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Hi Everyone,
I absolutely love farming—but I have learned this week that there are many types of farmers. One of our neighbors raises beef cows, and has an off farm job. Another farmer runs one of the local Livestock auctions, but when he is not auctioneering you can find him on a tractor going round and round on over a hundred acres that he leases throughout Columbia County. Some years he might grow corn, others it will be wheat or sesame, but this year it was peanuts. Usually when I see the tractor going round and round in the neighboring fields it is going at a pretty decent pace. Last week as I watched the people harvest the peanuts from morning until 9 and 10:00 at night—I noticed that the tractor was creeping through the fields. I promise you that I could crawl faster than those tractors were moving. I realized that I could never harvest peanuts—for the pace was too slow for me. I am a full speed person, and I seriously have a hard time keeping my mind on one chore until it is finished. I am thankful that our days are spent doing a variety of chores: milking cows, fixing meals, moving animals, working in the garden, planting seeds, pulling weeds, making yogurt, bottling kefir, creaming, packaging eggs, sewing, cleaning, building, processing , delivering, visiting, etc. Yep! I realized that I could never in a million years harvest peanuts.
Monday we made some changes here on the farm. For the last year our hoop house greenhouse has set on the concrete right outside one of our garage doors. It has been very convenient—but we cannot get anything out of that side of our garage. Then last spring we found it to be a great place to lock our two young ducks up at night. Come July we added ten more ducks and that created a new problem. Two ducks do not produce a lot of poop—but twelve ducks make tons. Being on concrete it is very easy to hose it off—but a lot of water creates mud, and ducks LOVE mud! We realized it was time to move the ducks to the garden. We originally were going to let them take over the turkey house—but it has a wood floor, and with the amount of poop that the ducks produce we would never be able to keep up with the bedding. We were also going to put them in the garden, but when they found our flowers on the porch, and the pumpkin plants at the barn—they ate them! So—now what? We decided to move them around the pasture, and maybe use them to clean up around the garden when necessary—but they needed a house. Mom decided to take the 8 x 9 ft. dog house down to Yasha and Jill, and bring their 9 x 17 ft. dog house up and swap its roof with the greenhouse roof, turning the greenhouse into the duck house and the dog house into the greenhouse. It was 5:30 by the time we had all the roofs swapped, and then we needed to drag it to its new location—but when Mom and I measured the space we realized that the area was not long enough for the greenhouse. So Mom and I walked all around trying to figure out where to put the greenhouse. We knew that if we put it too far away from our house, we would not take care of the plants as well as we should. We finally decided to put the greenhouse where we had first intended to put it, but instead of facing east and west, we faced it north and south. It was after 6:00, and we really should have quit and gone inside to cook dinner, but I knew how busy Tuesday was going to be so I really wanted to get the greenhouse shelves, plants, and table moved to the new greenhouse. The table I built was a very heavy table—and I really didn’t build it to move it. Taking it apart was not very easy—but with much laughter and heave hoeing Mom and I managed to get it out of the old greenhouse and set up in the new greenhouse. A few days later Papa hooked up a water hose to the greenhouse. The next day we moved the duck house off of the concrete, and we are slowly working the ducks to the pasture. Papa then got his pressure washer out and cleaned off the concrete drive—we were amazed at how black the concrete was. The next day when the sun hit the clean concrete it just about blinded us.
Tuesday we had to cream—because we were getting more milk than we could sell. The cows are in the pea fields now—and their milk production multiplies daily, even with the calves on them. On Friday we were met by a new husky bull calf. We dried Ellie Mae up ten weeks ago, but as her due date arrived she showed no signs of getting close to delivery. I thought that it would be a few more months before she calved—but she just ended up being two weeks late. He is all brown—but the tip of his tail is white. I think we shall call him Sir Loin Tip. He is already a temperamental bull. Young calves usually need lots of encouragement to get up and follow mama to the milking parlor. It is typical that they might kick a foot out at you as you encourage them along—but little Sir Loin Tip turns around and rams Pa in the leg.
For dinner that night I headed to the garden for the first harvest of kale. I was going to make a kale chicken casserole. I had wanted to make it for the last few weeks, but I was totally out of cheese and getting to the grocery store has been next to impossible. When Papa headed to town Tuesday afternoon to get ice I asked him if he would please stop by the store to get me four items: apples, bananas, white vinegar for our laundry softener, and cheese. The other shopping could wait—but I really wanted apples and cheese, and I was almost out of vinegar. So for dinner I made the casserole—which has a nice thick cheese sauce that you mix the kale and chicken into, and I served some fresh apple slices.
We creamed again on Thursday, and then the rest of the day was spent organizing the walk-in freezer. Once the freezer was organized—and we were thoroughly frozen, we transferred the chickens that we had processed the week before from the chest freezers in the poultry kitchen to the walk-in freezer. For dinner that night I headed to the garden again and this time I harvested some bok choy and some white sweet potatoes to go along with a sirloin steak.
Friday was another processing day, and we were very grateful for the help that we receive from the Durmaz family. It was a long day—we might have been done processing and packaging by 4:00, but it was around 6:00 by the time we were done visiting. The children wanted to gather chestnuts—so they spent an hour or so in the chestnut orchard, and then another thirty minutes in our yard while everyone munched on chestnuts.
By Saturday we were ready for some rest—but that would have to wait. While our morning was spent milking cows, bottling milk, harvesting bok choy and packing for the Gainesville delivery—we also spent it visiting with friends. The Martorell’s came up to spend time with us and to dig up a bunch of elderberry plants to take back home to their place. I hope they still love us in about five years when the elderberries take over their yard. Almost ten years ago the three oldest Martorell children would come up and spend a week at a time with us helping us on the farm. It all started when Sephrah wanted to spend a week on the farm for her 15th birthday. Her 13 year old brother wasn’t about to be left out, and they were hooked. Later they brought their younger brother and what fun we had when they would all come. One summer Thaddeus and Octavius came to help for one week in June, one week in July and one week in August. Whenever they could get away from school—they headed up to the farm. It is with them that I learned that I do not like young people growing up. When you have sweet, hardworking, enjoyable, young people helping you on the farm you want to freeze time and hold them at that stage forever. The Martorell’s left around 1:30 and then we did rest for a few hours—before the next round of people arrived. Around 6:00 my sister Nichole showed up with a friend to borrow the t-post hammer. Shortly after she arrived a new customer arrived with her whole family. My sister headed home, and after a little while another customer arrived—but he just got a few items and left. The new family was here for a good hour or so, and we greatly enjoyed getting to know them. It was after 7:30 by the time they left and I was grateful for the lamb roast that had been cooking in the oven and a few bags of frozen veggies that made dinner done in a snap.
We had a good week—and this next week looks real busy as we plan to harvest the sweet potatoes and hopefully get my room painted. We shall see what actually happens for of late we never seem to accomplish what we plan to do when we plan to do it.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare