267
Hi Everyone,
I have seen the sunrise quite a few times this week—and not from my bedroom window. This has been a very busy week, and a very hot week. We have truly worked from sun-up to sun-down, and with all the heat Papa’s job has been even busier. The animals need moved more often—for the grass isn’t growing very fast. They need shade, they need extra water. I wake up at 3:30 or 4:30 and wonder what our animals will eat as the temps soar higher every day. The grasses get shorter and shorter, and less and less green. Papa is doing his best to irrigate the pastures with four little sprinklers, for the rain is nowhere in sight —but June is right around the corner. Our dry month is almost over—and we have been way too busy to take advantage of all the dry weather to get our porch railings painted. Mom got two sections done last October, but the rest still needs done and once the rains begin we will have to wait until October again before we hit another dry season.
Here a Little, There a Little
Monday morning Mom and I milked the cows and then Steve and I bottled the milk. Then we all headed to the garden to weed—well, that is what Mom planned on doing. I wanted to get some other things done, but we did neither. The lima beans, butternut squash, yellow squash, cucumbers, and spaghetti squash are all planted on trellises—but they do not know exactly how to climb them. They grow a little ways up, then they grow out, or they grow across the ground, and ignore the trellis. So we spent a few hours pruning the vines and tying them up on the trellises. At 2:00 we broke for lunch, and then we decided to work in the milk house and package some eggs. At 4:00 we headed back to the garden to finish hanging the vines. We quit about 5:00, and came in to cook dinner—so that we could go back to the garden in the cool of the evening to harvest the green beans. At 7:00 my weather station said that it was 100 degrees outside—so much for harvesting in the cool of the evening. By the time we got to the garden though, the temperature had dropped to the 80’s. It is almost like we live in the desert this week—100’s by day, and 50’s by night. We picked green beans until we couldn’t see the beans, and our backs wouldn’t bend over anymore. We had three rows left, and would just have to finish the rest on Tuesday.
2 plus 2 equals 6—right?
Tuesday morning after breakfast Mom headed to town to renew her driver’s license (for today is her birthday). To her dismay, once she got there and was handing over all her paperwork, she realized that she forgot to grab her marriage license. So, she came home, helped me milk the cows, grabbed her marriage certificate and headed back to town. When she came home, we asked her if she got it, and she said, “Yes and No.” When she handed the lady her marriage certificate, the lady told her that what Mom had was just a souvenir—she needed a state issued marriage license. So they gave her an extension, and Mom came home and ordered her marriage license from the county in south Florida where she got married. When it came in the mail, Mom said that they had never received one of those before—funny to think that she could be married for 45 years, and never needed one before, and now she cannot renew her driver’s license without it.
After milking, Steve and I bottled the milk and the kefir. Then Mom and Steve went to the garden to mow, and I went to the kitchen to make kombucha. After lunch Mom and Steve headed to the milk house to package eggs, and I stayed in the kitchen to do the dishes and finish making some Soothing Salve and some Black Drawing Salve. A few months back I had infused the olive oil with the herbs, and had drained the oil from the herbs. Then I put them in the fridge to wait for some time to finish them—time to wash 20 little salve jars; measure out all the extra ingredients; and melt the beeswax. I ran into three problems: I had very little beeswax left, very little Vitamin E oil left, and I am terrible at math. It took me hours to accomplish my goal, and too much of my time was spent running back and forth to the calculator and the Conversion calculator. If making salves was as easy as: take one cup of oil, add 1 tablespoon of Vitamin E oil, and 2 tablespoons of beeswax—then I would have been done so much quicker. Growing up I hated math. I had a hard time with fractions, decimals, percentages—and I detested word problems. I hated math until I hit Algebra. I loved Algebra! I know, 2 + 2 is so much easier then x2 + y = z. Anyway, there is a formula for making salves—for every 3 ounces of oil you need one tablespoon of beeswax. That is the simple part, but first you have to measure out your oil, and what if you have 3 ½ cups. How many ounces are in 3 ½ cups? Then, can you divide that by 3? When it comes to adding the Vitamin E oil, you need ¼ tsp. for every ounce of herbal oil. What if you have 30 ounces of oil? Who wants to count out 30 (1/4 tsps.) of Vitamin E oil! Therefore, how many tablespoons do 30 (1/4 tsps.) equal? It was at this stage that I realized that I didn’t have enough beeswax or Vitamin E Oil to turn all the herbal oil into the Soothing Salve. So, I measured out the amount of Vitamin E oil that I had, and then I had to figure out how many ounces of herbal oil I needed to make that amount of salve. Then once everything was all measured out, the mixture had to be placed back in the oven to melt the beeswax into the oils. You do not want your oven too hot—for I think that beeswax can catch fire, so it takes a while to melt. While I waited I washed some dishes. I think that packaging eggs for the afternoon would have been less brain taxing—at least Steve might have enjoyed my presence, for since I was not helping, he was taking my place in breaking eggs. I have the reputation for breaking the most eggs on packaging days—I get to use a rainbow assortment of rags.
As soon as I finished with the salves, it was time to cook dinner. After dinner, I did the dishes while Mom and Papa headed to the garden to finish picking the last three rows of green beans. After the dishes were done, I had the Jacksonville orders to work on.
A Simple Day
Wednesday was an easy day. Our morning was spent milking, packing orders, and finishing the receipts for Papa to make the deliveries to Jacksonville. After that, Mom and Steve worked on more eggs, and I taught piano lessons. Then I worked on some ironing, did laundry and rested for the rest of the day until it was time to cook dinner.
Mystery Solved?
I am almost 90% sure that I have figured out what ate the head off of our backyard female bluebird that was sitting on her eggs in our bluebird house. My dear, precious, hefty gray and orange tabby cat—Catapus. We have noticed that every night, and sometimes mornings, she goes and stalks the bluebird house. One night I scolded her and scolder her, even removed her from the backyard, and still I found her climbing the post and hanging there while the new female and the old male bluebird dive bombed her. Yes, the male found him a new wife, and they made a new nest, and she is sitting on five eggs, while he guards the nest loyally.
Green Beans in the Garden—not only harvesting, but also canning!
Thursday was a busy day, but relaxing early evening. Mom and I got the milking done, and then we were heading to the garden to pick green beans—when we remembered that the chicks had arrived at the Post Office and were waiting on us to pick them up. As we stood around figuring out what order to do things, the phone rang. A friend was on her way over for a visit. I decided to do some house cleaning, while Mom headed to town to pick up the chicks. Papa headed to the feed store for chick bedding, and everyone arrived back at the farm at the same time. We spent a few hours visiting with our friends, and then they left and we had lunch. They ate before they came, and we always eat when we get everything done. After we ate, it was too late to harvest the beans, so we decided to snap the ones that we had harvested Monday and Tuesday evenings. So, we grabbed our tubs of beans, a bag for the ends, pulled the couch up to the computer, and sat down to watch some garden videos while we relaxed and worked. J Once the beans were snapped, we washed them up, placed them in pint jars and canned them. While they cooked, we cooked dinner.
Not enough Hours in my Day!!!!!!
Friday morning Mom and I headed to the garden at 6:30 in the morning. We got to watch the sunrise while we harvested green beans in the cool of the morning. At 8:00 we had breakfast, and by 9:00 we were milking the cows. We finished with the milking by 11:00 and started setting up to process 47 chickens. By 12:00 we were finally able to begin butchering—we already knew that we could butcher 20 birds an hour, so it didn’t surprise us that it took us 2.5 hours to do 47 birds. Therefore it was 3:00 when we headed inside to cook lunch. Then we headed back to the Poultry Kitchen to package the stock packs, liver, and hearts; and to help the chickens to “chill out” for 24 hours. Then we cleaned up the poultry kitchen and came inside to cook dinner. After dinner I was so tired, and my legs hurt so bad from standing on concrete all day—but the calves needed to be separated from their mommas for the night. While Mom took care of a customer, Papa and I headed out to round up the calves. Thankfully it went smoothly. When I got back inside I helped with the dishes and then I had the orders to do for Saturday’s Gainesville delivery.
Saturday we usually sleep in—but since the sun is rising earlier, we wake up shortly after 6:00 anyway. While I was getting ready for the day, Mom popped in to ask if I wanted to help her pick the last three rows of green beans. It seems that we always run out of time after the first seven rows. So I headed to the garden with her. We finished the last three rows, trellised a few squashes, and harvested the cucumbers—which are producing in abundance. Then Mom harvested the first scallop squash of the season to eat with her breakfast. We came inside at 7:30, and fixed breakfast. We got the milking done, and then we packed the Gainesville order and packaged some chickens for the delivery. We broke for lunch, took a little time to relax, and then we headed to the garden to harvest the last of the Vidalia onions—and weed the beds. Then we had to cut off the roots, and clean the dirty skins off of the onions to place them on the curing racks. Then it was 4:30, and we headed to the Poultry Kitchen to package the rest of the chickens. At 5:15 I headed inside to put dinner in the oven. Then I helped Mom clean up the rest of the poultry kitchen, and we grabbed the green beans and sat down on the couch to watch another garden video while we snapped beans. It was around 7:00 when we sat down to eat dinner. After we ate we finished snapping the last little bit of beans, and I practiced my piano a little. Then we washed up the beans, placed them in jars, and while Mom got them ready for the canner, I did the dishes. By the time the canners were going, it was 10:00 and we took turns getting ready for bed—of which we fell into around 11:00.
This morning came early as the clock struck 5:00—and we had to get up and do all our chores by 9:00 so that we could go to church. It was a beautiful morning—not too hot, not too cold. The sunrise was gorgeous. We were discussing how interesting it is that the sun and the moon both come up big and orange. The singing mockingbird is back, and he serenades us all day from the top of the electrical pole just above the milking parlor.
For once I am finishing my journal early on a Sunday night—now I can fix me a bite to eat, and sit down and relax. Well, maybe not as soon as I thought, for I just remembered that the breakfast dishes still need done. Can they wait until tomorrow?
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare