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Hi Everyone,

               It rained! I was supposed to be cooking dinner—but I didn’t know what to fix, so I stepped outside on the porch and watched the sky grow darker, the winds pick up and the drops of water go from mists, to sprays, to a steady downpour. Mama came out to find me and we both ended up sitting on the bench and watching the rain, feeling the breeze, and listening to the rolling thunder. We got over an inch of much needed rain!

It was the second good rain we have had in the last seven days. It was predicted to rain last Monday and Tuesday and I knew that I just had to have the flower border in “Martha’s Vineyard” planted before those rains made their predicted appearance. So as soon as the milking was done I grabbed my bags of flower seeds (sunflower mix, zinnias mix, marigold, cosmos, gaillardia, and Tithonia). When I arrived at the scene of the future flower border I was met with bare dirt that was well sprinkled with dead grass roots from Micah tilling the border a few weeks back. I grabbed a garden rake and began the slow and tedious—and back breaking job of raking all the dead grass out of the bed. Did I say that it was about 250 feet long? Once I finished that I grabbed my tilther and tried to just fluff up the soil a little so that the seeds would have better contact with the soil—but it didn’t work. So after lunch I had Micah head out with the tiller and do a shallow till—which brought up more grass and required another pass of raking. Once the bed was already I grabbed each bag of seeds and sprinkled them out one by one. The instructions said not to cover the seeds but to press them into the soil. How in the world do you press seeds into a four foot wide and 250 foot long bed? I thought about using a box and just pressing down and moving to the next space—but it didn’t cover enough space and would require a ton of deep knee bends. Then I had an idea! I grabbed a 3 ft. x 4 ft. piece of cardboard that comes on every pallet of feed that we order. I laid it down in the bed and stepped on every inch of it, picked it up and moved it over and stepped on every inch of it. I repeated over and over—I lost count after 14. Stepping got boring and so I practiced waltzing (but never could figure it out), I then resorted to “skating” which really was easier than marching. To my delight I finished—and we got a good rain the next day! Before Micah and I headed to package our daily allotment of eggs we attached the rest of the T-posts to the fencing around “Martha’s Vineyard” so that we could later hang up the deer fence. When the eggs were all done I headed inside to get a shower. My back was killing me after raking for so long and I just wanted a hot shower. I found Mama still feeling pretty puny, and I found Papa sleeping in a dark room due to a massive headache. After refreshing his ice cold rag I headed back outside. The milk cows needed their evening meal of alfalfa hay—which required filling 5 20 gallon tubs full of chopped alfalfa hay (pretty dusty, but thankfully not pretty heavy). I say they were not heavy but I could only carry one at a time—Papa and Micah carry two and three at a time. Then I headed out to the three chicken houses and gathered our “daily” eggs. When I finished that I did come in and head straight for the shower where I had a little scare by finding that I was a little ticks next meal. Tick bites always bring a little fear with them. I know quite a few people whose lives have been greatly challenged because they got Lyme’s Disease from a tick bite. A friend of ours recently got very sick from some tick bites that he received. We got rid of the tick and then I treated it with a mix of my Virus Salve, Soothing Salve, and Black Drawing Salve—and I prayed! I made sure not to use a round Band-Aid this time for I really react to Band-Aids and the last time I had a hard time telling whether I was looking at a skin rash from a reaction to the Band-Aid or if it was the tell-tale bulls-eye of Lyme’s. A week has passed now and all seems to be just fine—Praise the Lord!

Tuesday started out like a normal day with BIG plans—but all plans had to be scratched for normal didn’t last past 9:00. Micah showed up to work, but was gone within the first hour due to not feeling very well. I knew that I could not focus on everything that I would have to do for it would be too overwhelming. Therefore, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other by focusing on each task that I was doing and not being concerned about the next until I was ready to begin it. I ate that elephant one bite at a time! Papa had to do all of Micah’s field chores (feed the bulls, feed and move the heifers, feed one batch of laying hens, feed and water the meat chickens that are in six hoop houses and move all six pens to fresh grass), and Papa had to do his own chores (feed the sheep and move them to fresh pastures, move the cows to fresh pastures, feed the other two houses of laying hens and move their houses to a fresh pasture). Before Papa could finish all his and Micah’s chores Mama and I had finished milking the cows and I needed Papa’s help to bottle the milk. When the milk was all bottled I then had to bottle the kefir and Papa headed back out to finish his chores. When I was done with the kefir I headed inside for a quick lunch (sunflower butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of kefir). Then I headed back to wash up the milking equipment. Papa was in charge of washing the milk hoses, milk tanks, and the milking claws. I had all the little parts, the air hoses, all the buckets, and all the kefir dishes. When I finished washing I headed inside to finish making the yogurt. I finished around 3:20 and truth be told I should have headed right back outside to the Market Gardens and harvested the veggies for the Jacksonville delivery—but Mama and Papa were already crashing in the living room and my mind and body thought that they had the right idea! Micah was back Wednesday morning and as soon as he was done setting up the milking parlor and feeding the milk cows their breakfast of alfalfa we headed to the Market Gardens and harvested the veggies for the delivery—and I was still ready to start milking by 9:00.

Wednesday the two openings on the side of our new Barn (one leads into the new Feed Room and the other leads into the new Brooder House)—were replaced with shiny black handmade metal doors! We have waited about 9 months for these doors. Now we can get the feed out of the garage and start using the new Feed Room. I said “now”—but first we have to clean out the Feed Room of all the stacks of metal and wood that got stashed in there in order to get them out of the way. Once we get the floor emptied then we can also move all the feed from the old Feed Room over. We have about a week to accomplish this—because I have already ordered the next batch of feed (2-one ton totes of chicken feed) and when it comes it will be dropped off at the new Feed Room instead of our garage. YIPEE!!!

Thursday was a blessing from square one. One of our Jersey milk cows (the Matriarch of the herd at the moment who is around 16 years old) named Abby gave birth to an adorable little heifer that we named Abigail. She is a very hungry calf, and Abby is a very good mama.

When milking was done Micah and I headed out to “Martha’s Vineyard” to finish attaching the T-posts to the fence and to detach the high tinsel electric wire that Papa had strung to keep the deer out (that didn’t work). When lunch was over we packaged the eggs—because we were expecting company around 2:00. When the eggs were done we headed back out to “Martha’s Vineyard to start hanging the deer fence. We got 75 feet of it hung before our company arrived. Last week’s journal I shared about the health problems that Mama has been experiencing and a nearby farmers wife and friend contacted me Monday to offer to “wash milkers, wash dishes, clean the house, pull weeds, harvest veggies, get them ready for canning, etc.” I was so blessed by her offer and it was arranged for her and her children to come out Thursday afternoon to help—but in the end she got sick and only her children could come. The two things that I really needed help with were the green beans and the garden bed where I want to plant sweet potatoes and okra. The green beans were producing prolifically—but I physically, mentally, and timely couldn’t pick anymore. The Lord had blessed us with an abundance and I felt like we really had put up enough green beans—but I didn’t want the rest of them to go to waste. I wanted to offer them to someone else, but I couldn’t decide on whom. When this family offered to come and help pick I decided that they should also take them with them—but we would harvest them a little different. Instead of picking through each plant while bent in half upside down, we would pull up each plant and then from an upright position pull of the beans and then feed the leaves and vines to the chickens. So four of the children conquered the green beans, and I took the oldest son and Micah and we tackled the weeds. When Micah and I weeded the other half of the bed to get it ready for tomatoes it took us an hour to weed the bed. It took the three of us 30 minutes to weed the 16 ft. x 24 ft. garden area. It is not perfect—just needs a little fine tuning, but it is all dirt now instead of a carpet of weeds. Since that didn’t take very long we took the time to hang the rest of the deer fence. With three people it went real fast. Daniel unrolled the fence and held it up in place while I zip-tied the bottom to the T-post and Micah zip-tied the top to the T-post. It went much quicker since Micah was tall and we didn’t have to drag a ladder around with us—which is what I had to do when it was just Micah and I because he had to hold the fence and I had to zip-tie the top and bottom. We finished the fence about the same time the other crew finished the green beans. Many hands really do make light work! Have you ever wished for an extra day in a week? Well, I felt like I had found one after we got so much done in just a few hours—maybe I had found two extra days for each of those projects would have taken Micah and I one day together (so we would have spent three days doing what 7 of us did in a few hours on one day). WHAT A BLESSING!!!

People in our lives come and go and sometimes the only chance you get to visit with old friends is at a wedding, a baby shower, a graduation, or a funeral. Last week we had two Graduations to attend (well one graduation and one graduation party). Friday night we attended the high school graduation of two young men at out church. The event brought together people that we haven’t seen in years. To my delight it also brought my dear friend Lydia! It is always a treat to get to spend time with her and catch up on each other’s news—although I think I had more news to share this time than she did.

Saturday afternoon I attended the Graduation party of one of my former piano students. I taught piano lessons for about 26 years. I started with one family and finished when the youngest turned 18. I taught a few more families over the years—but for 26 years I taught the Johnston family how to play the piano. I never majored on theory—but two of them ended up going to college and taking courses in music theory. Rule of thumb—if and when someone wants to learn something they will, so don’t over stress when they are not ready. I had just a few goals for my students: be able to sight read, count, and play hymns from the hymnbook so if necessary they could play for church. I taught eight of the Johnston’s and two of them excelled me in their ability to play. One didn’t just go to college for music theory—she also went to college and majored in music. She just graduated with her Master’s degree in music and is now Professor Johnston and will be teaching Music History next semester. For her graduation gift I decided to gift Shonda my apple stick (a wooden apple on a long dowel rod) that I used to point to the music as she played—it was time to pass the baton. I have precious memories of teaching piano—and I believe that I have made friends of them for life. The youngest got married a few months ago and she was in town this weekend and she popped in last night with her husband so that she could introduce him to us and so that they could play a piano duet for me that they had worked on. Charla always loved a challenge—she would rather learn Fur Elise than Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. This duet with her husband was a BIG challenge and she couldn’t wait to share with me her accomplishment. I couldn’t help but be proud of both girls.

It was a lovely week—a week spent with family and friends, and a week enjoying community!

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare