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Hi Everyone,
HAPPY NEW YEAR! It is hard to believe that another year has finally dawned—the year that my brain has been waiting to get here for the last so many years. Ever since 2017 I have wanted to write 2020—well, the time has finally arrived and I could almost bet that I will never write the wrong year down. Now that the year has begun, the race is on as the days begin to tick by faster and faster till we reach the end. I do not plan on running the race through 2020 in full speed though, I prefer to stroll through it enjoying every moment of it and we even get an extra day to enjoy this year—but don’t tell anyone. Many years ago when we got so busy with life, and we had no idea how we would get everything done, my sister Nichole said, “Don’t worry, I have ordered an extra day!” Dad immediately told us all to not tell anyone about it or our extra time would be lost. We all had a good laugh—but this year, we actually do get an extra day.
We spent the last week of 2019 traveling and visiting with my Mom’s sisters and Dad in northern Missouri. I am not one who usually needs a vacation, but this year was so busy that I was beginning to dream of a vacation, but had no idea how to obtain it since we had no one to milk for us. Then around Thanksgiving our old milker told us that he had two weeks off the end of December and he would be willing to milk for us during his vacation time so that we could have some time to get off of the farm. Mom began dreaming of time to spend with her sisters, and I was dreaming of time to just sit and relax and read my new gardening books. Then Mom’s stepmother died the Saturday before Christmas and a trip to Missouri was planned. We would leave the day after Christmas, pick up her sisters in Tennessee on Friday and head on up to spend the weekend with their Dad in Missouri. Then we would return home on Monday and Tuesday. Travelling went very smoothly. We were told that we would be travelling on the worst travel day of the year, and so we prayed that God would clear the roads ahead of us and give us smooth sailing—and that is just what he did. Saturday was spent relaxing at Grandpa’s and everyone pitched in to help him take down his Christmas tree. My job was to fix the meals—of which Grandpa was very grateful for since he doesn’t know how to cook very well. His wife was an excellent cook. It rained all day Saturday and while it was in the 60’s that day, by Sunday the temps were dropping and when we left on Monday morning the weather was in the low 30’s and the wind was fierce out on the open farm lands of Missouri and Illinois. Sunday we all made a trip to the grave site, and then we did some shopping at what is known to be the best store around in the north—Menard’s. I think they carry everything. One thing that I found very interesting though was that the garden section of the store was plantless—there was absolutely not one single flower to be found anywhere in the north. We had to get back down to Tennessee before we saw pansies planted outside the stores. We never once saw the sun and the trees are all barren of their leaves—unless they were in the pine family. When Mom draws trees they are always trunks with lots of barren branches, and I never understood why until we traveled to Missouri one winter—all the trees are barren most of the year. Here in Florida very few trees lose all their leaves, and you can find something in bloom every month of the year. Right now the Florida narcissus, camellias, pinks, pineapple sage, roses, and snapdragons are all blooming in the garden. Soon the tulips and the daffodils will be joining them. No wonder the northerners come south for the winter—to them it is spring for four months. Then they go home in May to more spring.
When we got back home to Grandpa’s after our outings, we had lunch and enjoyed each other’s company. Grandpa used to own a pool hall—and he can play pool real well. He has a pool table in his house, so we all took turns playing a game of pool with Grandpa. The funny part is that Grandpa is so good at pool that he has to cheat in order for you to even get a chance to hit a pool ball. If he is not cheating, and he gets to break the balls—you will never get a turn. Now when the sisters were playing against each other—it was a totally different story, for that game lasted for ever.
The drive home was long and thankfully uneventful—well, all except for trying to find a hotel room Monday night. It was 10:00 at night by the time we pulled into Chattanooga. We then had to drop off my Aunts, and find a hotel room. There is a sock factory in Cleveland, TN, and since I am in great need of some socks I wanted to stop by Friday morning before we headed home. Not wanting to drive the extra 30 minutes north in the morning, Mom decided to go ahead and travel north to Cleveland Monday night so we could hit the sock factory first thing in the morning. The next hour was spent going from hotel to hotel looking for a bed to lay our heads—but there were no rooms in the Inns for us to sleep. There was a big church conference going on in town and the hotels were booked. We finally found a room at the sixth hotel that we went too—and we about collapsed with exhaustion and shock when they told us the price of the room. It was 11:45, and all we wanted to do was go to sleep. They were kind enough to knock $20 off of the price, which was somewhat of a help, and we quickly grabbed a few belongings, headed to our room, climbed in bed two minutes before midnight and drifted off to La, La land very quickly.
Tuesday morning we woke up around 7:00 and ate breakfast and headed to the sock factory. The nice thing about buying socks at the sock factory is that you can buy them for $1 I think, because they are the socks that have a mistake here or there. My Grandma always bought socks for us, but since she died five years ago—well, we haven’t gotten anymore socks. Since we were in that neck of the woods we decided to go there ourselves. To our dismay though—they were closed until January 2, and it was December 31. So we headed south, by way of the back country roads where I finally saw some farms with chickens roaming around their yards. In Missouri and Illinois all we saw was acres of crop land and a few beef operations—but nothing was ever mixed. Once we got back to Chattanooga we decided to stop by the Bass Pro Shop to see if they had any winter boots for Mom. They had some—but they didn’t have the right size so we headed a few more miles south and just past the Georgia border and stopped at Cabela’s. They had the same boots—and the right size. The rest of the day was spent travelling I-75 south towards home. It was shortly after 6:00 when we pulled into the driveway. We unpacked and heated up the last of the chili that we made for the trip and enjoyed eating dinner with Papa who kept the farm running smoothly while we were gone.
The New Year began with colder weather and cows that needed to be milked—just like they do all the other 365 days of the year. There was a lot of laundry to catch up on, yogurt to make and veggies to harvest for the Jacksonville delivery on Thursday. I didn’t just harvest broccoli leaves, collard greens, and kale for the delivery—but I also had the joy of harvesting the first cabbage of the year for our New Year’s Day dinner.
Thursday was like our typical Wednesday in that we milked the cows, packed an order and Papa headed to Jacksonville to deliver all the farm goodies to our waiting customers. Back on the farm Mom, Steve and I worked to weed the strawberries and mulch them with pine straw. It is so nice to have trees that give us “free” mulch that is chemical free too. We also got to harvest the first crop of broccoli, and after lunch we blanched them and put them in the freezer to enjoy later. The rest of the afternoon was spent at Home Depot trying to figure out what materials and tools we needed to build metal cages to keep the rats from eating our strawberry harvest. They ate almost all of our sweet potatoes—and have started on the strawberries. They are little natives for they start eating them when they are green.
Friday morning we were desperate for hay—well the animals were desperate for hay. While we have already paid for all of our hay, and for it to be delivered to us—one thing after another has occurred to keep our hay from being delivered. The day before Christmas we got a load, but by the day after New Year’s we were out. Thankfully another load arrived Friday around noon—and you should have heard the sheep “baa-ing” when they realized that the semi-truck was loaded with hay. So Papa spent his day stacking hay in the barn and putting hay in the hay racks for all the animals. I spent about an hour harvesting greens for the Gainesville delivery and weeding in the onion bed. Mom was busy doing paperwork—when you run a business, there is plenty of it to do. After lunch we headed to town to run some errands.
By Saturday we were definitely back in the swing of busy farm life. We got the milking done after breakfast and then we had to bottle the milk and kefir. The order for Gainesville needed to be packed and we needed to harvest some more veggies. Thankfully the rain had stopped, and we could get to the garden and not get soaked. Then once Papa was on his way to Gainesville we ate lunch and then I bottled the kombucha. Mom did some housework and packaged some eggs and we both took care of customers off and on. The “To Do List” was so long, but only two things got accomplished. To my delight we finally got to make the broccoli soufflé that Mom had requested since Thursday—but if you do not get home before 6:00 at night, you are not going to have the time and energy to make a soufflé. After dinner we got the dishes done, and since I was so tired and we had to get up 5:00 this morning, I decided to start getting ready for bed—even though it was only 7:50. To my dismay though, when I walked into my bedroom I found that the ants were swarming again in my window and baseboards. So for the next thirty minutes Mom and I vacuumed up ants. The blessing was that I got my room vacuumed too! It is not too encouraging to know that ants are living in your bedroom walls.
Well, the holiday season is past and tomorrow starts a normal week—we shall see how normal it is though!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare