525
Hi Everyone,
Well . . . I haven’t written a journal since last month, and since then so much has happened. My Papa even got a whole year older since the last time I wrote. By the way he gets around and the way he can still wrestle with a cow you would never guess that he just turned 73. Here on the farm he is the strength and the encourager—he is the steady who does what has to be done every day no matter what (let out the chickens, bring in the cows, move the animals, gather the eggs—in the cold or heat, rain or shine). To many he is Farmer Tom, to Mom he is “Dear” and to me—he is Papa! I am grateful for every year I have been blessed to be able to spend it with him. Happy Birthday Papa!
A few weeks ago Mom and I went to an organic nursery where we purchased a lot of herbs, some more roses, and a mulberry tree. Last Tuesday we finally got around to planting them—well most of them. In order to get them planted though we had to prepare the beds—do some weeding. The peppermint, spearmint, and winter savory do not enjoy our summer heat, so I thought that just maybe I can get them to survive better if we planted them under the Ponderosa lemon tree in the garden. I already had peppermint in one bed—but the weeds were chocking it and so I carefully pulled out the weeds giving the straggly peppermint a chance to breathe and then I planted three new plants in the bed to help fill it in. Steve and Mom weeded the other beds and the walkways—then Mom planted the winter savory in one bed and I planted the spearmint in the other bed. There are four (4 x4) beds under the lemon tree. While Mom and Steve weeded and added some more dirt and compost to the beds, I worked over in a new bed—the one where Steve and I pulled up all the elderberry trees. My goal is to take back the garden from the elderberries—and the best way is to pull them up by the roots and then plant something else there. The first bed that we tackled was under the oak tree and I thought that it would be a good place to grow some tomato plants. They do not like our summer heat and sun either—and so some shade will do them good. I really never have much grand success with tomatoes—but I still give them a try every once in a while. I have one cherry tomato plant and one slicing tomato plant. I hope to add some basil and lettuce or marigolds to the bed along with the tomatoes. I put a metal panel around the bed so that no critter can get in—cause every time I fill a hole with manure compost some critter comes along and digs up my plants. I put up a trellis where the tomatoes were planted to give them support. On the other end of the garden—in the Summer Garden (where the tunnels used to be) the green beans are producing nicely. We pickled the first few pickings and then we canned the next few pickings—plus eaten a few meals of fresh cooked green beans. My favorite way is to sauté them in butter with garlic, salt, pepper, and ground lemon peel. Green beans are not the only thing that I have been harvesting lately—the rest of the onions matured and I was able to pull them up Thursday afternoon and get them put in the barn on the drying racks. A lot of the onions flowered this year. I know that they will not be good keepers so I will probably dehydrate them, and save the “good” ones for fresh eating and cooking.
We are rejoicing for the first time in two years over the amount of milk that we are getting. With three freshened cows we are finally getting over 20 gallons of milk most days. I say most days because some days the cows graze a field that isn’t as lush as the next—and the milk production goes down the next day. Each field is different and you can watch the milk supply fluctuate according to the field that they grazed in the day or two before. While Buttercup is not a newly freshened cow, she is a new cow to the herd—and she is also to be thanked for the increase in milk. We are most thankful that after three weeks of working with her she is finally coming in all by herself. We just open the wire and call her in, and she quickly comes in and goes straight into her stall to be milked.
One morning last week Goose was up the lane honking pretty early—like around 4:00 in the morning. Later that morning we figured out why. His duck buddy at the pond had gone missing, and one of the female geese was wounded. Don’t know what got them—but the female goose gave a pretty good fight, but she still succumbed to her wounds a few days later. That leaves us with one female goose at the pond. She is 15 to 17 years old—not sure if she is my original Mother Goose, or if she was one of the offspring. Papa Gander lost his life to a bobcat about eight years ago. Goose (our male goose that we just moved from the duck house to the pond a few weeks ago) decided that life at the pond was too dangerous and he came back up to hang out with his duck friends. Hopefully he will mind his manners, for he was getting a little too feisty with people and that is why we moved him to the pond.
May started off full speed ahead. Thursday morning one of my journal readers came over to learn about beef cows—it was such a blessing to finally meet him and his wife after a year of little emails back and forth here and there. Then after lunch I made yogurt and then we had an egg packaging party. For twenty years we have packaged eggs on Tuesday afternoon—but we decided that for now Thursday afternoons would work best for us. Once the eggs were all packaged I headed to the garden to harvest the green beans and the onions, and Mom jumped on the mower.
Friday morning started early with the gathering of the chickens that we were to process later that day. There were 71 chickens—which is the most we have had to process at one time for over a year. So as soon as breakfast was over we milked the cows and did the morning chores. Then at 11:30 we set up the Poultry kitchen for processing and were ready to begin by noon. It took us an hour and a half to process them, and then another two and a half hours to cut up 20 and package all the birds. It was 4:00 when we were done with the chickens—but not with the day’s work. When we came inside we relaxed for about an hour—but our hands were not relaxing because we were snapping beans. Then I was to start dinner and Mom and Papa went outside to separate the calves. Once outside though they found out that the sheep had scattered themselves through quite a few fields. They were in the pond field, but once they were done eating the grass around the pond they decided to help themselves to the other pastures. They had to round them up and get them confined to one field. If they run loose they will eat all the grass up quickly and there will be none left. We are thankful for every drop of rain we get to help the grass grow. By the time Mom came back inside I had dinner started and the green beans ready to go into the jars and be canned.
We started Saturday at 6:00. Mom and I set up the milking equipment and then while I bottled the kefir Mom packed the Gainesville order. Papa cooked breakfast and then we headed out to milk the cows and do the morning chores. At 11:00 a church group arrived from Jacksonville for a Farm Tour. There were over forty people here. Since the hay wagon only holds about 30 people we divided everyone into two groups. Mom gave one group a tour of the Poultry Kitchen, the brooder house, the milking parlor and the milk house. I took the other group on a hay ride—well, actually Papa took us on a hayride (he drove the tractor that pulled the wagon) and I was the “Tour guide”. Then when the first hay ride was over we swapped groups and I took the other group on a hayride, and Mom gave my first group a tour of the buildings and the baby chicks. The tour was over at 1:00, but most everyone stayed to have a picnic lunch in our outdoor dining area. Everyone was gone by 2:30 and Mom and I came inside to relax a little—I think I took a slight nap. Then a customer arrived and then I made some kombucha. It was a long day, but a very enjoyable day.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare