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Hi Everyone,

                The New Year is rolling along, and we find ourselves completing the second week already, which means we are almost half way through the first month. To our delight, January has not been that cold. We are thankful for all our winter gear when it does get cold---which in our opinion is anything below 65.

                Monday and Tuesday found us doing one of our most favorite things---weeding in the garden. Believe it or not, we are still finding elderberry roots and sprouts in unwanted places. We can only hope that we have eradicated it from the beds that we tackled this week. Monday afternoon Papa was able to go get us two loads of compost dirt, and Monday Steve did the muscle work of getting it out of the trailer, and into the garden beds. At 1:30 I jumped up from the bed that I was working in, and ran to the clock---and took off for the house. I had an appointment at 1:30 with our dear friend Alison---our goal was to set up PayPal. We worked until 3:00, and hit road block after road block. Found out we already had a PayPal account---but after not using it for many years, I had no idea of how to get into it. After much scratching of heads, changing of passwords, and trial and error, we got logged in. Then I found out that in order to “Request” money for payment, I had to fill out a receipt on PayPal, and email it to our customers. That would mean that I would have to make two sets of receipts---one for our records in QuickBooks, and then one in PayPal. So we tried to see if we couldn’t hook PayPal and QuickBooks up together. It is possible---if we had QuickBooks Online. We only have QuickBooks Desktop, and so they do not work together. So we tried a few other options, and they didn’t work either. Finally, Alison came up with Google Pay. We set up the account, and then she had to go, and my homework was to verify the bank account for the Google Pay account. I got that done, but I wanted to try to figure out how to send receipts from our QuickBooks program. I used to be able to do it, but lately I cannot. I spent another hour or two working on that, to only find out that when our computer crashed and we ended up with another Outlook program, that it was not compatible with our QuickBooks. Therefore, emailing receipts is not possible right now. We had decided not to use PayPal, because I would have make two sets of receipts---and I have no time for that. With Google Pay, all I would have to do is send a money request—yes, extra work, but I would only have to type in an email address and the amount. Then when I woke up Wednesday morning (at 5:00), it dawned on me that when Alison and I were setting up Google Pay, she sent me some money—that I didn’t have to ask for. So, I realized that all we needed to do was hand our customers their paper receipt at pick up, and then they can decide whether to pay cash, check, PayPal or Google Pay. All that the customer has to do is open up their “payment” account (Google or PayPal), type in our email address, and send us the amount on their receipt. I was so happy when I realized that.

                Wednesday we were blessed with the help of the Crane young men. Since the river has been closed due to flooding, and Steve cannot work too many hours at his other job where he puts canoes and kayaks into the river, we were also blessed with Steve’s help (he normally only works Monday and Tuesday). With all the help, all the eggs were able to be packaged. With the new chickens  laying, and it being after the winter solstice, we are getting lots of eggs.  Then with four strong armed men, packing the van with ice chests loaded with milk and ice, no one had to worry about getting worn out. Samuel also got to try out his drone again. The last time the camera didn’t take a very good video, so after some adjustments, Samuel gave it another try.

                Thursday I was finally able to transplant the oregano and sage back to their garden bed. Two years ago I trimmed the oregano way back---shall I say that I gave it a crew cut. That killed some of the plants, and opened up enough dirt for the Showy Pink Primrose to sow a bunch of seeds and take over. Last summer when we rebuilt the bed, we moved the remaining oregano to another bed, and re moved the sage. Then we ruthlessly weeded the bed---taking dirt with the plants. That allowed us to hopefully remove a good portion of the weeds seeds. On Tuesday we filled the bed up with fresh dirt, and come Wednesday I was able to move the oregano and sage back “home”. I also decided to put the Turkish Plantain in that bed, so that we could weed and fill up with dirt the bed that they were in, and expand the Mexican Tarragon in that bed. That afternoon we worked on building a little child’s play barn. Three years ago, when we ordered a new milking machine, it came in a very large and very sturdy cardboard box. We were having a field trip, and we asked my friend Lydia to paint the cardboard box to look like a barn. She cut windows in it, and a door. It was very cute---but cardboard doesn’t last forever. We have another field trip coming up in two weeks, and I wanted another barn---but this time I wanted a wooden one. Mom came up with the idea of building the little barn out of pallets. So, Thursday afternoon, Mom and I began to tear the back boards off of the pallets. Then the man who is building our Poultry Kitchen came over to help, and Papa came to help also. They pulled the boards off, and I pulled out the nails. By the end of the day, we had two walls complete, and the other two almost done.

                Friday we milked the cows, and then Mom and I bottled the milk and the kefir. Mom was able to finally get the last of the walls washed down in the cellar, after the floods a month ago. Then we were able to put all the containers and totes back downstairs. After that I was finally able to finish setting up the PayPal and Google pay, and then it was lunch time. After lunch Mom and I went to visit my sister Nichole, and then we headed to town to go to the bank and Publix. My shopping experience took a whole lot longer than I intended. I have a grocery list that has the items that I purchase listed according to the aisle that they are on. This way I know exactly which aisle I need to go to, and I can quickly get in and out. To my dismay---and all the other shoppers’ dismay, I found out that the whole store had been rearranged. Therefore, I had to go up and down every aisle to find what I needed, and remark my shopping list with the correct aisles. I can say that Mom had extra time to look at the magazines---after she found their aisle. J

                Saturday was a hard day. They say that two events in life bring old friends together—a wedding and a funeral. We started our week off with a wedding, and ended our week off with two funerals. We knew that our dear friend Hal’s memorial service was to be held Saturday at 11:00. Wednesday I got online to see if they had posted an obituary for him, but to my dismay, I found out that another friend who used to be our neighbor, and we used to go to church with, had passed away. He was 83, and was riding his motorcycle to his son’s birthday party, when he ran off the road and was killed. His memorial service was to be held Saturday at 2:00. We thankfully have some friends who are kind enough to drive an hour north, to pick up a delivery, and drive an hour back south to deliver it for us. We got up at 6:00 and ate breakfast. Then we headed outside to milk the cows, and do the chores. We finished milking, and then we had to bottle the milk, and pack the orders. We got everything done by 10:30, and we headed out to the first funeral. It was a small gathering, but very sweet. We did get to visit with Hal’s wife, and we got to visit with one of our old Pastor’s and his wife and daughter. He was the Pastor in the church that I grew up in. Shortly after noon, we headed home to finish the receipts and pack up the ice chests in the family’s vehicle that would be making our Gainesville delivery. Then I spent another thirty minutes with another technical glitch. I couldn’t sign onto our email account---because it didn’t like my password anymore. Sounds easy enough—just make a new password. I couldn’t manage to make up a new password though, that yahoo liked. It complained about every single one I made up, until I could care less about passwords—but I needed to check my email, so I had to persevere. I finally accomplished it, and when I did get to check my email, I found out that a customer was on her way to the farm to buy some goodies. The problem was that in ten minutes we had to leave for the second funeral. I tried to call them, but no answer. To our delight, they arrived with just enough time to purchase what they wanted. The other delight was that when we got home, one of our customers was here with her young son to pick up an order. Mom needed to feed the bottle lambs, so they got to help. We left for the second funeral, and found it packed, with standing room only. He was a well-loved father, grand-father, church member and friend. There we got to see friends that we used to go to church with over twenty years ago. We also got to see the man’s daughters and grand-daughters that I used to play with a lot in my early teens. They had a pool and we played many a game, and swam many an hour in that pool. It was around that pool that I learned to love marigold’s, for Mrs. Shelia always had marigolds planted around the pool. The smell of a marigold always reminds me of her. It had been well over 25 years since we last saw the children and grand-children, and now they are grown adults with children of their own. The neat thing was that they remembered us, and all the fun that we had.

                We got home around 4:00, and I decided to use the next hour to put the laundry back where it all belonged. So often we can get so busy, that all the time I have is to wash and dry the laundry---but not fold it and put it away. So, I persevered and tackled the pile. At 5:15, I was almost done when Papa came in from doing the chores and announced that he was hungry. Breakfast had been at 6:30 that morning, and all we had for lunch was a kefir smoothie. Yes, we were all hungry. So I headed to the kitchen, and oven fried some chicken, sautéed up the first cabbage of the season, and cooked some sweet potatoes in butter with maple syrup and apples. I grazed the whole time I was cooking, and couldn’t get over how delicious that cabbage was.

                Then the week came to an end, and after we watched a fellow farmer’s vlog who lives in New Hampshire---I was grateful again that we farm in Florida and we do not have to deal with snow. I hope you have a wonderful week.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare