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Hi Everyone,
You know that summer is in full swing and that we are getting weekly rains when just about every morning Mama can be found on the lawn mower. In the early spring there is not enough grass in the pastures so we can bring the sheep into the yard to mow—but come summer the grasses in the pastures are up to our knees and growing faster than the animals can keep up with. Mowing around the house, the barns, and the gardens is a full time job and if you get behind by one week the grass gets so tall that you have to mow over the areas a couple of times just to cut it and then another time to blow it all into rows—but then it all has to be raked up and picked up. Mama says that we hired one worker to help Papa do the morning chores, and one worker to help me in the gardens—but no one to help her. She may be 71, and not in the best of health—but you would have never known it last week if you had watched her. She mowed acres and raked up everything she mowed. Thankfully Papa helped her pick up the grass two days, and our worker Shayne helped her one day. The garden was the worst part because parts of it have never been mowed this year—and maybe not even last year! Without enough help we have fallen behind in many things, and catch up isn’t easy. We bought this farm 30 years ago—and built it from scratch. Papa and Mama were in their 40’s—and Mama had just had a heart attack. There were five of us children at home—so there was a mighty workforce of strength and energy. Orchards and gardens were planted, fences were installed, and barns and buildings were built over these last 30 years—but things do not stay new forever and we are finding that fences need to be mended (put up new in some places), buildings need to be cleaned out, and gardens need constant care and some need to be shrunk. The workforce has changed too over the years—Papa and Mama are in their 70’s and I am the only child left at home. We are very thankful for the hired help that we have—and this past week was spent showing Shayne more of the ropes.
By the time the milk was bottled and the milking equipment was all washed—and lunch was out of the way we had about an hour before we needed to be back inside to package eggs. So Monday afternoon I gave Shayne (the one who studied horticulture in college) a tour of the gardens. I haven’t had steady help for the last few months so I wasn’t sure if the tour scared him or excited him. Yes the zinnias, cosmos, and pumpkins are growing great—but the tomatoes were so over grown that you couldn’t walk down the aisles, pigweed has taken over the sweet potato beds, the grass was knee high, and the roses, pumpkins and roselles were being buried alive by crab grass. Sometimes you just have to look past the “wrinkles” to see the beauty underneath. I shared my visions for the biggest disaster zones, and I introduced him to each garden (The North and South Market Garden Tunnels, the East and West Gardens, The Cottage “Raised Bed” Garden, and Martha’s Vineyard). Then our time was up and it was time to head back inside to package eggs.
Tuesday found us “helpless” for Wayland is in Alaska on a mission trip with his family and church, and Shayne got called in for jury duty. We didn’t spend the whole day by ourselves though for after the morning chores were done and the milk was bottled (by Papa and Mama) and the milking equipment was washed (by Papa and me) my sister Nichole showed up with her son Josiah and they spent most of the afternoon with us. Later in the afternoon I spent some time weeding the outside front edges of the Market Gardens and weeding the okra bed and two of the other beds in the North Market Garden Tunnel. It was hot so I didn’t stay in the tunnel too long. I had started on a little girls dress on Monday, and was able to finish it (except for the elastic in the sleeves) on Tuesday night. Our friend’s (and bread/pizza/Farm to Table dinner chefs) little daughter had just turned one and I remembered that I had a cute little dress pattern that fit a child from 3 months to 2 years—so I scrounged through my scraps until I found enough material to make her a dress. I was able to finish the elastic on Wednesday and give her the dress Wednesday night.
Thanksgiving—did you know that it is right around the corner? It is exactly 17 weeks away! I know who wants to think about Thanksgiving when we are enjoying our summer? Last Wednesday—just as Papa was leaving for the Jacksonville delivery, the phone rang and it was the Post Office. “Hello, we have a box of chicks for you.” The Thanksgiving Turkeys had arrived—and thankfully right on time. The last few years the Post Office has not delivered live chicks in a timely manner, and the outcome has not been favorable—so I was very grateful that they arrived on time and well. BUT—we were not ready! Thankfully the brooder room had been cleaned out from the last batch of broiler chicks (meat chickens), but the floor still needed to be swept, new bedding needed to be put down (but it had to be bought first), and the feeders and the waterers needed to be filled. Mama went down the road to the nearest feed store and bought some bedding and brought it back to the farm for Shayne to get the “bedroom” all ready. Then Mama headed to town to pick up the turkeys from the Post Office. We ordered 20—but they sent us 25, and sadly over the next few days we lost four. They say that turkeys are always looking for a way to die—we just wished that they would let us pick the way and the day. Our turkeys are raised on the same corn-free and soy-free feed as our chickens—which means that the protein isn’t exactly as high as it should be for turkeys. So we make up for the lack of protein by feeding them kefir—of which they actually lick the platter clean, and some hard boiled eggs—of which I still need to make some.
Thursday and Friday Shayne was not needed to wash dishes (because Steve was), so we finally got to go work in the garden. On Thursday, Shayne mowed around the garden beds, while I worked at weeding the tomato beds and walkways—and pruning the tomato plants out of the walkways. I got one of the two sweet potato beds weeded so that the sweet potato vines could see the light of day. Friday morning before milking Mama mowed the big areas around the garden beds and then Shayne helped her rake up the grass and pick it up. We had finished milking around 11:00, so I was pretty excited that I would get to spend about an hour in the garden before lunch—but alas it was Friday and I had a handful of customers to take care of. Then it was lunch time. After lunch I had to finish making the yogurt, so it was about 2:15 before I finally got to the garden. I only got to pull weeds for 30 minutes before Shayne and Mama were ready to head inside to cool off and revive themselves before we packaged eggs in the air-conditioned building. Did I mention that the temperature outside both days was 100 with a heat index of 114?
Saturday afternoon I headed to the garden for what I thought would be about 20 to 30 minutes. I needed to harvest the tomatoes, check on the watermelon, and harvest some pumpkins. The heat is causing the tomatoes to slow down in production—so there were not too many of them. The watermelon was orange—which meant it was ripe. I have a hard time telling when to harvest melons—so I grow melons that change colors when ripe. They grow green and turn yellow or orange when ripe. The watermelon vines produced two melons for me this year—one for the 4th of July, and then one for the heat of summer. The pumpkins are growing in a 40 by 40 foot area (and they are growing out of those boundaries too). It amazes me that when the pumpkins are ready to start harvesting the vines start to die back. A month ago I could only see a few pumpkins on the edges of the pumpkin patch—the rest was tall with weeds and BIG pumpkin leaves. Now I can look over the area and see pumpkins! It is still complicated to get to them though for the vines are still alive and the weeds are still thriving. I managed to find 18 of the Long Island Cheese pumpkins that were ripe enough to harvest. I usually wait until the two curly ques on either side of the pumpkins stem have turned brown, and then I know that they are ready to harvest (even though the stem may still be green). I am sure that there will be more to harvest in a few weeks. I haven’t weighed any yet, but I could only carry one at a time. I had to walk around the weeds, be careful not to step on the vines (which were pretty solid on the ground) and find the pumpkins, check to see if it was ripe, cut the stem if it was, carry it out to my waiting wheelbarrow and then head back in for another. It was another HOT day and I didn’t bring any water with me—because I didn’t expect to be out there for an hour. I may have quit before I finished, but I couldn’t go no more. When I got up to the house a friend had stopped by to pick up some products and we visited for a while. Then I had to take the pumpkins to the barn and put them on the drying rack so that they can harden off (cure) and cool down. I didn’t think that I would ever get inside to get me something cold to drink. A glass of kombucha quenched my thirst perfectly!
It was my parent’s 52 Wedding Anniversary—and they didn’t want to do anything special. Truth-be-told they didn’t have time for Papa spent until 1:00 doing all the morning chores (we have no weekend chore workers—but thankfully we have Steve to bottle milk and wash the equipment). Then Papa cleaned up and left to make deliveries to Gainesville. He didn’t get home until about 5:00 and after a little down time it was time to do the evening chores. I did manage to make them a special dinner of chicken wings, mashed sweet potatoes and zipper peas. I had planned to make a dessert—but I spent too long in the garden and got too hot and lost all extra energy. So I will have to make them a dessert soon.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare