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Hi Everyone,

            A few weeks ago when I was overcome with exhaustion I quoted the verse in Scripture that said your strength is in sitting still—little did I know that a week later I would find myself living by that verse on a daily basis. Last Sunday I woke up with the realization that I had caught a cold—although I do not believe that “caught” is the right word for it because I was not fishing for a cold. Let’s say I was “attacked” by a summer cold. If you have ever seen my “To Do List Book” you will know that I am prone to shoot for the stars when it comes to getting things accomplished here on the farm. Most weeks I only make it as far as the moon, but there are those weeks when I never make it off of planet Earth. When you shoot for the stars and never get off Earth it can be quite discouraging—so I knew that it would be best to keep my sights close to Earth this week. No need to aim for the impossible! I closed last week’s journal knowing that I would probably be too sick to accomplish much this week—but I knew that there were three things that just HAD to be accomplished. I knew that every day I would have to milk the cows, every day the eggs would need to be packaged, and I was hoping to get some green beans planted for the upcoming Fall Farm to Table Dinner on November 7. Yes, there would be laundry to do and dinners to cook—but everything else in life would just have to wait while I gained strength by sitting still.

Milking Cows

When I woke up Monday morning I was so tired and felt so sick that I really wished I could just stay in bed all day—but there were cows to milk. I climbed out of bed and picked up my Daily Light on the Daily Path devotional and opened to August 24 and read:

I know their sorrows. (Exodus 3:7)

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:3) - Touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)

Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. (Matthew 8:17) - Jesus being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. (John 4:6)

            I was so encouraged—God knew that I was sick, and he cared. Those Scripture passages were put together for that day 150 years ago, and they were perfect for me that day because I was sick. It wasn’t the first time that my circumstances fell in line with the days Scripture readings.

            I made it through the milking that day—and every day after. Some days were harder than others, and some had a touch of added excitement. One day while I was milking I saw a red caterpillar with black spikes all over it scurry past the milking parlor and I thought that he looked pretty dangerous. The next day I saw him again—inching his way back in the direction he had come the day before. Then as I was walking down pasture to put the cows back I stopped to take a picture of a passion flower. When I was a little girl there was a dirt road beside my house and I remember walking down it one day and coming across a passion flower in full bloom. It was so frilly and purple and I thought that it was just beautiful. It is a flower that is very nostalgic to me—along with Mimosa flowers (saw my first one during recess in the sixth grade—we took a bouquet back to our teacher and got a slight scolding for leaving the playground to cross the parking lot to investigate the pretty flowers), snapdragons (my Mama planted them under my bedroom window when I was little and she showed me how they snap open their mouths when you pinch the edges of their jaws), marigolds (they bloomed all around our friends pool), and day lilies (the local daylily breeder gave me one when I graduated and I was hooked—enjoyed creating new colors by cross-pollinating like he taught me). They are all flowers of my childhood with special stories involving each one.

            Anyway, when I stopped to get the picture of the passion flower I noticed that the vine was covered in those red and black caterpillars. I did a picture search on my camera and found out that they were Gulf Fritillary caterpillars—they only feast on passion flower vines. Well, they had definitely found our one and only vine and were making wise reproduction use of it. I actually managed to get a picture (though not the best) of a passion fruit, a passion flower, a caterpillar and a Gulf Fritillary butterfly. Another day Mama found an orange with black stripes Gulf Fritillary butterfly that had just hatched from its chrysalis.

            Flowers, caterpillars and butterflies were not the only exciting objects around the milking parlor last week—there was also another visitor. As I was cleaning up the milking parlor I went to put the scrapper on the shelf in the back room of Mama’s milking area and just as I stepped inside I saw a three foot long orange and black snake slithering towards me. Yes—I screamed! Not because I was afraid of it, but because it scared me. Everyone came running. It was just a corn snake—they eat rats so are very welcome on the farm. I watched it slither on out of the parlor and then it disappeared. I will admit that every day I find myself looking for it—checking the rafters, the curtains, the shelves, and behind our seats that we store on the shelf. I have never seen it again, and I really do not mind if he wants to hang out at the parlor—I just prefer that the next time he doesn’t sneak up on me.

Green Beans

A few months ago someone told me that the kind of bush green beans I like to grow (Blue Lake) also come as pole beans—which make them easier on the body to harvest. So I bought some and was going to grow them this fall. So after lunch on Monday Shayne and I headed to the West Garden to prep the trellises for planting. I had tomatoes growing on them and they were ready to be pulled up—along with the extra weeds. We probably got about 20 minutes into the process when the sky turned black and it began to sprinkle. Since I was sick I had no desire to get caught in the rain so we headed back to the house. I got some ironing done and took a nap. The Lord used that delay to change my mind about pole beans. August is the last month to plant pole beans—and I realized that I was awful close to September and in 60 days (for that is how long the beans take to produce from planting) it could be frosty or freezing. I needed to grow the beans in a protected environment—therefore; I needed to plant bush beans in the Market Garden tunnels. So on Thursday afternoon Shayne and I headed to the North Market Garden to plant a row of Blue Lake bush green beans. The first hour was spent prepping—gathering all the tools and getting a bucket of compost. That I found to not be so easy—for my compost pile was crawling with termites and beetles. I have never had this problem before, and I am not sure how to handle it. I have thought of getting some kiddy pools and putting them in the Poultry yard and dumping buckets of compost in them and letting the chickens eat all the bugs out. Anyway, just as we got all the tools and supplies in the Market Garden tunnel the heavens opened up and it poured down rain—but that was okay we were under cover and could continue to work in the garden. We managed to get the beans planted—after we composted and wood ashed the bed, Shayne broadforked the bed, I tilthed it and planted and then Shayne returned all the tools back to the Garden shed while I strung some flower netting over the row of fall zinnias that were growing quite nicely beside the freshly planted row of green beans.

Eggs

Things didn’t start out too well with the egg packaging. Since I was sick I really didn’t want to work in close quarters with our workers—we really need their help. On Monday I managed to package a bucket of eggs while Shayne cleaned the milking parlor pad, but things came up and another bucket was not accomplished that day. I was never well enough to do any more eggs until Friday, but thankfully Shayne was able to work on them a little here, and a little there. On Friday Shayne did some and then he and Mama weeded in the courtyard for an hour while I made yogurt. I was able to get a jump start on the eggs at 2:30, then Shayne and Mama joined me and by 4:00 Friday all the eggs were done.

I was so grateful—all three goals had been accomplished. I am still sick, and doing a lot of resting. I do not know what next week will behold—but I do know that there are cows to milk, eggs to package, and I need to plant carrots, turnips, rutabagas, and multiplying onions.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare