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Hi Everyone,

               The other night I was inside and Mom was outside taking care of a customer when she came in and told me that I just had to come outside and see something. There in the sky was a big storm cloud, but behind it was a white cloud with rainbows in it. We had never seen anything like it before. It was really pretty—and I ran inside and grabbed the camera so that I could remember it and share it with you! I looked it up on the computer and they are called “Rainbow clouds” or iridescent clouds. They occur when sunlight interacts with cloud droplets or ice crystals within certain types of clouds. Unlike a typical rainbow that has dark colors, a rainbow cloud exhibits pastel colors like pink, mint and lavender. It really was a beautiful sight to behold. They also say that it is a very rare cloud.

               Last week started off with some really sad news. Sunday morning as Mom and I were setting up the milking equipment I noticed that a portion of the baseboard in the milk house was rotten. We knew that a portion of the outside of the building was rotting and we were planning on getting the siding replaced sometime soon. One of our customers is a contractor and Mom had talked to him already about fixing the outside wall, and I was hoping that he would come back by soon so that we could ask him about the inside baseboard—and it just so happened that he stopped by that afternoon. I lost no time in asking him to take a look, and since the electrical box is in the building a portion of the wall can easily be removed to get into the space behind the wall. One thing we suspected was verified—ants had moved into the wall, but we were also told something we were not expecting. Like termites, ants like to move in to places with rot—and our building was rotting because the walls are literally buried in concrete. You see, 30 years ago we bought a shed to be used as an outdoor school room since we were homeschooling and my 95+ year old Great-grandma was living with us and kept interrupting our school time. A few years later Great-grandma died and we moved to a new home and property (our present home and farm). We built a school room inside and when we moved into the house the shed was brought with us and we used it as a feed room for many years. Then we built a walk-in cooler and freezer and since the feed room shed was finished inside with sheetrock and trim we backed the shed up to the walk-in’s and turned our feed room into our Milk House where we bottle milk, wash the milking equipment and package eggs. We then bought a new shed to become our new feed room. I forgot one detail—before we pulled the shed into place we had a huge hole dug in the ground and a new concrete septic tank lowered into the hole and a concrete pad poured around it. Then the shed was pulled onto the concrete and over the hole. The plan was to use the hole as a cellar and we would have access to it from a hole in the shed floor—but things didn’t actually go as planned. First off the ground in Florida is never cooler than 72 degrees making it too warm to store produce in. The second problem came after a big rain storm flooded around the milking parlor and washed all the nasty water under the shed and into the cellar. Our worker at the time came up with the idea of pouring a concrete slab sidewalk all the way around the building and up its sides to prevent the water from going underneath and into the open cellar. Problem solved so we thought. Years later the floor inside the shed “Milk House” began to rot because moisture from the concrete was trapped under the building with no escape route. So we had some friends come in and in 24 hours gutted the old wooden floor and poured a new concrete floor. Now the walls of the shed were incased in concrete from the outside and the inside—but at the time we didn’t realize that this would be a problem later on. When we asked the contractor how to fix the rot problem in the walls his answer was not what we expected—for he said that the best in the long run would be to tear it down and build a new Milk House. UGH! AS he was leaving another customer pulled up who just so happens to be a retired contractor and I ran the problem past him and he totally agreed—the only way to fix the problem is to tear down the building, fill in the gap with concrete and build a new building on top of the concrete. Not too sure when this will happen—but possibly sometime in the fall when it cools down. The positive is that we have another kitchen in the Poultry kitchen so that we can have a place to wash all the milking equipment while the Milk house is torn down and rebuilt. There is definitely a lot to think about and a lot to plan.

Monday was the only day that I got to “play” in the garden all week—and I am not sure that I really called it play last Monday. It all started out well—but it soon had its challenges. I have been trying to grow different types of lettuces this summer in hopes to find one kind that could be grown in our summer heat. I finally had to succumb to defeat as I took a look at the last transplanting’s from a month ago. They were still just a few inches tall—if they hadn’t wilted and disappeared already. I then went on to weeding the walkways and some of the beds in the Cottage garden. As time went by I found myself weeding around the gazebo. Steve, our worker, was heading out to pasture when he stopped to check on me. He hollered out to see where I was and I stood up to say that I was “here” when all of a sudden I was charged by a black snake and my “here” was drowned out by screams as I danced around trying to get away from that snake as it flipped and slithered back and forth near my feet. I finally managed to get myself out of that walkway and calm down. Steve came in to the garden to investigate and we found the snake curled up in the weeds at the other end of the walkway. Since it was just a black snake that likes to eat rats we left the snake alone. Mom called us in for lunch about that time. When I went back out after lunch I was a little skeptical about finishing weeding that walkway—but I managed to get back down on my hands and knees and gingerly move forward weeding the rest of the walkway. I never did see the snake again, but my troubles were not over. AS I continued to weed I started to notice that the roots of the Spanish needle weed were covered in little white powdery looking mealy bugs. I was already dealing with them in the greenhouse on the Roselle plants—of which I ended up throwing out with the garbage because I couldn’t overcome them and the plants were starting to suffer. I already had to throw away a bay tree that was infested and so you can imagine my dismay when I found weeds in the garden infested with the tiny pests. I had to weed slowly because when I pulled up a Spanish needle plant I cut the roots off (where the mealy bugs were) and put them in a garbage bag and then the rest of the plant could go to the compost heap. I prefer to weed at the speed of the Tasmanian devil—but that day I had to weed at the pace of the tortoise.

Tuesday Mom and Papa headed back south to the dentist in Clearwater. We got the milking and the chores done early and had a late breakfast before they left around 10:00. I then had to head over to the milk house and bottle the kefir before returning to the house to do the dishes—but exhaustion hit before I got to those dishes. So I headed to the computer to answer emails and put orders together. The dishes did finally get done and I also managed to make another batch of Soothing Salve. Then a customer arrived and when she left the family that helps us do eggs was pulling up. I quickly grabbed me a bite to eat (toast and milk) so that I could join the egg party. Then I had yogurt to make while Steve finished some mowing and gathered the eggs. Once the yogurt was done, Steve was too and we headed out to pasture to separate the calves for the night. To our great delight it only took about 10 minutes and went real smooth. When it is hot outside you are grateful when animals cooperate instead of giving you a run for your money.

I usually teach piano lessons on Wednesday’s—but my student has summer plans the month of July so we are taking the month off. I gladly exchanged my piano time for some sewing time last week. I went upstairs to finish a dress that I had started for me—but ended up scrounging around for some material to make Mom a new jumper. I finally have a pattern that fits her and I was eager to try it out. I got the jumper half way done before my time was up. On Thursday we had to deliver a cow over to some friends who live about 45 minutes away. Before we left I ran upstairs to the sewing room and put the gathering stiches in the skirt sections so that I could take the jumper with me and spend my riding time gathering and pinning. Then when we got home I just had to run back upstairs and sew all the pieces together. It was the 4th of July and while most of the day was spent working we did take time that evening to go see the fireworks with my sister Nichole and her family.

Friday found us back in the van heading 90 minutes north to pick up some salt for the cows and sheep. Poor Papa has not spent one day 100% at home in the last ten days. He made the delivery to Gainesville on Saturday, church on Sunday, ice on Monday,  went to the dentist on Tuesday, made the delivery to Jacksonville on Wednesday, delivered a cow on Thursday along with the fireworks that night, we went to Georgia for salt on Friday, back to Gainesville on Saturday for the delivery and to church again on Sunday. I think that he gets to stay home tomorrow. Leaving the farm sure puts a halt to getting projects done. There is mowing to do, weeds to pull, drain fields to clean out, and four garden tunnels to assemble before September. On our trip to get salt we had to drive past an Agri-supply store in Valdosta, so on our way home we stopped in to look around and see about purchasing a new mower for the tractor. Our bush hog is on its last leg, and Papa wanted to take advantage of being so close to the store and save on shipping so we took our flatbed trailer with us. We get the Agri-Supply catalog in the mail all the time—but now we had the chance to “walk through the catalog”. We walked around the store a little bit, and then Papa and Mom headed outside to look at all the mowers. There was about three acres of farm equipment to look at. I had only seen about a quarter of the store so I decided to stay inside and look around some more. Mom had already picked out some new Slogger farm shoes so she asked me to carry them around since she couldn’t take them outside with her. I walked that store at least three times and did manage to see a few very interesting things. In the end we did not buy a new mower because they couldn’t decide which kind to buy. The bush hog doesn’t mow a clean cut—but it can mow down hefty weeds. The finishing mower cannot cut down hefty weeds, but mows a pretty clean cut. Then there is the flail mower that pulverizes everything, mows a clean cut and can mow down hefty weeds—but has a pretty price tag. They need more time to ponder. We got home around 6:00 that night and had left around 12:30.

Saturday mornings are a little more laid back and the alarm clock doesn’t go off—but get up time is no later than 7:00. Lately though I have found that getting up around 6:00 allows me time to get the milking equipment set up and the kefir bottled before breakfast which allows the rest of the day to not be so stressful trying to get everything done (milking and packing) before the Gainesville delivery. Yesterday was no exception, but instead of heading straight to the milk house I headed to the garden first so that I could turn on the sprinklers—it had not rained in a couple of days. I grabbed a peach and enjoyed a morning stroll to the garden. I walked through the garden before I turned on the sprinklers and even managed to pull some weeds. The garden trellis is usually taken over with wild vines every summer, but this summer I want to control what grows on it so I planted some hyacinth beans. They are coming up and are about six to eight inches tall already—but those wild vines are also sprouting, so I did a quick pass down the trellis and pulled up all the wild vine seedlings. I am hoping to be able to stay on top of them—but time will tell.

Later that day I made a custard pie and then I was going to go vacuum my room and make some kombucha—but Mom had other plans up her sleeve. For years I have complained that the computer screen is too close to me when I type, but because of the style of our computer desk there was nothing we could do about it. Mom finally came up with a solution and we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon cleaning out the computer desk and rearranging everything. This new set up allowed us to move the computer screen a whole foot backwards and the setup is much more roomy and clean. I am grateful!

               Well I had best sign off for everyone is ready for bed around here—so until next week . . .

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare