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Hi Everyone,

               Last week started out picture perfect—everything was green and the temperatures were perfect. The sheep were grazing grass and weeds in the yard, and the cows were spending the night out in a field of fresh spring grass. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, because the cows would stand at the fence all day gazing at the green grass on the other side instead of filling their bellies with brown hay. It was the equivalent of not eating your meat and vegetables because you were hoping that any minute you would be handed a lollipop. This time of the year perfection doesn’t last long, and by Tuesday the green grass was starting to turn brown and by Wednesday it was all brown—a lovely spring freeze and frost sent the grasses back to their winter outlook (brown and dull). On Monday I took pictures of all things green because I wanted to post a “Green” Facebook post on March 17 (Tuesday). The only thing in those pictures that didn’t change was the color of the trees. The grasses all turned brown, the fig leaves shriveled up and turned brown, and the strawberries lost their green color too—they turned red! As I mentioned last week I am looking for any opportunity to “enjoy” life this year, and last Tuesday was known as St. Patrick’s Day—and I decided to have a little fun. Of course we all were green for the day, then for lunch we pulled out our antique Belleek Shamrock China tea set. We inherited it from my Great-Aunt Gladys on my Papa’s side—and entertaining was her job because her husband was an sugar lobbyist in Washington, D.C. about 100 years ago.  Mama and I made Cucumber Bacon Sandwiches and a pot of peppermint tea. The weather was very windy and bitterly cold that day so a nice pot of Irish stew was the perfect dish for dinner that night. I also made a Key-lime pie. I was going to “dye” it green—but my dye of choice had too strong of a flavor that Mama and I decided against it. You see—I tried to use kale juice, but the thought of our Key-lime Pie tasting like kale didn’t sound too appetizing. At the last minute I learned that I could have used spinach juice—but it was too late. I had also read about using matcha tea leaves—a very bright green tea, but I didn’t have any so that wouldn’t work either. O well . . . Key-lime pie is not normally green anyway.

               In the Market Gardens vegetation is green and growing—although last week’s 29 degrees did alter some of the green leaves on the green bean and potato plants. Thankfully it didn’t kill anything. Last Monday I replanted the radishes. I used to have no problem at all growing radishes—they are like “brown thumb” perfect plants, but the last so many years I have not been able to grow a radish. This year I decided to give them another try. I planted them back the end of January I think, and they all sprouted nicely—and then those major freezes in February shriveled them up and they died. So last Monday I planted more seeds with hopes for better success. With all the hot cold, hot cold days of late some of the collards and kale are starting to bolt and flower—a little early in the season to me. The good news is that this week I am ready to start (by seed) the spring gardens with squashes, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, basil, roselle, sunflowers and zinnias. I know that some people already have plants ready to be transplanted out into the gardens—but if I had started my seeds early enough to have them ready to transplant out now, they would have died in all the freezes. I have a head start on green beans—so that will have to suffice me. I do know that there is a lot of weeding, composting and mulching to be done to get the garden beds ready for planting. Starting the seeds in the greenhouse will give me a little bit more time to get the garden beds ready.

               Wednesday morning I feared that we had lost everything. It was a little before 7:00 when I entered the Poultry Kitchen to start packing for the Jacksonville delivery and I had to put together all the milking equipment. I turned on the lights and started to walk across the room when the lights began to surge on and off. Each time I heard a clicking noise from the room where the scalder and plucker are. The BIG medical fridge was flashing and the temp was in the 60’s. I ran back to the house to tell Papa what was going on. He thought that the lights were just flickering—for they had started doing that the night before. I told him that they were not just flickering—the power was surging on and off. We thought that the medical fridge was causing problems, so we unplugged it—and the lights stopped surging on and off. Then I noticed that the hot water heater was not working, nor was the mini-split air conditioner, nor was the AC compressor to the walk-in freezer and cooler, nor was the vacuum pump that enabled us to milk the cows by machine. We checked the breaker boxes—but nothing was tripped. There was only enough power to run the lights—and the ice machine. How nice to know that the ice machine doesn’t use much electricity! Our fear was that the medical machine malfunctioned and caused an electrical problem which “broke” all the all equipment. We called our electrician friends and they arrived a few hours later to find the problem. In the meantime we had to milk the cows using the portable generator. The problem was found to be in the electrical lines—Praise the Lord not in the equipment. Where the new lines (for the new Milk House) were “married” to the existing lines something had made holes in the plastic protective lining which allowed water to seep through and corrode the wires. Instead of having 120 volts of power going into the building there was only 20 volts. So after a hole was dug, old wire was removed, a trip to town, new wire installed, and the hole covered up we were back in business—and all the equipment was working perfectly. Praise the Lord! The orders were packed and covered with ice (for thankfully it still worked) and the van tire was pumped up with fresh air—for yes, on top of everything else the van tire was flat (it has a slow leak and needs a repair), and Papa was able to make his Jacksonville deliveries after all.

               Changes come into our lives all the time—and some changes we would never have believed would happen if we had been told years ago. When I was 16 my Great-Grandmother came to live with us when she was 96. She was almost 101 when she died. When I was 18 we adopted 4 children. Last fall my Grandpa (Mama’s dad) came to live with us for the last four and a half months of his life—which was such a blessing for us to be able to spend so much time with him. A year ago my Aunt was diagnosed with traumatic induced Alzheimer’s which was brought on by seeing how sick Grandpa (her Daddy) was last summer. I should say that it started when she got Covid, but it got really bad last summer. Realizing that she needed someone with her 24/7, she needed something to occupy her time, and that she needed some good nutritious food—not to mention lots of tender love and care, her sons called and asked if we would please consider letting her come to live with us for the time being. We were very willing to have her come and live with us. I spent Thursday afternoon turning her room into a warm and inviting girlie room—it used to be my brothers room, and then it was Grandpa’s room so it was decorated on the masculine side. I grabbed a pink floral quilt that I had made for the bed, and I swapped out the brass lamp for a white porcelain lamp. Doilies were added to the tables, my rose colored arm chair was tucked into one corner and a little table with her Mother’s water pitcher and bowl was set on top. My Aunt Barbie arrived Friday afternoon and on Saturday we hung a few of her favorite pictures on the wall that she had brought with her. It is a blessing to be able to help my Aunt and get to spend some time with her. My cousin and his wife brought her down and it was nice to get to visit with them. They would have loved to have stayed on the farm too—but jobs do call them back to Tennessee. So far Aunt Barbie has helped Mama in the milking parlor by fixing the food for the cows—being the Cow Chef. She has helped us package eggs by drying the ones that need to be washed, and she helps in the kitchen. Having something to occupy her time and mind during the day has definitely helped her sleep better—which is a blessing.

               Speaking of sleeping better—I had best sign off so that you and I can get a good night’s sleep.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare