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Hi Everyone,
A few months back I said that I wanted my room finished before my birthday—which is around Thanksgiving. I was well assured that it would be—but that was before my paint dilemma. Construction was done months ago, but I just couldn’t find the right green. Then when I did fall in love with a green, Mom feared that it would be too dark—so we stalled a little longer until I was 100% sure that Pesto Paste (I know it has the most horrible name, and I do not even like eating pesto) was the perfect color for me. Once I figured out the color, then our next trial was actually finding the time to go to town to buy the paint and then an even more impossible job of finding the time to paint. Sometimes it takes a deadline to accomplish the impossible, and two weeks ago we were given that deadline. Back in February my bathroom sprung two leeks in the copper pipes and I had to move out of my bathroom and eventually out of my bedroom so that the whole house could be re-plumbed. Everything in my bedroom and bathroom was moved into my brothers’ old room, and I moved myself into my sisters’ old room. Once the bathroom was finished, then I could move all my bathroom closet items out of the boys’ room—but it was still cluttered with my stuff. Trying to find the time to paint my room was the trouble, until we were asked two weeks ago if the five Durmaz children could spend the night with us Saturday and go to church with us on Sunday while their parents were out of town. That was all the motivation we needed—unless I could get moved back into my room we would not have enough beds for everyone.
Last Sunday night we got a treat in our email box—two new videos! Madison Hughes from Mission Visions contacted us back in the summer to do a little advertising filming here on the farm. We greatly enjoyed our time with her, and looked forward to seeing what her creativity would produce. I posted those videos to our Facebook page this week, and I hope that you will head over and check them out. One explains WHY we farm, and the other shows us farming! Madison did an excellent job, and she really does a great job bringing it all together. You can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/shepherdshillfarmfl. For many years people have encouraged us to have a Facebook page—but I really hate social media. Then I realized that a business page was a lot different than a personal page, so a few months ago I had a friend set it up for us—and then I still battled over whether I wanted an account or not. We have finally decided that we shall use it to share little glimpses of farm life with those who choose to keep up with us.
We spent Monday in the garden digging sweet potatoes. We have five rows, but we only managed to get 3 of them harvested. The whole time we were digging I kept asking to be reminded of why we were digging the potatoes so early in the year. We usually wait until after the first frost to harvest the sweet potatoes—but that was before the rats ate our whole crop last year. We noticed that the rats had already found this year’s crop and we had the choice of harvesting the potatoes before they were full grown, or waiting in hopes that the rats would not eat the whole crop. We decided that small sweet potatoes were better than no sweet potatoes. Thankfully there were some really nice size ones—along with the little ones. At 4:00 we called it a day, and Mom and I headed to town for paint.
Tuesday was the BIG day—painting was on the agenda. When I start projects I want life to come to a halt so that I can focus 100% on what I want to accomplish—whether it is painting, reading, sewing, gardening. Alas though, life does not stop. We still have to cook meals, do the dishes, milk the cows, and on Tuesday we had eggs to package and I had piano lessons to teach. In between all of the above you could find Mom and I working in my room. Mom taped off the baseboards, I washed the walls and I had to empty my bookshelves so that we could move the bookcases. I used to always dream of a HUGE library—but when you have to dust all your books and move them to a different room I am glad that I only have around 250 books ranging in topics from cooking, herbs, gardening, missionaries, Spiritual encouragement, children’s books, health, and more. Once the furniture was all moved out of the way, and everything was taped off, Mom began the painting. She finished at 10:45 that night! We have one wall left to paint—and it is a light pine shiplap wall. We still have to figure out how we want to paint it—but it didn’t prevent me from moving back in.
On Wednesday I started hanging things back up on the wall, and made my bed. Then I began to move all pens, paper, notebooks, Bible, dictionary, bedside table lamp, clocks, and chair back into my room from the room that I had been sleeping in. I have lived in my bedroom for 21 years, and I have always found it very cozy. When I moved into my guest room I took with me everything that I needed, and my “new room” became very cozy, and my old room just looked like a room. My cozy room had lost its coziness. They say that people and their cherished possessions are what make a house a home, and I have to say that it is also what makes a room cozy. By the time Wednesday night arrived my room was nice and cozy—and the room that I had been staying in was just a nicely decorated room. That night I slept in my room for the first time since February, and I must say that I had forgotten just how soft my bed was.
When Thursday arrived it was time to start washing beds for company—which was done a little here and there as we had cows to milk, chicks to pick up at the Post Office, and yogurt to make. While Mom was in town to get the chicks, she stopped at Home Depot and came home with some new flowers for the courtyard and porch—to replace the ones the ducks ate. When she got home we planted the flowers into their new homes. After lunch we headed to the garden to weed. It is October and I have two weeks to plant the wildflower seeds so that we have flowers for the bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies next year. We have one problem though—the area is covered with its own wildflowers, as in goldenrod, wild morning glory, and Spanish needle—all invasive, over-populating species. So we spent Thursday afternoon weeding, and we accomplished two of the nine garden beds.
By Friday afternoon we could mark off another day of processing chickens, leaving us with only six more weeks to process chickens before Christmas. We have been so blessed to have the Durmaz family helping us this year—eleven people make the job go much faster than just three or four people, and they help make the time enjoyable as we work around the tables talking and telling stories. After they all left to go home I made a pot of chili for dinner and then I started on my slow chore of putting all my books back on my bookshelves. Putting the books back was not as easy as taking them off—because I had a big pile of new books that needed to go on the shelves, some folders that needed a new home (like the top of a closet), and I wanted to organize them according to subjects. I got half the books done on Friday, and then come Saturday I finished up the rest.
I spent my Saturday afternoon emptying everything out of the boys’ room, washing beds, vacuuming and dusting, and putting the last little touches in my room. Mom spent the day painting the front door black—with a white house, and white porch railing (well, some of the railing is white, the rest is still unpainted), we needed some contrast so the white front door got painted black and maybe one day we shall add some black shutters to the windows. After dinner, Mom headed over to pick up the Durmaz children, and when they arrived they eagerly all headed out with Papa to lock up the chickens and turkeys, and feed the dogs their bedtime snack—doggy bone.
This morning we all got up at 5:00 in order to get the chores done before we left for church at 9:00. Liberty and Josiah went with Papa to feed the chickens, turkeys, and dogs. Victoria, Joy, and Christiana helped Mom and I in the milking parlor. We laughed that the Durmaz family have helped us package eggs and process chickens—but they had never gotten the opportunity to experience milking the cows with us, and of all the times that they could come and help, they came on a day when we head out to milk at 5:30 instead of 8:30 in the morning. We really enjoyed our time with them. It is always a blessing to have young people come and help on the farm—especially when they think that it is the coolest thing in the world to be doing!
I hope that you have a great week—and Lord willing I shall have another recipe coming your way real soon. Many people have asked us if we sell whole cut up chickens—and in the past the answer was “no”. A few weeks ago I decided that it was time that we should offer what we call an 8-pack (2 wings, 2 breasts, 2 thighs, and 2 legs). I look forward to sharing my favorite recipe for cooking these cut up chickens—“Lemon Broiled Chicken”.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare