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Hi Everyone,
We once read a book about farms in Ireland that had gone conventional and the songs of the birds were no longer heard on those farms. There was one farm that decided to change the way they farmed and go back to the way his Grandfather had farmed—and the birds returned. If you use chemicals on your farm you kill all the food for the wildlife. There is no doubt right now that we are not a conventional farm, for about 100 egrets spend their days flying from field to field feasting on the seasonal worms. Darting here and there we can also see a flock of Purple Martins eating their share of mosquitos and other flying insects—the swarms of dragonflies are eating the other share. Mama’s favorite bug is the dragonfly and we haven’t seen too many of them this year—but the other morning when I headed outside to set up the milking equipment I had to knock on the window and tell Mama to come out and see. There was about 20 big dragonfly’s flying around the courtyard.
Our winter supply of hay started arriving last Monday. We received 50 of the 200 bales that we have ordered. The hay barn is slowly filling up. The daily rains are making it kind of hard to get it all delivered. The best quality hay has never been rained on!
My week has not been the best—but it has not been the worst either. I guess you can say that I am over my cold, but ever since I was a little girl colds turn into an asthmatic cough that chokes and gags me for about six weeks after I get sick. People always say—it’s just a cold, but for Mama and I it is always followed by weeks of coughing and choking and gagging—which leaves you with little to no energy. Monday afternoon I felt well enough to go to the garden for a few hours—and I can honestly say that I overdid. I harvested pumpkins, push mowed grass that was over a foot tall and weeded a rose that was covered with some crab grass that covered an area of about five feet by four feet and a foot tall. While in the garden I felt great—gardening has a way of doing that, but once I was back inside my sinuses began to flood again and the coughing and choking picked back up too. I managed to milk the cows every morning, but the rest of my days were mostly spent resting. I did manage to help package eggs a few days, and thankfully I always managed to cook dinner—well, except for Wednesday night when I was coughing too much. Thankfully Mama was able to cook for me.
It is gardening season, and I am struggling between the desire to give up and the desire to persevere. I needed to plant carrots, onions, turnips and rutabagas last week—but the garden beds never got prepared for them. I have decided to think smaller and use a row in the North Market Garden to plant everything. It will not take much to prepare them—at least it will not be much with Shayne’s help (my afternoon garden helper). Then to my dismay the other day I noticed that my spring harvest of potatoes has decided to sprout. With Mama and I sick most of the summer we only managed to can some of the potatoes—now they are only good for fresh eating and planting. So along with the other root crops that need to be planted, I now have some potatoes to plant for a fall/winter harvest.
A month ago I was able to start all the seeds for the fall garden in the greenhouse in seed trays. Most everything sprouted—the cabbage and the collards did not sprout well at all. Matter of factly, I planted 72 cells of collard seeds—but only 12 sprouted. You are supposed to pot up the seedlings when they have their first set of true leaves. The broccoli, kale and two kinds of cabbage were ready for potting up last week—but I was not feeling well enough to work in the greenhouse. Mama and I both thought that if all else failed, we would have Shayne pot them up—he is a horticulturist graduate. Thankfully I felt well enough to piddle in the greenhouse Friday and Saturday afternoon—for about an hour or two, because Shayne needed to get off early. Potting up doesn’t require much energy, and it was rainy and cloudy outside so it wasn’t hot in the greenhouse. I was able to pot up 64 broccoli, almost 30 cabbages, and 32 kale plants. The lettuce is almost ready to transplant out. We are so ready for a fresh salad—but I will only eat lettuce that we grow. Next summer I might look into growing lettuce inside under a grow light—then we can have summer salads.
Last night for dinner I made some gumbo with some fresh picked okra, shrimp and sausage. It is nice having some fresh okra to eat. I am especially thankful for the Burmese okra that I grow—for it is very forgiving if I cannot find the time or energy to harvest it. It is still good when it is 9 to 12 inches long (if it hasn’t been too long at that stage).
I am hoping to get some planting done Monday and Tuesday—but that will depend on how I feel. Thursday and Friday we have to process chickens—and they do not wait for “how you feel”. So I must make sure I save some energy for that.
I know this hasn’t been one of my best journals—but a journal is for writing down just how things are. I hope that you are doing well!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare