620

Hi Everyone,

               Here on the farm we never know what a day will bring forth. I make plans—but life doesn’t always go as planned. Some days are picture perfect . . . and other days are chaotic success. Success because I know that even though I didn’t get done what I wanted to get done—I got done what God allowed me to get done. I have days where I want to do three impossible things—but there is only time to do one. I ask the Lord to direct my day so that I accomplish what he deems to be the best for that day. When I don’t dream too big it is much easier to get the set tasks accomplished—but I love to dream BIG sometimes (most of the time).

               Monday mornings are set aside to milk the cows and then to answer all the emails so that I can place the sourdough bread order around noon. Then there is lunch and if I am on top of it I can spend a little bit of time in the garden before it is time to package eggs. Sometimes I have to surrender and do inside things instead. Last Monday was one of those days that I had more things to do inside than outside. I had ignored my kombucha for about six weeks—with Grandpa dying I really didn’t care to deal with it then. The time had arrived though where I felt like I was ready to make a new batch. I couldn’t bottle the old batch because it was way too strong—so I fertilized some weeds with it. Thankfully I had some extra in the fridge so I wouldn’t have to do without. Once the kombucha was made then I started making my Relief Salve. I am sold out, so in desperate need to get a new batch made. I thought that I could make it in a few days—but I forgot all about it and left it heating for three days instead. My next step is to strain the herbs out of the oil—and I will accomplish that when I can remember and have time. Next on the list was a little gardening. The bed was already prepared—so all I had to do was grab the bag of green bean seeds and the “zipper” tool and head out to the Market Garden tunnel and drag the “zipper” down the garden bed to “unzip” the soil. Then I sprinkled the beans down the trench and ran the other side of the “zipper” back down the trench to “zip” the soil back up. It was a five minute process. Then I took a little bit of time to walk through the gardens to see how things had survived the freezes. Later Mama and I spent some time figuring out where the drive lane is supposed to go around the Market Gardens so that we could figure out where to plant my fig trees and possibly some blueberries.

               Come Tuesday I was scheduled to start my tomato, cucumber and lettuce seeds—but I still haven’t ordered my tomato seeds (or half of my spring garden seeds), and since it was terribly cold outside I didn’t feel like starting cucumbers or lettuce seeds. So Mama and I headed to town to get some garden soil and mulch for the courtyard. On the home front I did manage to milk the cows, make yogurt and package eggs.

               We didn’t make deliveries on Wednesday like normal—for we had a meeting to attend that night. Therefore I spent my afternoon making up the receipts and harvesting the vegetables for the delivery. We did make the delivery on Thursday—well Papa did. We girls stayed home and had a party—a future rose garden party. A young lady from Jacksonville has been enjoying volunteering here on the farm from time to time and Thursday was a great day to join us. She helped us in the milking parlor—catching poo, feeding the cows, and sharing a little love. Then we grabbed three packets of lettuce seeds and headed to the greenhouse. We planted two kinds in a seed tray, and then we headed out to the Market Garden tunnel and sprinkled some Black seeded Simpson lettuce seeds on a portion of a bed. We have a Farm Fresh Pizza Dinner coming up in six weeks and I am doing my best to make sure we have fresh lettuce on hand. After lunch Micah, Mama, Abbie and I took to work in the courtyard. On Wednesday, Micah and Papa worked together to pull the Myers lemon tree out of the ground. It had served us well for the past 15 to 20 years, but the hard freezes these last few years really hit it hard and I do believe that the temps in the teens finished it off this winter. Someone had blessed us with two roses after Grandpa died—and I had a large handful of roses in the Cottage Garden that were being overcome by weeds, cat claw vine, black berry bushes and worst of all—elderberry trees. I had planned on rescuing them and moving them to a Rose Garden between the new Brooder Room and the Poultry Kitchen once the sidewalk was poured in front of the Poultry Kitchen and a little section of dirt was created. Those plans are on hold as we are still waiting for the money to finish the new Milk House Barn, Feed Room and Brooder Room. With the lemon tree disappearing Mama and I decided that it was the perfect place for a rose garden. I told everyone that we would have a Rose Garden by Friday night—and they all laughed at the impossibility. With four of us weeding and pulling up all the grass in the section we got it all turned to dirt on Thursday. Now all we had to do was plant the roses on Friday. As soon as I was done milking the cows on Friday I headed to the garden to dig up my roses: A Fairy rose, Queen of Sweden, Poet’s Wife, Rose at Last, and Mr. Lincoln (a gift when my black lab died). I also dug up some Lemon Abelia’s. We planted one plant—but it multiplied to four. When I got back to the house I pruned all the roses and then the black clouds rolled in and it began to rain. My roses were now bare root and needed to be planted—and my goal was to be done by the end of the day. So we sent Micah to package the eggs where he could stay dry—and Mama and I grabbed our rain coats and started planting. It took a few hours—and it rained the whole time, but we finished. We planted seven roses and four abelias. Each plant was planted with a good portion of composted manure mixed in with the soil and top dressed with some fresh garden soil. Papa bought us some bags of mulch Saturday—but we haven’t had the time yet to cover all the dirt with mulch. Now we cannot wait for them to bloom. There will be yellow roses, pink roses, apricot roses and red roses. We did accomplish my goal—but boy did we get dirty. I still do not know exactly how to get our raincoats clean. We had to hose ourselves down to get all the dirt and mud off of us—but they are still dirty. The instructions say wash by hand—but we tried the washing machine anyway. They came out just as dirty as they went in—and now they are almost impossible to get dry. I guess I will be scrubbing them by hand tomorrow. O well—we got the roses planted in the rain.

               We have a new week ahead of us—and Lord willing I will get to spend a good portion of it with my dear friend Lydia. I hope that you get to enjoy this week’s spring weather!

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare