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Hi Everyone,

We safely made it to Missouri and we are greatly enjoying our visit with my Aunts and my Grandpa. Since Grandpa’s internet is temperamental I figured that I had better write my journal while the internet was working.

The Lord was very merciful during our travels, for while the news said that the day after Christmas was the worst day of the year to be traveling, the Lord kept the roads ahead of us cleared. While the traffic bogged down a little in Atlanta—we still kept moving for the most part. As we traveled on Thursday we looked through the 2020 seed catalogs planning what varieties of vegetables and fruit we should grow in the garden this spring. We arrived at the hotel about 6:00 and we put a jar of chili in the crock-pot and then I relaxed on the bed and read one of my encouraging magazines—Keeper’s at Home. Friday morning we picked up two of my Aunts—for the third one could not get off work to make the trip. That day of travel was spent dosing ourselves with lots of medicine—laughter. Proverbs 17:22 says that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” and I am sure that by the time we all get home we should all be healthy as a lark. Getting ready for this trip was not as relaxing as this trip has been. . .

It all began last Sunday night as we made the plans to leave Thursday morning to head for Missouri to visit with Grandpa since his wife died last Saturday. None of the daughters could make it to their stepmothers funeral, but they could arrange to spend the weekend with their Dad. I started a batch of chicken broth and a batch of beef broth. I also started soaking the oats for a batch of granola.

Monday morning our old milker Eli came over for a simple crash course to remind him how we do everything. We are just amazed at God’s perfect timing—for a month ago Eli told us that he had the last two weeks of the year off and that he would like to come and milk for us a few days so that we could get off the farm. For over a year Mom has wondered how she would ever get to go home when her stepmother died—for she has been sick for over a year. Then she passed away just when Eli had time off from his work so that he could come and milk for us so that we could go to Missouri.

After we milked the cows we headed to the garden. Steve weeded, and Mom and I prepped the garden beds so that we could transplant 36 baby lettuce plants. After lunch Mom headed to the green house so that she could pot up some kale and flowers. Steve, Papa and I headed up to the chestnut trees to collect more leaves. This time the goal was to cover all the walkways in the garden tunnel with leaves so that we didn’t have to weed them anymore. As we were heading up to the chestnuts it began to sprinkle. The sprinkles got heavier and heavier with each batch of leaves we raked up. By the time we made it back to the garden we were beginning to get wet. We were getting on the cold side by the time we had all the leaves out of the trailer and into the tunnel covering all the walkways—it sure looks really nice now.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve and if we were not leaving for a trip on Thursday, i would have not needed anything from the store. Since we were leaving though, I had no choice but to join the last minute shopping crowds. It was a drizzly, dreary day—and the stores and parking lots were packed. When I got home it was not only time for lunch, but I also had to finish making the yogurt. Then our new friend Sue called because she had read in last weeks journal that we had to head north and she wanted to help us get prepared. Sue arrived sometime after 3:00 and helped make chili, sliced veggies, and bean dip for the trip. Mom and I worked on canning the broths and I made some oven-fried chicken. I also had to finish assembling all the ingredients for the granola. It was after 6:00 by the time Sue left for her home and we started cleaning up and had to cook dinner.

Christmas morning our plans were to go to our dear friends the Cranes for Christmas dinner—but when we heard that one of their boys was sick with a fever we cancelled those plans. Moises had come in early—7:00, so that we could all get the chores done and everyone could go and enjoy their Christmas Day. The sad part about not going to the Crane’s is that since we have so many allergies, they really went out of their way to cook food that we could eat—you know you are loved when people are willing to cook for you even though you have so many allergies. Now we had to figure out what we were going to eat. I grabbed a frozen package of turkey thighs and put them in a pot and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and marjoram. Then I cooked them for 4 hours at 300 F. I put some sweet potatoes in the oven, and cooked some of the Christmas Lima Beans that we had grown. I also made some cranberry sauce, and found it to be a very yummy success. While the sauce was gelling, and the turkey and the sweet potatoes were cooking we took a stroll through the garden. I had camera in hand—and found the goose guarding his chickens and ducks quite faithfully. We harvested some green onions for our trip, and Papa wanted the sheer joy of harvesting a carrot—and we found a nice size carrot of which he pulled up and we all enjoyed it for our dinner. Our whole dinner was grown here on our farm—and there really cannot be a better tasting meal than one that you have harvested yourself. The rest of the day we relaxed and later in the evening as Papa was doing the chores Mom and I cleaned up the van bench that is stored in the garage and we washed the van windows.

Thursday morning we planned on leaving by 10:00, but when you have to pack every bite of food that you put in your mouth—it was 10:50 by the time we pulled out of the driveway. One thing that I noticed as we got up into Illinois and Missouri—the farm houses and barns are absolutely beautiful, and the farms go for miles. Yet, there is something terribly wrong about them—there are no animals. They either grow corn or soybeans. Mono culture farms are so different—I enjoy the variety we have on our farm.

I hope that each of you had a lovely Christmas and I want to let you know that we are grateful for our family and look forward to being your farmers and friends in this New Year.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare