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Hi Everyone,
From the looks of the weather map, I think that about everyone who gets my journal has gotten some amount of rain today. Some needed it real bad—for they have had no rain since early May, and others didn’t need it at all—for they are at flood stage. Here on the farm we are grateful for it, for we have been pretty dry. When the weather is hot and dry the grasses do not grow very well, and the cows need lots of green grass to make lots of creamy milk. Last Wednesday we found ourselves twenty plus gallons of milk short for the Jacksonville delivery—that is a rarity in the summer, but with slow growing grass, heat and cows being dried off to calve in July and August, we have been lower than normal for this time of year.
Last week was very interesting here on the farm. Last Sunday night the neighbor man stopped by and asked us if we needed any help for the summer. One of the girls was looking for something to do this summer, and was wondering if she could hang out over here. With school out for the summer, children have a tendency to get bored, not knowing what to do with all their spare time. So, most days for the summer, Carry will be helping us here on the farm. She loves animals, has a very tender heart for the little babies (calves, lambs, chicks), and enjoys feeding the cows every morning while we milk—even when the cows lose their manners and wipe their feed laden lips on her shirt as they ask for more food. I would have to say that the highlight of her day is feeding the two bottle lambs every morning.
Monday morning Steve and I worked on cleaning out the caterpillar tunnel so that I could plant some Grain Sorghum as a nematode killer. I am told that you let it grow about waist high, then you chop it down and let it lay for about a month—or my idea is to let some chickens till it in. To get the tunnel ready though, we had to remove all the winter crops of broccoli—that had gone to seed, the collards—that were going to seed and being eaten by worms , the lettuce—that had bolted or refused to grow past three inches, and the radishes—that I no longer seem to be able to grow. Radishes are supposed to be some of the easiest vegetables to grow, but for the last few years I seem to only get little marble size roots, or red roots that are long tails. When I did manage to get some radishes to grow perfectly, they were so hot that they were inedible. I can grow winter radishes real well—but no one seems to care for the hot and spicy Daikon radishes. I haven’t given up yet, maybe I need to find a different variety than Cherry Belle. Steve and I did not finish our project before Mom called us in for lunch. After lunch we all worked on removing the kiwi vines from the garden, and weeding all the goldenrod and Betony roots out of the bed so that we could plant some Firespike plants that our neighbor shared with us. The kiwi has been in the ground for about 10 years, but they have not flowered once, and were nothing more than an unruly vine. Since they were planted in the area designated to bees and butterflies, we decided to remove them and replace them with a plant that will attract the bees, butterflies and the hummingbirds. Thankfully we had Steve to help—because those kiwi roots went to China, and the root system was pretty massive. Hours later, the bed was all clean and had six Firespike plants growing happily in it.
Tuesday was a day with a “To Do List” a mile long—and I knew that not one second of the day could be wasted. At breakfast I headed upstairs to bring down two boxes of canning jars so that they could go in the dishwasher with the breakfast dishes –so that they would be ready to make kombucha later. I was supposed to make the kombucha the week before, and I had even sent Papa to the store to buy the water for me. I also wanted him to get some bottled drinking water. When he got home, he told Mom that there was no drinking water at Publix. She didn’t know that I had him getting drinking water and water for kombucha—so she told me that Papa wasn’t able to get any water. On Saturday when Papa was heading to Gainesville, I asked him to get me some kombucha water at the Publix down there. He told me that he had gotten me water on Thursday, but that they were out of drinking water. Oh me, Oh my, oh---and I had all the time that Thursday or Friday to make the kombucha. This week I did not have all the time in the world. Tuesday was to be my day though, and I wanted nothing to slow me down, and I had the day all planned out to the “T”. After milking I bottled the kefir, and then I headed to the garden to finish weeding the tunnel. My plan was that Mom and Carry could wash all the 102 pints of green beans that were occupying all the counters in the kitchen—of which I needed to make kombucha. The green beans did not get washed though—for Carry had other plans for the day, and never came over to visit us. Mom wasn’t even inside herself. As soon as the milk was filtered, Mom and Steve had to put the last three baby calves in the sheep barn. Penelope was hit in the udder years ago with her first calf, after it healed she never had any more problems with it—until she calved a few weeks ago. Since Penelope is an A1 gene cow, we decided that it was time to cull her from the milking parlor—but use her for a nurse cow. Abby calved a week after Penelope did, but she refused to let her milk down, and ended up with mastitis. Cows produce more milk than their babies can drink, so it is very helpful for us to milk out what the baby cannot eat—this prevents mastitis, as long as the cow will let her milk down. While we chose to put more calves on Penelope to help with her mastitis, we chose to take Abby’s calf away to help with her mastitis. When a cow refuses to let her milk down, we usually have to bottle feed the calf—unless we have another cow that we can use as a nurse cow. As of today, Abby is doing better at letting down her milk. A week after Abby calved, Ana calved. Ana had no problem letting her milk down—but Ana had a major problem feeding her baby. She was a very protective mamma, who made sure that her calf was always with her—but by the third day, the calf was only getting skinnier not fatter. So, we stepped in with a bottle, of which the little heifer took right to. Now we have three freshened cows—all with their own problems, and we had one solution. Penelope would become nurse cow to three calves! The calves live in the sheep barn for now, and twice a day we take Penelope to them. She has adopted all three as her own, and guards them with a vengeance while she is there—in other words, DO NOT GET BETWEEN HER AND HER CALVES! Anyway, after all the calves were separated, Mom dropped Steve off at the garden to help me, while she went inside to fix lunch. Then the phone rang—my brother Charles had just arrived in town by bus, and needed to be picked up. He was planning on spending the week with us. Steve and I finished in the garden, and shortly after we got inside, my brother arrived. After we ate lunch I made yogurt, and then Charles and I headed to town to run some errands—I desperately needed some supplies to finish making a salve, and we needed groceries. Steve and Mom packaged eggs, and Papa cleaned out the brooder house to get it ready for a new shipment on Thursday. We got home from shopping just in time to cook dinner. After dinner I worked on finishing a salve that I call Radiant Balm. I created it years ago to help a man at church who was having radiation done on his throat cancer. The balm kept him from turning black from the radiation. Someone else is going to be having some radiation, and they wanted some of the salve. I had to have it done by Wednesday—and it was Tuesday night. When the salve was finished, I had the orders to do for the Jacksonville delivery. I never did get around to making the kombucha—but Wednesday would be another day. If you have made it this far in reading this journal, I am sure that you are exhausted by now—don’t worry, I was too by the end of that day.
Carry came over to help out Wednesday morning, and her biggest help was helping Mom bottle all the kombucha while I taught piano lessons—after we milked the cows, bottled the milk, and packed the Jacksonville orders. Packing orders was not very fun since I had to cut people’s milk orders so that everyone could have some—thankfully though, we got more milk from the cows than we had been getting, so I didn’t have to cut as bad as I thought I would. Later that afternoon, I finally got around to making more kombucha. It is so nice to accomplish things from the “To Do List”. Usually Mom and I do not have any evening chores on Wednesday nights, but since Penelope had three calves to feed, we had to take her to them, and separate the other calves so that we could have more milk in the morning.
Thursday we processed chickens and with my brother Charles in town—we had some help. We got the cows milked, and then we ate lunch. After lunch we set up and started processing around 2:00. We finished a little before 4:00, and then we had to ice down the chickens and package all the parts (heads, feet, liver, and hearts). We were done by 5:30, but it took until about 6:00 to get everything cleaned up.
Friday we milked the cows, and then we packaged half of the chickens. After lunch I made yogurt and then we cut up the rest of the chickens and packaged them in thighs, legs, backs, breasts, and wings. That took us until about 4:00 in the afternoon. Then we had to clean up all the equipment and give the floor a good scrubbing. Eli, a man who used to work for us, stopped by and we had a good visit with him and his wife. He was very impressed with the new Poultry Kitchen. We used to process the chickens in the sidewalk beside the milk house and milking parlor—while Eli and Moises would milk the cows. Cows do not like change, and the noise from the scalder and plucker usually made some of the cows who get scared easily—not want to come in. Therefore, the Poultry Kitchen is a big help—but since we lost our milker, we cannot process the chickens until after the cows are all milked. By the time Eli left, and the chickens and the mess were all done—we were done in too. So Mom and I headed to Panera Bread to pick up dinner.
Mom took Charles back to the bus Saturday morning so that he could catch a ride back home to Tennessee. When she got back she helped me finish milking the cows. Then the milk needed to be bottled, the kefir needed to be bottled, the Gainesville order needed to be packed, and the receipts needed to be finished. That afternoon was a lazy, crafty, catch-up afternoon. Off and on throughout the afternoon I finished putting all of May’s farm receipts on the computer. I also dug up the first garlic to see how it was doing---they are not done yet. I harvested some lemon squash (a round yellow summer squash), some cucumbers, everglade tomatoes, some patty pan squash, and some mullein flowers. When I got back to the house, I weeded a section of ground beside the side porch—in our courtyard, so that we could plant some Florida irises—Blue Flag. One of our customers shared them with us. Many, many, years ago her father dug them up in the wild, and they have moved them along with them every time they move. I love plants with stories. After the irises were planted, I headed inside to practice my piano. Then it was time for dinner, and a relaxing evening.
We have lots of garden work to do this week—but while we will not be dealing with the intense heat, I believe that we shall be dodging rain showers. There is honestly never enough thyme to spend in the garden—with the rains, the weeds are growing fast, the vines need constant attention to be trellised, and a whole bed needs to be weeded in order to plant the Roselle hibiscus plants that I have growing in pots. Then the grass needs mowed in the garden and the yard, and everything needs trimmed on the edges.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare