of hay all over the pastures that he is picking up (cows are so wasteful) and he is spreading dirt around in holes. Mom is also digging up grass in the courtyard so that she can replace it with flowers. Yes, it is truly a “Work Zone”.
Friday we were supposed to deliver a calf to Morningside Nature Center in Gainesville—but at 10:00 Thursday night I remembered that the tires on the trailer needed to be replaced. Therefore, we had to reschedule the delivery. It worked out okay, because a family that lives in Tennessee who is looking to move to the area called and wanted to come by for a tour and to buy some products—so we spent our afternoon with them. By “we” I mean Mom and I, because poor Papa had come down with a cold and was feeling very under the weather. One of our favorite foods when someone is sick is Chicken Noodle Soup. It has been a while since we have had any—but Mom asked if I would make some for lunch and it tasted O so good! Actually it was so good, that since we were exhausted later that evening we had it for dinner too.
Saturday we woke up to a spring frost—it always happens around Easter. Steve and I spent Thursday covering the potatoes, cantaloupe, and one of the bleeding heart vines (the others were still hidden in a mess of weeds). The rest of the garden that had little green sprouts in it was too big to cover—so we turned on the sprinklers to wash off the frost and save the plants. Thankfully it all worked! Only a few okra sprouts got bit, but everything else did perfectly fine. Praise the Lord! The worst part was that the whole farm doesn’t have that lush spring green color anymore. The grasses got bit pretty badly—but it will be warm this week and there is more rain in the forecast. I think that it shall turn green again real quick!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare