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Hi Everyone,
Last week I think that we did a little of everything, and learned some new skills. To my delight though, the week started off with checking many things off of my “To Do List” and finally being able to feel like some things were finally accomplished.
Monday morning we milked the cows and headed to the garden. Monday is practically our only day to get to spend the whole day in the garden. We pulled weeds in a lot of the raised beds, and then topped them with compost. For once we did not have to buy any compost. We didn’t want to spend money on dirt to fill in the raised beds that were only going to grow flowers---but where were we to get dirt to fill up the new beds. I decided that it was time to check out the dirt in the chicken compost yard. It is very spongy when you walk on it, and most of the weeds are broken down. I grabbed the garden rake, and raked back the loose wood chips, weeds, or food scraps. Then Steve grabbed a shovel and the wheel barrow—and began shoveling some of the blackest dirt around. He must have dug a foot down, and the deeper he got, the richest the soil was. Yep, good rich soil is what we had. It was not dirt, and it was not clay or sand. We were most delighted, for we had struck black gold. Once the soil was tucked into its new bed, I sprinkled it with different kinds of flower seeds. There were cockscombs, celosia, cosmos and some other flowers that I have never grown before. I hope that they all sprout, and grow very well.
Tuesday we milked the cows, and then we bottled the milk. While I bottled the kefir, Mom and Steve headed to the garden to weed in the nut grass patch. When I finished with the kefir, I picked up Steve and we headed to the chestnut orchard to gather some leaves to mulch the ginger, crinum lily, and the zucchini beds. Then it was time for lunch, and our afternoon egg packaging party. We had one problem though—the machine broke at the company where we get our egg cartons printed. I had ordered them a few weeks back, but they called us up about the time they were supposed to be printing them and told us the sad news. They didn’t expect to get to them until April 30. We ran out of egg cartons on Monday, but since we are selling eggs to a restaurant, we had a case of egg flats. Therefore, we packaged eggs in flats—until we had two buckets of eggs left, and no cartons or flats to put them in. So I sent out an email to our customers asking for help. I needed them to return any good egg cartons that they had so that we could reuse them. We always reuse any egg cartons that are returned in clean condition—if they are dirty; we just have to throw them away. Trust me—we have seen it all when we get egg cartons back. Some are sprinkled with cracked egg shells, some are just plain dirty, and then there was the two we will never forget. One had left over spaghetti in it and the other one had some child’s dirty sock. Yep, we have seen it all. That is why I always say that we can reuse the clean ones. We reuse egg cartons, we do not recycle them. If they are dirty, we have to throw them away. Anyway, about two hours after I sent out the email asking for our customers to return any good egg cartons, the company called us and told us that they would be printing our egg cartons the next day, and that we should have them by Thursday night. Yippee! We finished organizing the egg cartons in the cooler about 4:30. We were expecting a shipment of chicken feed any minute, and Steve wanted to stick around until it arrived so that he could help Papa unload it. So Mom and Steve decided to scrub the milk house floor—they change colors after a time and need a good scrubbing to bring the true color back to the surface. At 5:30 the UPS freight driver called and said that he would be here about 6:30. Steve couldn’t stay any longer, so he went home. Papa started on the evening chores and Mom and I started dinner. There was one problem though—we had company showing up at 6:00 to process a lamb, and I didn’t quite know what time to have dinner done by. I got the steaks ready for the oven, poured the canned potatoes in the pot to heat them up, and started cooking the cabbage, carrots, celery and onions. It was more like 6:20 when the man and his son showed up for the lamb. I turned my burner off, and we all headed outside to the sheep field. We have processed chickens and turkeys for about 20 years, but this was to be our first lamb. As I have said in the past, we are not the fastest at processing, but I hope that we are not the slowest either. J We started our project in perfect daylight at 7:00, it was 9:00 when we finished and we were working by the light of Papa’s flashlight. I think that it only takes the butcher about 20 minutes to do what we did in 2 hours. The whole process was very interesting—but then I was one of those that enjoyed Biology class in high school. There was one part that was just awe inspiring though. You can read about some things in life, but until you experience it first-hand you just cannot fully comprehend it. In the Bible there is a passage in Isaiah 53:7 that says, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Now I have seen sheep being sheared before, and yes, they just lay there dumb while they are being sheared. I had never seen a sheep slaughtered before though. The closest I have ever been to a situation like it, was when a pack of stray dogs got into our ram pen one night. We had about 21 rams in a field, and the dogs entered. When our dogs started barking we went outside, and didn’t hear anything, so we told our dogs to be quite. This happened a few times, and when Papa when to leave for work at 6:00 in the morning he heard a slight commotion in the ram field so he went to check—a battlefield is what he found. That is when we learned the difference between a goat and a sheep. Goats scream if you look at them funny, but sheep do not cry out when they are in trouble. Many books have been written about what we can learn from sheep. How we like sheep go astray, how we cannot handle stress, and how we need a Shepherd to guide us through life and into eternity. When I saw how quiet the lamb was when it was killed, I couldn’t help but think of the above verse. It references our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is God, yet came to earth as a man to live a sinless life that he might die on the cross for our sins. When He was taken before Pilate he opened not his mouth, when the false witnesses accused Him, He opened not His mouth. He laid down his life on that cross—Why? so that the penalty of my sins could be paid. It was a visual lesson I shall always remember.
It was close to 9:30 when we were all done and cleaned up. Therefore, dinner that night was not steak, potatoes, and cabbage—but cold rice topped with chopped apples, nuts, raisins, honey and cinnamon. Then you pour milk in it and you have rice cereal. When we were done eating, I had to make the receipts for the Jacksonville delivery the next day.
Wednesday morning after breakfast, Mom did some house cleaning, and I headed out to milk. When she was done, she joined me in the milking parlor. Half way through milking, Carolina went into labor. Carolina has always liked to be helped birthing her calves—she turns around and puts her rump in your face, and then she turns her head and looks at you as if to say, “Could you please get this calf out of me?” Carolina is one of our older cows, and she has not calved in over two years. We were ready to sell her, when we found out that she was pregnant. She had an adorable brown and white heifer that we named Flossy. She has a crescent white moon on her forehead, and her two back legs are white. We finished up milking our cows, and then it was time to pack the order. When that was done I taught piano lessons. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and visiting with my brother David who came over to borrow the iron so that he could iron his uniform.
Thursday Mom and I milked the cows and bottled the milk. Then we drained the whey and bottled it. After that we ate lunch. Around 1:00 Makenna and Josiah (my niece and nephew) came over for the afternoon. Makenna loves to help us do whatever we are doing—and that afternoon it just so happened to be making yogurt. There really isn’t much someone can do to help me make yogurt, but when you have an eager 6 year old you make it a two person job. She could hand me the containers, place the lid on top, and after I sealed them, she could stack them on the tray so that I could carry them to the incubator (ice chest with hot water in it), and then we could both put them in the ice chest. When Papa got back from taking Moises home he watched Josiah while we girls went to the bank and the grocery store. We shop at Publix, and I have never shopped with a young child before. I will have to say that Publix gets an A+ for taking care of children in the checkout line. You know—when they get a good case of the “I wants”. Publix keeps a few colored balloons at every cash register, and when they think that a child “needs” a balloon, they pull one out of the stash and the child’s “wants” are all satisfied for the next so many hours as they play with their balloon. When we got home we put away the groceries. Then we all rode out to the Poultry Barn to install a cat—not just any ole cat either. You see, farms have feed, and rats like feed, so farms have cats, but they do not always do a good job. Anyway, every once in a while, a rat will find its way into the Poultry Barn and accidently get locked in at night time. Not wanting to spend the night with the chickens, he will chew a hole in the barn wall. Well, that is just what happened. It happened on the turkey side years ago, and Papa had Mom cut a big heart out of metal flashing. It was then attached to the barn to cover up the hole. This time Papa wanted something different. He cut out a cat head and painted it tan, and then Mom added black paint, and made it look like a tan and black tabby with its mouth wide open. Then they anchored it to the barn wall over the rat hole. When we got back Makenna helped Mom feed the two week old broiler chicks while I watched Josiah run all over the place. It was then time for dinner.
Friday we milked the cows, bottled it and the kefir and then Mom headed to the garden to weed, while I headed to town to pick up a new batch of chicks. When I got home it was lunch time. Then we headed to the garden to weed, while Papa mowed all the weeds down in the backyard. When dinner was done, one of our customers from the beach area in Jacksonville arrived. They had just bought a new camper van and desired to try it out. What better place to try it out than at the farm. They were in love at first sight. We got them parked, and then we visited, and then they got to help us feed the bottle lambs—all six of them.
Saturday morning they woke up to the sounds of the song birds, the lambs, the sheep, and the cows—noises they do not hear at the beach. The temperature was perfect, and the wife had one desire—to milk a cow. She arrived all ready, but when we warned her that the cows were in a decorating mood, she kindly excused herself from the milking parlor. You cannot blame her—white pants and no change of clothing do not mix when the cows are decorating the parlor with chocolate. She and her husband stood on the other side of the gate and visited with us while we milked. They were not watching long before they said that our milk was way too cheap. They saw how much work goes into milking a cow, and how much you have to deal with (dodging the cows flyswatter tail, making sure they do not kick you or step on you, and trying to stay clean when they decide to decorate the parlor). She then helped Mom bottle the milk while I packed the Gainesville order. While we were doing all that, some friends from church showed up to work on our golf-cart. Then my brother-in-law showed up with his children needing to get some eggs. While they were here, it was time to make a kefir shake (kefir, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, and honey) before Papa left for Gainesville. While Gary only needed a quick stop, Makenna loves a kefir shake and wasn’t leaving without helping me make it, and drinking a whole pint herself. Before they had left, two people arrived for the Sheep Seminar that Mom was to be having between 1:00 and 4:00. Mom headed out to her seminar, and I entertained all the other guests. Papa left about 1:00, Gary and his crew left a little after 1:00, the campers left around 1:30, and the golf-cart mechanic left around 1:45. I then made up the lamb bottles, placed a chicken in the oven and headed out to join Mom at the Sheep Seminar. I will have to admit—we need a lesson on advertising events, or maybe someone needs to tell me how to plan an event when the rest of the world isn’t doing anything. The seminar was over at 3:30, and then Mom and I crashed on the sofa until 4:00 when it was time to finish dinner.
Yes, it was a busy week, and who knows what this week will behold. Well, I do know that it will behold one thing—Papa’s birthday is Wednesday!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare