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Hi Everyone,
“This is the day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” That was the Scripture verse that crossed my mind this morning while I was milking cows—while I was suffering from a terrible earache, the cows were refusing to eat their alfalfa pellets because they hate the brand, and very few cows actually had any milk to share with us (we only got 3 and ¾ gallons this morning from 15 cows that are in milk—four were drunk dry from their calves, one just calved and still has colostrum, some of the calves had snitched from other cows than their mothers, and others just are not eating enough to produce enough). Yet, this truly is the day that the Lord has made and there is plenty to rejoice and be glad about! When the verse crossed my mind I looked up past the cows and passed my painful ear and I saw the beauty of the day. The sun was coming up, even though we have had a few frosts and freezes the rain from last week had produced some hints of green grass speckled over the landscape, the sheep were grazing all over the pond field, and the ducks were waddling around in the yard. The weather was a little cool—but my new coat had me nice and cozy. It wouldn’t be long before I would be enjoying a hot bowl of oatmeal laden with roasted pecans, raisins, honey, butter, cinnamon and farm fresh milk—with a side of farm fresh scrambled eggs. Then Papa would be my chauffeur to church where I would hear the word of God preached and I would be blessed to have the privilege of playing the piano to encourage everyone to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. At church I was reminded that God is my refuge and God is my strength, a very present help in time of need—and if I will call upon Him in my day of trouble He will answer me and I will glorify Him. Why not rejoice and be glad in this day that the Lord has made.
Grandpa is so sweet. He may be 92, and he may have his own health problems—but he cares greatly. Last Monday Mama had a doctor’s appointment around 11:00. Grandpa had really been struggling with his breathing, so Mama was going to leave him home. Papa was busy with his chores and I was going to be inside making kombucha and answering order emails—so I would be inside to watch Grandpa and Mama would go by herself. Sick and weak as Grandpa was he would have nothing of Mama going to the doctors alone. He didn’t want her to drive his car by herself, and he didn’t want her to be at the doctors by herself if they found something serious—so he made sure that he was ready to go when Mama was ready to go. He was pretty exhausted when they got home—but he had gone with Mama. While they were gone I did make and bottle some kombucha, I did answer emails, and I finally (after six weeks) got around to scrubbing the stains on the tablecloths from our Fall Farm to Table Dinner—talk about procrastination! It wasn’t like I didn’t have a million other things to keep me busy—or was it? After lunch the goal was to clean up behind the barn where the hoop houses are stored until we start raising chickens again in the spring. Most of the hoop houses were already behind the barn—but they were not put away nice and neat because there were so many tall and thick weeds growing behind the barn that you really couldn’t put the hoop houses away. Micah and I pulled the hoop houses out of the way, and then we got Papa to come and bush hog the brush down with the big walk behind brush mower. Micah ran the weed eater along the fence and along the barn wall. Then we were able to put all the hoop houses away nice and orderly. I was hoping that the job would only take an hour—but we all know that projects take longer than expected. We needed to be done by 3:30 so that we could have an hour to work on four buckets of eggs—but instead it was 4:15 when we finished and so Micah and I worked for 15 minutes and accomplished one bucket of eggs.
There hasn’t been much progress on our new barn build over the last few months—due to lack of funds. Thanks to selling some cows we were able to bring the work crew back to finish up some of the rooms—like the Brooder, the Feed Room, and possibly the bathroom. They are installing thin pvc sheets on the walls in the Brooder to help make it easier to wash down. The Feed Room just needs a few plywood sheets added to the walls and then the lights and electrical outlets installed. Both rooms need their big doors installed to keep the weather and critters out. The only thing installed in the bathroom is the BIG walk in shower. It is all one piece and had to go in before the walls. We have the cabinet—but it needs to be cleaned up and maybe refinished, and then it will need a counter top and sink. We now have a toilet—because Grandpa hated our “round” toilet in his bathroom and we agreed to have it replaced with an “oval” one. When the young men came to work on the Brooder Thursday they also brought a new toilet for Grandpa—and made him very happy. We will put the round toilet in the outdoor bathroom.
Last week Mama was finally able to find time and energy to work in the courtyard. When I went to the bulb class a few weeks back I brought her home 30 tulip bulbs. It took a lot of weeding, moving rocks, and building a cute little fence for her to find the perfect spot for her new flower bulbs. While she worked in the courtyard, Micah and I worked in the East Garden. We finally got it all weeded and the paths freshly mulched.
For years I have grown plantain—the herbal weed that I use in my salves. I have grown it in the raised beds (Cottage Garden), but it doesn’t always thrive—especially if a chicken gets ahold of it. This year I decided to gather the seeds and start some a fresh and grow them in the garden tunnels (Market Garden). They are more lush that they ever have been, and last Thursday I harvested the first batch of leaves—almost 200 of them. I was so thankful for our new commercial dehydrator that has 18 trays. I was able to fit all the leaves in the dehydrator and they were dry in about 12 hours—including the stems which I usually never can get crisp. This is also my first year to grow calendula—I say grow because I have planted the seeds a few times before but I never got any plants. This year I learned to start them in the early fall in the greenhouse and then I transplanted them to the Market Garden tunnels. The worms love to eat the plants—but thankfully not consume them. I have been harvesting the flowers for about a month now. They are the brightest orange flowers I have ever seen. They are still beautiful and orange once dried and placed in a glass jar for future salve use.
Herbs are not the only thing being harvested around here. I noticed the other day that the carrots are ready to harvest—because the garden rats have found them. I realized that I must harvest them quickly if I wanted any. So Friday right before lunch Micah and I headed out to the garden to harvest half of the carrots. After lunch we trimmed off all the tops and fed them to the chickens. Then we rinsed them off and let them dry in the sun while we packaged the last of the week’s eggs. Once the carrots were dry we packed half of them in sand in a tote that I store in the walk-in cooler. They last a long time that way—we are still eating off of the ones I harvested last December. The rest of the carrots we put in a bag until we have time to can some into carrot soup and put some on the dehydrator to use to make chicken stock. I like to have dehydrated carrots, celery and onions on hand so that when I am in a hurry or too tired I just have to grab handfuls and put them in the pot with the chicken backs to make stock. I cooked a chicken Friday night and after dinner I put the bones and pan drippings and put them in an oven proof stock pot and added to the stock pot some chicken heads and feet, salt, pepper, water and dehydrated carrots, onions and celery. Then I put it in the oven. The next morning I woke up at 5:30 and was thinking about canning carrots and how I needed to make more broth to pour over the carrots when I canned them—and then I had a horrible realization, “I NEVER TURNED ON THE OVEN THE NIGHT BEFORE!” It was not the first time I had forgotten to turn on the oven—and to my dismay it probably will not be the last time. Needless to say, that batch was no good and I had to start all over after breakfast with a package of frozen chicken backs—and all my extra goodies, and yes, I turned the oven on that time.
I spent Saturday afternoon doing some much needed and much wanted to do things. I finally got around to cleaning my bathroom and dusting and vacuuming my bedroom. Then I rewarded myself with some time to play the piano—all Christmas music right now. When I was done there, I headed to the kitchen to make a batch of Ginger Snap Cookies. It was already 4:30, and I knew that I would be pushing it to have them done by the time I had to cook dinner—but I wanted some cookies. It has been a long time since we had cookies and we are definitely enjoying them.
Speaking of enjoying things, I think that I shall go have me a cup of tea and a slice of sour dough bread slathered in butter with honey on one half and jelly on the other half.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare