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Hi Everyone,
I am not exactly a sports fan. I do not like to watch sports (except maybe some ice-skating), and I definitely do not like to play sports—the last time I played volleyball I tore my shoulder up because I had to keep serving the ball (not because I was any good at it, but because the other team was so poor). Growing up I did attend a few football games with my girlfriends during high school, but the only thing I comprehended was a touchdown and the score. There was something else that I understood about football—the players were big and strong. The summer my brothers left home we were in a fix when it came time to hay the pastures—we didn’t have the muscle power to pick up all the hay out of the field and load it into the barn. Mama decided to call the local football coach to see if we couldn’t “borrow” his team for the day. He told Mama that he couldn’t afford to take a risk of injuring one of his players—I do not know how many people actually get hurt stacking hay, but I do know that a lot of people get hurt playing football. Now if I had happened to have had a friend on the football team I could have asked my “buddies” to come over and help—but that wasn’t the case. Well, a week ago we got a call in regards to a 16 year old “football” player looking for a summer job. He thought that he might like to work on a farm because he enjoyed being outside. We need lots of help—so we hired him, and Monday was his first day.
Jesse spent the morning doing chores with Steve (feeding the heifers, bulls and chickens), and then we creamed the milk. After lunch we headed to the garden. I have been gardening 90% by myself for the last year or so—which means some things don’t get done and other things take a lot longer to do. A few months back I transplanted the tomatoes to the garden, and they have been growing very nicely. Tomatoes need to be staked or they fall over and sprawl all over the ground. I couldn’t exactly find the time to stake them—but that was fixed Monday afternoon. I grabbed some tree pruners and Jesse and I headed up to the chestnut orchard to cut us some tree suckers to be tomato stakes. That is where Jesse came in handy—he had the strength to use the pruners. The afternoon was then spent staking up the tomatoes. When we were done it was 4:20, and I knew that quitting time was 4:30—but I wanted to get some weeds pulled too so I asked Jesse if he wanted to have a challenge to see how many weeds we could get pulled in 15 minutes. We were within two feet of the weedy garden bed when Mama hollered out that it was time to clean up. I told Jesse that I guessed we wouldn’t be pulling any weeds—but he quickly reached down and pulled up one BIG one just to say that we had pulled some.
Tuesday was an early day because our plumbers arrived to move the solar hot water heater to its permanent location. It had resided on the side of the Brooder House with the solar panels on top of the Brooder House. We do not want to put the solar panels on top of the new metal roof on our new building, so the hot water heater had to be moved to a new location—behind the Milking Parlor. The concrete pad was poured the week before, so it was now ready for the hot water shed to be assembled on the concrete and the hot water heater moved in. So we milked early in order to have the cows out of the way before the noise and commotion began. It was a late breakfast that day because I had to bottle the kefir before I headed inside. All the dishes had to be washed as soon as possible so that the hot water heater could be drained in order to move it. There was paperwork to do after breakfast and then we had an egg party to package all the eggs. Once the eggs were done Jesse and I headed to the garden to pull those weeds I had wanted to tackle the day before—and we got quite a lot done. Come Thursday we headed back out and finished weeding three rows and I was finally able to plant sunflowers, okra and cosmos—seeds I have been trying to get planted for over a month but I have had no time or help to get the beds weeded so that I could plant the seeds. It was a rainy day so we could only work in the East Garden a little here and a little there. While it rained we worked in the north Market Garden tunnel. It was time to pull up all the winter crops—Swiss chard, collards, broccoli, and kale plants. It was time to feed them to the chickens. I could easily weed the Swiss chard and pull up all those plants, but the collards, kale and broccoli had grown into trees with massive stalks and root systems—and that is where my strong man came in grand handy.
Friday was chicken graduation day. They were finally eight weeks old and were ready for freezer camp. It was Jesse’s first experience processing chickens and he was very helpful—but his day was over at 5:00. It took us from 11:00 in the morning until 8:15 in the evening to get everything set up, processed, and cleaned up. We desperately need a new family to help out on processing day. Processing 60 to 70 chickens is a little much for 3 people. We were exhausted when we were done and were once again grateful for our Kalacrow frozen pizza.
I was very grateful for all the help I had last week, and every day when I woke up I was grateful to know that I would have help again that day. I have had volunteer help one day here and one day there, so I was having a hard time realizing that our help would be here Monday through Friday. I rejoiced to hear Jesse say that he would see us on Monday! He said that this is the first job he has ever really enjoyed. Yet, even with his help last week I found that I just couldn’t get around to a few more things that desperately needed to be done—like harvest the squash! So Saturday after we milked and packed the orders I took a little break and then I headed to the Market garden. I am growing the squash in the Market Garden tunnels for too much rain is usually what causes the squash to kill over. In the tunnels I can control the amount of water. The lemon squash is spreading out everywhere and the pathways have totally disappeared—but they are still quite airy. The zucchini on the other hand was spreading out also, but the leaves were getting so thick and heavy that the zucchini was starting to rot off prematurely. I had heard about pruning zucchini leaves off, but I just couldn’t find the time. When I went to harvest the squash Saturday afternoon I decided that it was time to do some pruning. I opened the door to go inside and I was shocked with the heat that slapped me in the face. It was hot outside, but there was a breeze—there was no breeze in the tunnel. I began pruning, but had to step outside once in a while to stretch my breaking back from stooping over and to get some fresh air. As the hour passed I got hotter and hotter—I didn’t want to quit though. I managed to get the zucchini plants pruned and then I began harvesting the lemon squash. To my dismay, 75% of the squash was too big to be edible by people—but it wasn’t wasted for the chickens love to eat squash. I was almost done harvesting when a customer showed up. I stepped out of the tunnel and told her that I had one basket left to harvest and then I would be right there. I knew that I was hot, and getting pretty tired—but I didn’t know how red my face was. When I drove up to greet her she was very concerned about me and was very helpful in getting me cooled off with cool wet rags for my neck, ice to chew on and the suggestion to ditch my socks and shoes (and of course the barefoot girl that I am didn’t argue about that part at all). I managed to get her receipt made and her order all collected up and then I headed inside where I got something to drink and headed for a cold shower followed by a cold glass of water. The Lord was very merciful to send her at just that time—for I would probably have been dumb enough to try to put away all the squash before I headed inside, as it was I left all the squash in the golf-cart and dealt with it later when it was cooler outside and I was a lot cooler. At least I can say that the zucchini is pruned and the squash is harvested—until tomorrow.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare