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Hi Everyone,
Last week we crossed the halfway mark of 2025. We are now on the downward slide to the end of the year—but let’s not rush things too fast. We still have a summer to enjoy! July 4th is about the end of the season for planting sweet potatoes. You can start planting them in May—but you had best have them in the ground by July 4th if you want a good harvest. I have been trying since May to get some sweet potato slips straight from the farmer in Virginia—but my order just kept getting lost. I finally was able to get in contact and they shipped my sweet potato slips two weeks ago. I am not sure what kind I got because the poor farmer had a worker mix all his potatoes together and it will take him a while to sort them back out into their different varieties. Therefore, we will be growing multiple varieties of sweet potatoes this year—but I have no idea what varieties they are. The slips arrived Friday a week ago and I stored them in some water until Monday afternoon when Jessie and I headed to the garden to plant them. First we filled up eight buckets of the compost soil we bought last year, and then we headed to the East Garden. The week before, Jessie and I had made a 44 foot long bed that we filled with a foot of woodchips (the kind you get from the people trimming the trees on the sides of the road). Now I needed to create a hole every foot and fill it with the soil so that I had something to plant the sweet potato slips in. I needed something for Jessie to do while I planted the sweet potatoes—and since it was a rainy/misty day I figured that it was a good day to have a bonfire. We hired someone to prune our lemon trees a few months back and all the branches were in a pile on the edge of the Cottage Garden just waiting for a good day to start a fire in the fire pit in the middle of the garden. I thought that Monday was that day—and Jessie thought that it was great to get paid to manage a burn pile. So while Jessie made the pile of lemon tree branches and twigs disappear, I planted sweet potatoes—after I made 43 holes and filled them with soil. Then I went over and helped Jessie. Not only did we burn the lemon branches, we also trimmed up the oak tree that hangs over the garden and burned those branches too. The rain kept us from getting too hot—although Jessie didn’t exactly enjoy being cold one moment and hot the next. We also cleaned up a bunch of garden junk and threw it in the dumpster that we have on the farm for the building garbage. It was around 4:00 when we started cleaning up to quit for the day. We had just thrown a few oak tree branches in the fire that overlapped the edges by quite a few feet on both sides of the fire pit. Once the fire had consumed the part that was in the middle I began to fold the outer branches into the fire pit so that they would burn and it would be safe to leave. Then out of nowhere a few black speck ashes brushed across my nose, and then I saw some red coals fly past my eyes and land on my neck. I quickly brushed them off, and wasn’t too concerned, although my neck was pretty painful. When I got to the Gravely where Jessie was waiting he saw my neck and said that it looked pretty bad. I asked him if it was just my neck or were my clothes burnt too. He said that just my neck was burned—to which I replied that I was glad for my neck would heal, my clothes would not and I am having a terrible time finding time to sew, and therefore, I didn’t care to lose any of my dresses. I think that the rain is what saved my dress for it was wet. It did get a little sooty, but no holes. We got everything cleaned up and dumped in the dumpster and then I headed inside—30 minutes later. When my Mama saw my neck she was not happy with me for taking my time to come inside and treat the burn. I was so dirty and wet that all I wanted was a shower and some dry clothes—but Mama was adamant that the first thing I needed was to put my Radiant Balm (burn salve) on the burn for thirty minutes before I headed to the shower. That shower was not too pleasant either. My burn was about the size of two quarters, and pretty deep, and the tissue was pretty swollen, and the shower water did not feel very good. Once I was all cleaned up and I could bandage the burn with more of the Radiant Balm and a homemade bandage (because I am allergic to bandage tape and Band-Aids) the pain of the burn disappeared. It never hurt again. Someone else told me that they had grabbed something hot and burnt their hand and they immediately put the Radiant Balm on it and the pain went away. As the week has passed my burn area continues to shrink and looks much better—although it is far from healed.
I make salves—but I do not always have an occasion to use them. I use the Soothing Salve the most for cuts, rashes, and bug bites. The Relief Salve was made for a friend who had a knee replacement and he could not take any pain drugs—and it helped. I will say that just because it says “relief’” does not mean that it relieves everything. It causes more pain to an open wound, because of the ginger in it—but it is the ginger that helps with the muscles aches and pains. I made the Black Drawing Salve when a customer got bit by a brown recluse and needed something to draw out the poison. The Virus Salve came about when I had a wart on my wrist that started to draw more attention than I cared for. I found an herbal tea recipe for viruses (and warts are a virus)—but the ingredients reminded me of some witches brew and I was not about to drink the tea. Then I got the idea to make a salve out of the ingredients—and the wart disappeared. My Radiant Balm was made for a friend who was going to have radiation treatment for his cancer. I had a customer who had used my Soothing Salve and some other over the counter ingredients when she was getting radiation treatments and to the doctors amazement she never burned. I decided to make a salve that put all the ingredients in one jar—and it worked. It also works for sunburns and “fire” burns—just ask me how I know. They say that necessity is the Mother of invention—and I can say that is exactly why each of my salves was made.
The new barn is coming along nicely. All four sides are closed in. Tuesday morning when I headed out to milk they were just starting to wrap the last wall in the plastic, and by the time I got the alfalfa mixed up for the cows they had the whole side lined in plastic. The first window was installed by the time I finished milking my first cow, and after another cow the second window was in followed shortly after by the door. They were installing the metal siding by the time I finished milking. It was fascinating to see how fast the barns appearance changed. The workers had spent all day Monday installing insulation in the Brooder House and some of the Feed Room—but some of it was starting to fall out, so Papa and I went outside at 6:30 Tuesday morning to glue the three sheets together. Then after milking Papa and I worked together because Papa wanted a fourth layer of the ½ foam board added to the three layers that were already installed. On Wednesday the shower got installed and the plumbing pipes have water flowing through them.
Thursday we processed chickens so we didn’t have to do them on Friday—July 4th. We had 64 chickens to process, and we did not feel like spending until 8:30 at night doing them. So since we didn’t have any help we decided to just package all the chickens whole—our bodies were not in shape for spending two more hours cutting up and packaging 24 chickens. We got done packaging the chickens by 5:00, and by 6:30 we were all done with cleanup.
Holidays—farmers really don’t know much about them. Friday was the 4th of July, and the cows could care less that it was America’s Independence Day. Well, maybe our cow America cared, for she gave us our precious Liberty. When America comes in to be milked I greet her with—“Good Morning, America,” and may I say that America is always FIRST! America is also a RED cow. I have learned a lot about politics from my cow named America. The animals might not care about holidays but we do—so everyone starts the day off early so we can enjoy the day. Papa, Mama and I got up at 5:00 in order to have the cows milked by 8:00 when Steve arrived so he could bottle the milk and wash the equipment. Papa headed out to do his morning chores, and Jessie arrived at 7:00 to go out to pasture to do his morning chores. As soon as the milking was done I had to bottle the kefir, therefore, it was 9:00 by the time we were ready to start breakfast—and boy was I hungry. My body would have loved to have relaxed all day after processing all day Thursday—but there was work to be done. Mama and Papa both mowed. I worked in the house doing some cleaning. We did get some down time around 4:00 after I made a batch of yogurt. Then it was dinner time. After dinner we left the house around 8:00 to meet my sister and her family in Branford to watch the fireworks. We had a lovely time together, and the Branford fireworks are the best around—they last a whole 30 minutes!
I hope that you had a wonderful 4th of July—how thankful we are for the freedom we have today and the vision that Patriots had 250 years ago.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare