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Hi Everyone,

                When the week began we had no idea what the week would behold. I remember on Monday morning while Mom and I were milking I told her that if we have a hurricane this year that we could put an old bale of hay around the concrete that surrounds the milking parlor to prevent the cows having to stand in mud while they wait to be milked. Little did I know that the next morning our worker Steve would tell us about a massive hurricane that was building in the Atlantic and heading our way. When you live on a farm preparing for a hurricane is no fun—for it is a lot of work. Never before have we had young chickens and turkeys out on pasture when a hurricane was approaching. They have always been just little babies in the brooder house. The hoop houses have always been empty, so we line them up on the backside of the barn and bury t-posts in the ground and tie the hoop houses to the t-posts. This year we have two hoop houses with chickens and one hoop house with turkeys, plus a hoop house with a calf and one with a puppy. Getting ready can be a nightmare. So we began to pray (along with many others) that this hurricane will turn away from land and just head back to sea. We are hoping that the direction of Hurricane Dorian will continue to veer away from land, but we continue to watch to make sure that the winds will not get so heavy that we have to take the shade cloth off of the garden tunnel, relocate a bunch of chickens and turkeys, and empty all the furniture off of the porch.

Is it here yet?

On Monday morning the “To Do List” was so long with big jobs, but one was very pressing. Monday was a great planting day for root crops. A few weeks ago I had a panic moment when I realized that I had never harvested my multiplying onions from last year—they were still in the garden with eight foot tall weeds growing on top of them. I headed to the garden to see if I could salvage any of them. I found plenty of red onion bulbs, but all my white ones had rotted away. That was sad, but I was glad to at least have some red ones. Last Saturday night as I was trying to fall asleep, I remembered that the onions needed to be planted on Monday—but the section where they needed to be planted was a giant weed mess. So—as soon as we were done milking we headed to the garden. I was expecting a new garden tool to be delivered by UPS, and I could hardly wait. For a few years now I have wanted a broadfork from Meadow Creature. I finally broke down and bought one last week. With all the weeds, I really wanted it to arrive quickly. We worked in the garden until lunch time, and got the majority of the big weeds out. Then after lunch it was hands and knees work as we pulled up tons of nut grass—that terrible weed that you cannot get rid of. It seemed like every five minutes I was looking toward the house to see if the UPS truck had arrived. Every big truck noise made me jump up and look to see if it was coming up our driveway. I was like a kid waiting for Santa Claus to bring the presents. We quit work around 4:30, and still no broadfork. By that time, it had started to rain. At 5:45 I heard the big truck noise and ran to the window and to my delight it was the UPS man after all. I was so excited, and couldn’t wait to give it a try. I had tried a homemade one before, and I was not heavy enough to get it in the ground. That broadfork used rebar for spikes, but my new one had thick 12” long blades. Even though it was sprinkling, I just had to give it a try. So Mom and I decided to test it out on a big weed in our front yard. It went in the ground with no problem at all. That was actually the easy part. The next step is to pull the handles down to the ground, which in turn loosens all the dirt, sod and weeds. The soil was so compact that I was literally hanging on the handles and not touching the ground. I could even do push-ups on the handles and still couldn’t get it to the ground. After much straining of the muscles I succeeded. Thankfully the garden soil isn’t that packed, and after dinner that night I was ready to head to the garden and begin broadforking—it was only 7:15 and I figured that I could have a whole hour to work before it got dark. Mom had more wisdom though, and I was encouraged to wait until Tuesday.

Will I ever get them planted?

                Since we were not able to finish preparing the garden to plant the onions on Monday, I gave up on the “planting by the moon” and was determined to get those onions in the ground on Tuesday—even though it wasn’t a good “planting” day. So what if the lawn needed to be mowed, the barn needed to be cleaned out for the winter supply of hay, the eggs needed to be packaged, and we needed some groceries—I had onions to plant! It was 11:30 by the time the milking was done and the milk and kefir were bottled. We loaded the broadfork, onions and bottles of water into the Gravely and I was all ready to head to the garden—but………………………Mom had other plans. We are trying out a new style of gardening this year. It is called “Market Gardening”. The rows are forever long, and 30 inches wide—using all available planting space in the most efficient way. I want more veggies to eat, and more veggies to have to sell. We watched some YouTube videos put out by Never Sink Farm, and were impressed with his gridding tools. There was only one problem—they cost about $500. We thought and thought on how we could make his design—I even considered hiring a local welder to make some for us. Then Mom thought that we could make them out of old wire spools—but they were too small. I had the idea to make them out of wood. So we found a piece of plywood in the barn and then we had math class. I knew that we needed a circle that had a circumference of 30 inches. I never was very good in math, and I was once told that geometry should be taught in workshop, not a classroom. We at least knew that we needed a compass to draw our circle—and I still had mine from my high school days. I had one thing wrong though—I thought that the diameter of a 30” circumference circle was 15”. So, against Mom’s better judgement we cut out three 15 inch wide circles. Then when we went to attached the cross pieces they didn’t measure out evenly every 10 inches. Big thanks to Mr. Google who came to my rescue with a circumference calculator. We needed a circle that was about 9.55 inches wide. So, Mom stacked the circles all together and cut them down to the proper size. It was 2:00 by the time we finished building the three wheeled gridder to help us plant our onions in a straight row and evenly spaced. I was a little discouraged—but it was beginning to rain and we hadn’t even started in the garden. We broke for lunch, and by the time we finished eating it had quit raining. It was 2:30 and we started for the garden—but first we needed some handles for our little gridder. A few holes were drilled into some old handles and we were off for the garden. It was almost 3:00 when we arrived in the garden. Steve wanted to try out the broadfork on the walkway were the weeds were still pretty thick. Mom and I measured off where the row was to go, and then while I marked the row, Mom began to broadfork. I was getting a little jealous by now—everyone was getting to play with my toy but me. I asked Mom if I could please do the last foot of the row, and she gladly shared. Then Papa drove up and told me that my piano student was here. So I left Steve and Mom to finish in the garden and I came up to teach piano. When my lesson was over, it was pouring down rain outside. A drowned Mamma soon arrived happy as a lark—the onions were planted, and the gridder had worked beautifully!

Greener Pastures

                A few weeks ago we moved the sheep into the side yard to eat the very tall, lush green grass. We had raised ducks and lambs there for about a year, and since they needed some grass to eat, Mom never mowed that section. After we moved them out, the grass was so fertile that Mom wanted to bring the sheep into eat it. Many months went by, and the grass got taller and taller. The time finally came to move them in, and boy did they enjoy it. Finding a sheep with a mouth full of grass was easy, but getting pictures of them with their mouths full was a different story. By the time I would get the camera focused on them, their mouthful was almost gone. Come Friday they had eaten all the grass down, and it was time to move them to greener pastures. This time it was the garden. Most of the garden beds are fenced in, so all we had to do was add a few extra panels and then they could eat the grass between the beds—for Mom has not had any time lately to mow it. We got the garden all set up for them, and then while Papa guarded the gate from the beef cows, Mom and I went down to bring up the sheep. We stood in the lane and called them, and they came running out of the yard and began to follow Mom up the lane to the garden. She managed to get them into the field beside the garden, and then just ten feet away from the gate when the lead sheep turned her head and saw a whole field of lush green grass—and led the rest of the herd astray. How do you round up 80 sheep from a two acre field, in the midst of beef cows, and herd them through a twelve foot gate? We herded them from one end to the other, and past the gate a second time. On the third try the sheep saw the gate, and the lead sheep led them through and into the garden. I am hoping and praying that the panels all hold strong, and the sheep do not get to the sweet potatoes.

Every Farm Has a Story

                When your milk cows freshen and have mastitis, sales drop, and bank account numbers are not very promising—a little encouragement goes a long way. Farming is not easy, but sometimes you think that you are the only one with troubles. A few weeks ago we watched a little clip by Will Harris the owner of White Oak Pastures in Georgia. I remember meeting him before he got so big. In his little clip he mentioned that he had borrowed about 7 million dollars to get his operation up and running—then over the next few year’s things looked so hopeless that he was afraid that he would lose his farm that had been passed down through quite a few generations. When life gets hard, you wonder what the future will behold. A few months ago we heard about a new movie—The Biggest Little Farm. It is about a family in California who made a promise to a dog, had big dreams, and pursued them against all odds. It is amazing to see what their farm looked like when they started, and how much it has changed in seven years. Those changes didn’t come about without many trials. As much as we hate trials, many times God uses them in our lives to redirect our paths, or to teach us new things. Saturday night we finally got to watch the movie, and it is one of the best we have ever seen. If you want to know what real life farming is all about—that is a movie to watch.

                I hope that everyone has a very good week, and that no one finds themselves in the path of Hurricane Dorian.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare