655
Hi Everyone,
The middle of October is the proper time to plant strawberries here in North Florida—but it was after the 15th before we decided that we wanted to try growing strawberries again this year. We never have grand success growing strawberries, but some years are better than others. I went to the websites where I usually order strawberries, but they were all sold out. So I started “searching” for other companies. I found one in Georgia that was advertising “Last chance for 2026 strawberries”, but they had no way to order them. So I picked up the phone and gave them a call and found out that they were in the middle of counting what they still had available. They took my name, number and amount of strawberries that I wanted to order (100) and said that they would get back with me—and they did. So I placed an order for 100 Chandler strawberry plugs, and within two days they were on our doorstep.
When we grew strawberries in the ground the roaches and worms always ate them. So we began to grow them in GreenStalk towers. Some years did great, some did terrible. The worst year was when they arrived in October but I never got around to planting them until December and they were so root bound that they never grew. One year we grew them beside the milking parlor and the strawberries that grew on the side that faced the parlor and never saw the light—died. Another year the soil we planted them in had too much bark in it—and we never could get them wet enough and strawberries like moisture. Last year I tried to grow them in PVC pipes cut in half length wise—but I had a hard time keeping them watered and the strawberries did horrible. So this year Mama did some research and we are trying them again in the GreenStalk towers—but we are trying a different soil and fertilizer (PROMIX Moisture Potting Mix and Espoma Organic Berry-tone Fertilizer). So on Monday while Shayne and Papa moved the latest batch of chicks out to pasture, Mama and I planted strawberries. We have two 7-tier GreenStalk towers, but we have found that watering that many layers can be difficult. So we decided to only stack them five high and then order the extra parts needed to create another 5-tier tower using the four left over planters from the one 7-tiers towers. In the past we have grown strawberries in the ground—where we had to cover them with plastic when it got cold, we have grown them inside the Garden Tunnels, we have grown them on the sidewalk where we rolled them inside the milking parlor on cold nights, and we have grown them in the greenhouse. This year we decided to grow them on the sidewalk in full sun and where we can roll them in out of the cold. Although this morning Mama was reminded of why we put the towers in the greenhouse: one because of the wind—and two because of the ducks! They like to bury their beaks in the bottom trays and then eat the strawberries. I might have to do some rearranging in the Greenhouse after all. Hopefully all will go well, and we shall be able to enjoy fresh strawberries warmed by the sun and picked when fully ripe and deliciously sweet.
The vet came out on Wednesday to pregnancy check four of our cows. Belle goes into heat every month, but doesn’t become pregnant. Lacy got bred once and bled terribly afterward. Merry was due to calve two months ago—but still no calf. I got Sundrop mixed up with Aria (who I thought was 6 weeks away from calving) and wanted her tested before I dried her off (gave her maternity leave). Belle is perfectly healthy—we just need to try a different bull. We have Dandy—who is almost 16 months old, but when we put him with a heifer a few weeks ago he proved himself to not have enough “energy” for breeding. He is still young—and it was his first time with a girl so we shouldn’t judge him too harshly. The vet suggested using AI—artificial insemination, not AI—artificial intelligence. The good thing about AI is that we could get some new genetics on the farm without actually bringing another animal onto the farm. We could also choose whether we want a heifer or a bull—and a new bull bloodline sounds great too. We have a month to think about it. I think I would like to put the heifers in with Dandy for six weeks and see how that goes first.
Lacy had bad news—the bull, Dijon, was too big for her and some damage was done and she will never get pregnant. We have never had a bull problem before, but we have never had a dairy bull as big as Dijon either. There is always a first for everything—like the time a cow got a piece of hay stuck up her teat and although the vet treated her she was dead in three days. I knew that it was time to replace him—which is why we raised up Dandy, but Dijon is such a sweetheart and so handsome that it is hard to retire him.
Merry was found to be great with calf—so I guess we can say that she is due any day now. Sundrop also had a nice size calf in her—but not as big as Merry’s. The next day I realized that I had the wrong cow tested—I was supposed to test Aria for the calendar says that she is due in six weeks. Since Merry was dried off a few months too early, and we are low on milk, I didn’t want to dry off a cow too soon. So, I found out that Sundrop is pregnant—but now I am not sure when for the calendar says six weeks for one due date and three months for the other due date. Since the calf is already a nice size—I am not sure which date to believe. Aria on the other hand was due to be dried off a few weeks ago—but she is still giving so much milk and I cannot feel a calf when I bump her stomach. I didn’t know what to do—which is why I wanted the vet to check her. Then this morning, to my delight, I noticed another “bred” date for Aria that pushed her due date backwards a few more months. That sounded better to me. At least that is one less cow we have to dry off right now. Milk is low, but we have three cows due in December that need to be put on Maternity leave real soon. We had two calves born in the last two weeks. Ella had a little heifer that we named Adella, and Buttercup had a little brown calf that we shall call Butterscotch. Ella has a nice amount of milk to share with everyone, but Buttercup developed mastitis in two teats during her maternity leave and it looks like the two good teats will have to be for little Butterscotch.
Thursday I harvested in the gardens. I ate the first two green beans. Yes, miracle of all miracles we will actually have a green bean crop after all. The plants do not look the best (the worms keep eating them), but they are still flowering and producing green beans. I was able to harvest the first batch of lettuce—which will go toward our Fall Farm to Table Dinner this Saturday. Then I harvested the last four Long Island Cheese pumpkins that were growing in Martha’s Vineyard. The last thing I harvested was the sweet potatoes. I got a five gallon bucket of red sweet potatoes, and enough white sweet potatoes for one meal of mashed potatoes. It was not the best crop, but God knew just how much time and energy I had to put into the harvest and storage and I will say that it was a perfect harvest for me for this year. We recently bought 12 new metal raised beds and next year we hope to grow our sweet potatoes in the raised beds. We used to have great success that way. O, the sweet potatoes were growing in the West Garden which has not been weeded for months. One row wasn’t too bad –I could at least walk down the pathway. The other row was so overgrown with Spanish needle that I really didn’t know how to begin—so I got down on my hands and knees and just crawled through the jungle digging up potatoes as I went (and I didn’t get enough to make the effort worth my while). I was hoping that I wouldn’t run into any snakes—for it wasn’t like I could just stand up and run. When I did finish I looked like a porcupine. My dress, socks, gloves, shirt and hair were covered in Spanish needle seeds—little needles. It took me about 30 minutes to get all the hitchhikers off of me and my clothes. When I took my dress out of the dryer I realized that I missed quite a few—for the dryer lint trap was heavily spotted with Spanish needles.
On Friday we processed 36 chickens. They were scheduled to be processed this coming week—but since we have the Farm Dinner here on the farm this coming Saturday we didn’t wanted to spend two days processing chickens right before the dinner. Since the last batch of chickens was so BIG, I thought that we should be able to butcher this batch a week early—but alas they didn’t grow as fast so we processed only the biggest ones on Friday, and then this Thursday we will process the other 50.
After almost 30 years of living in this house, Mama has finally figured out how she wants to decorate her bed/bedroom. So we have been looking at paint, bedspreads, sheets, pillows and wallpaper. We ordered one set of sheets, but the color was way to light, and since their sheets are “rotting’ I told Mama that we should go to town after Papa left for the Gainesville delivery on Saturday and pick out some sheets in person. Mama misunderstood me, (thought I said “you” instead of “we”) and when I headed to the back to get ready she walked out the door and went to town. When I came out I realized what had happened and had a good laugh. God says that all things work together for good—and I didn’t have to wait long to find the good of being left behind. I was able to balance the October orders and a customer stopped by to get some things. I then was able to do a little mending (sewing). When Mama returned a few hours later—she was empty handed. She had found nothing, though she had walked the mall and Walmart. Since her mission was unsuccessful, I was really grateful to have not gone along and had all that time wasted. We were able to find the right color of sheets later that night.
The time has changed—fallen back an hour, and while the clock may say that it is 9:55, my body feels like it is 11:00. So farewell, the time has come to say good-night.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare