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Hi Everyone,

                Happy New Year! Can you believe that the first week of the year is almost over, and then there will be only 51 more to go? Time truly does fly faster and faster the older you get---or the more fun you have, or the busier you are. It will be exciting to see what the Lord has in store for us this year.

Today has been a long and hard day, with a piece of excitement at the end. Our morning started at 5:00, and we all headed outside to get the chores done so that we could get to church on time.  Yesterday, Gracy finally calved. I thought that she was due December 6, but she must have gotten bred on the next cycle three weeks later. Then she must have been a week late, and she had a bull calf. When it was Gracy’s turn to be fed yesterday, she was too involved in cleaning up her after birth and taking care of her calf to come in to eat. This morning though, she was more than hungry----and since she had just calved, and would be full of colostrum instead of milk, she needed to go last. There she was though---first in line. We managed to keep her back for the first round, and then also for the second round, but come the third round she could wait no longer. I tried to keep her back with a stick, while I tried to coax another cow to come in. Just as the other cow started to come, Gracy made her move, and charged in---stepping on my boot so that I could not jump out of her way. With her foot on my boot, she pressed on and pushed me down onto the hard concrete---amidst the dirt and poo that they drop from their hooves. Thankfully she didn’t step on my foot, and all I suffered was a little bruise. Needless to say, after I milked Gracy, I couldn’t use those milk claws anymore, so I could only milk one cow at a time for the rest of the milking. We finally finished milking about 8:00----we started a little before 6:00. Then we had to filter the milk---make kefir, and fill a pot up to make yogurt tomorrow. By 8:40 we were finally inside to get ready for church and cook breakfast. At 9:00 we sat down to eat, and were on our way to church by 9:40. I played the piano for the first service, and the other piano player played for the second service. We shed lots of tears at church as we said good-bye to some friends who were moving on. By 3:30 we were on our way to happier times, as we had a wedding to attend. My dear friend Rachel was getting married----after waiting until she was 34 for God to supply a husband. I met Rachel when she was 8 and I was her 16 year old babysitter. J Once Rachel got into her twenties we became friends. As the years went by, Rachel would come and spend a week here and there on the farm. One time she brought a friend over around 7:00 at night---when it was time to feed the bottle lambs. And we all sat in the pen for hours feeding the lambs, watching them hop and skip and run, and talking and laughing our heads off. Rachel is a go getter, loves to travel, and is full of life and spunk. I am glad that her dreams have finally come true. We got home from the wedding around 7:00---and here I sit at the computer telling you about my life.

The last day of the year we spent planting the turmeric and ginger. The turmeric bed was completely ready, but only one of the two ginger beds were ready. We planted 36 turmeric crowns, and 35 ginger rhizomes. I had another type of ginger, and I wanted to plant it in the old elderberry bed. The one problem was that there were still a few pieces of elderberry roots that were sprouting. We dug through the dirt, and uprooted themJ. The other problem was that after pulling out the elderberry trees, all the dirt was gone. We hadn’t been able to go and buy some compost soil----and being New Year’s Eve, the place was closed. It was a good root crop planting day, and I really didn’t want to wait---but where could I find soil. I thought about sifting through the compost dirt that the compost chickens had made---but I knew that my shoulders could never handle sifting five wheelbarrow loads of compost. I still would love to have some mechanical compost sifter. There were the piles of “mud---dirt and manure that Papa had piled up from the milking parlor, but that was too far away. I thought and thought, but couldn’t think of any place on the farm to easily get some. Then I remembered the truck bed liner that Eli and I had filled with milking parlor muck and wood chips last winter. It had set thru the winter and made great compost. Back in the spring we pulled it out to the garden to use---but all that we managed to do with it was to plant in it some red skinned, white fleshed sweet potatoes that a customer gave us. Weeds had taken over, and the sweet potatoes had been harvested. Most of the bed was ready to be used---one section had nasty coastal grass growing in it, and a corner had a nasty ant bed in it. So, while Mom and Steve worked on finishing up the doors to the garden greenhouse tunnel, I shoveled beautiful compost into the wheelbarrow. Then I had Steve push it over to the bed, and dump it for me.  The truck bed only had about four loads, which was enough to plant the ginger in, but it didn’t fill the bed up. I can top it off with woodchips later, but I got the ginger planted.

We didn’t stay up long enough to see the New Year arrive---we were ready to crash at 9:00, but to our dismay our fridge decided to not cool below 50 F. Papa had spent the afternoon defrosting it, but it still wasn’t unfrozen. Therefore, we knew that we had to empty it and unplug it for the night. So, at 9:00, when we would have rather pulled the covers over our heads and gone fast asleep---we had to grab some ice chests and fill them up with our fridge and freezer items, then take them next door to our walk-in cooler and freezer. What a blessing they are when the fridge doesn’t work, yet I must admit that cooking has been a little complicated as you realize in the middle of a recipe that you need a certain ingredient that is over in the milk house cooler or freezer. One night I wanted to try making Shepherd’s Pie---with our white sweet potatoes. It was cold outside, and I just wanted to get warm. I was on the computer looking for a recipe, when Mom remembered that we forgot to have Moises take the yogurt out of the incubator and put in the cooler. So, I quickly went to the milk house to grab a crate to carry the yogurt. By the time Mom and I had the yogurt in the cooler, I was even colder. Then I realized that some of the ingredients that I needed for the pie were in the walk in freezer. At that moment I gave up---I did not feel like standing in the freezer digging through an ice chest trying to find certain food items. So, I decided that we were eating soup, for all the ingredients were in the warm house.

While we did not stay up to see the Ball in New York City drop, or to ring in the New Year, our neighbors did manage to wake us up at midnight with all their firecrackers. Our day was spent doing one of our favorite things---weeding in the garden. We weeded and we trimmed, and just love to see the garden take shape. For dinner I wanted a nice meal, so I opened one of my cook books that have menus in it. For New Year’s Day it suggested Fried chicken, collards, and orange glazed sweet potatoes. Mom also saw that it called for Carrot Cake----but as much as I tried to grant her that wish, I ran into too many obstacles, and ran out of time. The nice thing about the meal though, was that it was completely home grown.

Thursday was very busy. Mom and I got the milking done, then Mom headed to town, and Papa headed to buy some more chicken feed. I headed to the kitchen to make some kombucha. Then I made yogurt. Then it was almost 2:00, and we had a farm tour scheduled for that time. We had told the family to come Thursday afternoon, because it was supposed to rain all day on Friday. To our dismay, the sky was growing blacker by the minute. Then to our delight, the family said that they would be an hour late. The heavens let loose, I practiced my piano, and when they arrived at 3:00 the rain was just stopping. It was perfect timing to feed the two bottle lambs. After the lambs had full tummies, we walked over to see the ducks, and the milk cows which are wintering behind the back yard. Then we went for our ride in the Gravely, past the heifer, Sheba the guard dog of some of the chickens, Jill the guard dog of the other chickens, the geese and ducks at the pond, and the sheep at the sheep barn. We ended up at the garden, and there the little girl came alive. She enjoyed smelling the plants and pulling up a fresh carrot and eating it, but the most fun was found in all the water puddles left over from the rain. Life from a child’s perspective is always simple: take time to smell the plants, splash in the water puddles, and jump in the leaves.

Friday our Poultry Kitchen builder showed up---with a worker. He was so excited to finally be able to find someone to help him---and a very capable helper he found. They made great progress on the roof, and I look forward to seeing how much is accomplished this week.

Saturday was paper work day. It was time to transfer the milking parlor wall calendar onto my paper calendar so that I can keep the records in a compact place. Then I needed new 2019 charts for cow calving and cow milking. Mom spent some time in the garden putting in solar lights around the fire pit, and harvesting some beets and green onions. I had already harvested some broccoli on Wednesday, and so what was “in season” determined what we ate for dinner.

Well, it is late (9:30), and I am ready for bed. So, “Good Night”, or maybe for some of you “Good Morning.”

Serving you With Gladness,

Tiare