246

Hi Everyone,

                Can you believe it? The last week of the year has come to an
end, and there is only one day left. We definitely packed the last week full
to the top. 

                Monday started off nice and slow---the agenda wasn't very
full, and the day looked like it would be nice and relaxing with time spent
in the garden weeding. Mom and I got the milking done, while Steve packaged
eggs after he did his pasture chores (feed the chickens, ducks and turkeys).
Then while Moises cleaned up, we all went to hang a metal sign that I found
at Tractor Supply that says, "Feed and Seed, Co." I bought it to hang above
the door of the feed room. I love metal signs, and will have to find a good
one for the Brooder house (where we raise all the baby chickens and
turkeys), and one for the tool shed. We are collecting quite the little
village out in our entrance area. There is the big hay barn, then the
outhouse, then we have the new tool shed/root cellar, the Poultry Kitchen,
the Brooder House, the Feed Room, the Milk House, and the Milking Parlor. We
shall call the area the "Farm Village," and one day we shall have a post
with little signs pointing in different directions. Once we got the sign
hung, we stopped for lunch. After we ate, Mom and Steve headed to the garden
to weed, while I did the dishes and worked on the orders for Wednesday.
Around 3:00 I headed to the garden. I helped weed a few beds, then I
remembered that it was a dry day, and the carrots and potatoes needed to be
harvested. On my way to the carrots, I stopped by the ginger bed and
harvested the ginger. The carrots were honestly the easiest to harvest. When
I got to the potato bed, I hadn't dug very many plants up before I called
for help. Steve and Mom came over to help dig up the four beds of
potatoes---we didn't get a lot, but at least 25 pounds worth. Then I asked
what time it was, and the clock said 3:50, so I suggested that we harvest
the turmeric. The turmeric crop was abundant, and the root balls were about
the size of a football all caked in dirt. Once we dug it all up, then we had
to rinse it off to get all the dirt off. That took forever, and was not
easy. I stood inside one garden box, Mom straddled two garden boxes, and
while I held the hose over a big tub, she rinsed the dirt off of the
turmeric. We were wet and dirty by the time we were done. What I thought
would be a forty minute job, took over an hour. While we washed, Steve
loaded them into the Gravely. It was about 6:00 when we headed to the house,
and then we had to lay the turmeric and ginger out on feed sacks to dry
under some heat lamps. Then the tops needed to be cut off of the carrots,
and we just pushed the wheel barrow of potatoes into the garage for another
day. It was probably about 7:00 before we headed inside to finally cook some
dinner. Well, I cooked dinner, Mom snipped lemon grass into a jar. She had
harvested a bunch of it before the first freeze of the year, and had laid it
out in the brooder house to dry. Well, we never got around to putting it up,
but when we had to put the turmeric in the brooder house, the lemon grass
had to be taken out and was put on the kitchen counter---therefore, we had
to cut it up to store it. It was a good thing that we didn't have any plans
for Christmas Eve------because we played in the garden a little too long.

                Christmas morning came early. We got up at 6:00, and headed
straight for the kitchen to cook breakfast. We made some fried apples to go
in our oatmeal. At 7:00 we headed outside to get the chores done and milk
the cows. Once the cows were milked, Mom and Steve bottled the milk and I
worked on a few cards. Then I bottled the kefir, and finished my cards.
Around 10:30 we left for our friends, the Crane's house. While we waited for
things to finish cooking, and other guests to arrive, we all went out to
tour their gardens and compost chickens. Amelia did an exceptional job
making a delicious spread of food and she was most hospitable in going out
of her way to prepare food that was gluten and corn free. Cooking for people
with food allergies is truly a labor of love. After we ate, we all gathered
around the piano and sang Christmas hymns while I played the piano, and
their youngest son, Samuel played the violin. There were a few songs that
one of the other guests joined the music making by playing his guitar. The
oldest boys Timothy and Peter, both know how to play the piano, but they
were a bit excited that I was there, so that they could pass---although I
would have enjoyed getting to hear them play. When we were done singing,
kitchen duty was next----as people worked to make the kitchen look like no
big meal had ever been cooked. The men folk were beginning to talk about the
next adventure---target practice with some different guns that they had or
brought. The question was asked if I wanted to join them. I denied, but they
begged, and so I said maybe. When it came time to go outside to the "range",
I stayed behind to visit with the ladies--------but I wasn't forgotten, for
about fifteen minutes later Samuel came inside to find me and asked if I was
coming. So I did. The first hand gun that I got to shoot was so powerful,
and had such a strong kick, that I couldn't hold the gun level once I pulled
the trigger. Then they gave me a 9mm Glock, and it was much "tamer". Once
they showed me how to line up the sights----well, I hit the bulls-eye three
times, and the target quite a bit. I was ready to quit after I hit the
bull's-eye the first time, but they encouraged me to continue, but after I
hit the bull's-eye three times, I was truly done. Then we ladies worked to
put together a nice little spread for an evening meal or snack. Around 7:30
we loaded up and headed back to the farm. We arrived home at 9:00, and Papa
had to head out to lock up the chickens, feed the dogs, and gather the eggs.
It was too dark to separate the calves---they scatter in the dark, and the
flashlight just puts a big shadow in front of them and they turn around and
run the other way. I headed to the computer to put in the rest of the
orders, and make the receipts for the Jacksonville delivery the next day.

                Wednesday morning I headed to the garden at 7:00 to harvest
some collards and green onions for the delivery. Plus I wanted to harvest a
bouquet of roses and narcissus flowers for my bathroom. After breakfast I
sat up for milking, and then Mom and I did some house cleaning. The Cranes
were coming to our house for the day. Samuel was bringing his fancy camera,
and his drone. Photography is his passion right now----and if he could get
me to vlog, he says that he would love to do the editing. I have ideas, but
that is in the future, not now. Before, the boys could play with their drone
and camera, there were cows to milk, eggs to package, milk to filter, and
orders to pack. Then they gathered the eggs. They brought a friend with
them, and while Samuel took pictures in the garden, Timothy and Peter gave
their friend a tour----where there were plenty of flowers and herbs to
smell. When they all came back up, they helped move the chicken hoop houses
to their winter storage behind the hay barn wall. Then they got to fly the
drone, and I cannot wait to see the footage. Later that evening all Mom and
I had to do was to separate the calves, feed the dogs, and lock up the
birds. When we got inside, while we were waiting on Papa to get back from
Jacksonville, I finally got around to pulling the leaves off of the lemon
verbena branches that Mom and I had harvested by flashlight the night before
the first freeze back in November.

                Thursday---------------well, it had been a very busy week,
and we were tired. Needless to say though, it just meant that we worked a
little slower. After we milked the cows, Mom worked on some paperwork, Papa
worked on building another door for the garden tunnel, and I took the
opportunity to fold some laundry and vacuum the house. After lunch Mom and I
headed to town to buy some totes and sand to store the carrots, turmeric,
and ginger. When we got home Mom headed out to pasture to help Papa, and I
checked on the turmeric and ginger. The dirt was drying out, but some of the
roots were starting to go bad. So I started pulling one feed sack out at a
time, and grabbed a brush, and brushed all the dirt off of each root. When
that sack was done, I dumped the dirt, reloaded the clean roots on it, put
it back in the brooder house to continue drying, and grabbed another sack.
My shoulders and back were getting tired, and Mom showed up to help. We
worked until it was too dark to see, and so at 6:20 we headed inside to cook
dinner---and relax.

                Friday we had one goal---get all the carrots, turmeric, and
ginger in totes covered in sand. As soon as we finished milking, Mom carried
all the feed sacks covered in turmeric and ginger out of the brooder house
and set them in the sun to dry. Once the milk was bottled, then I worked on
brushing off the sand from the remaining roots. Mom and Papa headed to the
garden to finish the door for the garden tunnel. The builder was also
working on the Poultry Kitchen, which is going up very slowly---because he
is a one man show, and cannot find any help (his two workers that he had
were shot in a drive by shooting). Three sides are all up, and the roof is
going on now. Cold weather, rain, and Holidays don't help either. After
lunch, Mom and I started the process of loading the carrots, turmeric, and
ginger into the totes. We put a layer of sand, a layer of roots, and a layer
of sand, until the tote was about 3/4 full. We were in the middle of this
when Papa came in and said that the first lambs of the season were
born-----and he couldn't figure out who the mamas were. So we stopped,
headed to the sheep barn, gathered up the three new lambs, and searched to
find the ewes that had just given birth. We found two, and one momma was a
good momma, and the other was not. We worked with her, and helped them to
nurse. We penned them all up for the night, so that they could bond with
their babies. When we got back to the house, we finished playing in the
sand. Then we had a problem----moving the totes. One bag of sand weighs 50
pounds, and one tote had almost two bags in it----plus about 30 pounds of
turmeric. We harvested 44 pounds of turmeric, and only 7 pounds of ginger.
Then we had to figure out where to store the totes, for the root cellar was
not finished yet. Every place we checked was too warm, so Mom and Papa
carried the totes upstairs to store in the sewing room, where I can control
the room with the heater or AC.

                Friday night we had baked chicken for dinner, and then I put
the bones and drippings in a stock pot, added some chicken heads and feet, a
few carrots, celery, and onion, along with salt and pepper and  a gallon of
water. I placed the pot in the oven, and cooked it all night. At 7:00 when I
woke up, I smelled the broth cooking---------but it somehow triggered a bad
memory. In a frantic stew I ran to the kitchen---sure enough, I had cooked
it at 350 F all night, and I was only supposed to cook it at 250 F all
night. I should have had a gallon of yummy broth, instead I had an inch of
almost burnt broth. The chickens enjoyed it instead. What a way to start
your day! After breakfast we milked the cows, bottled the milk and kefir,
and packed the Gainesville orders. Then Mom and I went to the barn to check
on the lambs. We took a bottle with us---just in case. The one momma was
doing so well, that we let her and her baby out of the pen. Then Mom bottle
fed one of the other lambs, and one looked like it was doing a great job
nursing. Later that night, after dinner, we went back to check on them, and
one of the lambs was not doing very well, so we brought it to the house. Mom
worked and worked with it to get some milk in it, and the lamb perked back
up---but by this morning, it had died. Tonight, its twin was dead too---but
there were three more lambs born, and their mommas are taking good care of
them. Yes, it is lambing season---and we have already experienced life,
death, and bottle feeding. We must have about thirty ewes, so it shall be
pretty lively around here for a while.

                In between dealing with lambs, I did laundry, labeled some
lip balm tubes, made the bed that I had washed after having my friend Grace
for a few days, and got all the receipt paperwork done for the month. Do you
still call it paperwork, when it is all done on the computer? For dinner we
had lamb shoulder steaks cooked in a fruit sauce of fresh pears, pineapple,
pineapple juice, butter, maple syrup, and curry powder. Then we made a farm
fresh Broccoli Souffle. Friday we had harvested some broccoli out of the
garden---and Mom said that she wanted a souffle. So the two of us worked
together as a team making the souffle: Garden fresh broccoli, farm fresh
eggs, and farm fresh cow's milk---it couldn't have been any fresher. It is
such a joy to cook meals that you grew all the ingredients for.

                Well, the year is definitely coming to an end. Ecclesiastes
7:8 says, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:" Yes, we
can look back over the year and see how the Lord has lead us, protected us,
and provided for us, but when we look to next year, we have no idea what
lies ahead. The nice thing is that we serve a God who never changes, and as
He has directed the past, He will direct our future.

We Served you with Gladness last year, and we look forward to Serving you
with Gladness in the New Year,

Tiare