343
Hi Everyone,
Okay, I am going to be very honest—Life has been one big blur ever sense Tuesday night and one of the songs that keeps running through my head goes like this:
In this age of uncertainty, questions come to my mind.
What is waiting ahead for me and the rest of mankind.
Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.
He's charting the course you take.
He sees each hidden snare.
He's waiting to guide you through each burden and care.
Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.
Are you troubled o'er things to come?
Is your future unsure?
And are you dreading the coming dawn? A long day to endure?
Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.
He's charting the course you take.
He sees each hidden snare.
He's waiting to guide you through each burden and care.
Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.
Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand.
Oh, but I know Who holds tomorrow.
And l know, oh, I know.
Yes, I know Who holds my hand.
Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.
And with that promise for tomorrow, let me tell you about last week . . .
Monday morning we milked our cows—how nice it is to have something relaxing that happens every single day of the year at practically the same time and place. Each cow has their own personality and some have a very interesting character—which adds extra spice to our days. One of our cows cannot wait to come in to be milked, and we make sure that we never say her name until we are ready for her, because she comes a running—pushing every other cow out of her way, and has been known to run over us just to get to her milking stall. I made a short video of her that I posted on YouTube—and her name is Ellie Mae! Late Friday we had a new calf born. Decci delivered right on her due date—and she had a little heifer that we shall call Autumn. Her last year’s calf was born right before Thanksgiving, and we called her Merci.
After we finished milking the cows on Monday the first thing we did was block up every hole that led from the back fields to the front yard. The ducks were coming under fences and gates to get back into the yard, and I really wasn’t ready to give up on the ducks just yet. Thankfully with all the holes blocked, the ducks have been content in the back pasture. Only one duck is laying eggs right now, and we are surprised that Miss Daisy lays 2 eggs a day most of the week—although some days she lays no eggs. We then spent the next few hours figuring out technology. Samuel had finished the short film on Pastured Broilers, and now the chore was to get it posted on his new YouTube channel and on our website. Not knowing exactly how technology works we ran into a few glitches, after lots of trial and error—and thanks to the DELETE button it was finally figured out. You can check it out on our website www.shepherdshillfarmflorida.com under the Short Film page—or you can take the short cut and click HERE! On the same page you can also watch a short film that gives you a glimpse into our everyday farm life.
Once we were done with the video launching, it was time to finish the yogurt and eat lunch. After lunch we headed to the garden to begin the process of putting up the new caterpillar tunnel so that we can expand our winter sales of greens—more kale, collards, Swiss chard, broccoli, bok choy, cabbage, and if I can figure it out—lettuce. To my dismay when we got to the garden Mom said that the garden bed was in the wrong place—it needed to be moved over one foot. It really wasn’t a terrible problem to fix, but since some of the walkways are already mulched, and some of the rows are already composted and planted. It will make the tunnel look lopsided, because everything will not be centered—at least not this year. While Mom and Papa did most of the measuring, Steve and I took down fence panels and weeded. I also found about eight butternut squashes to harvest—usually the worms eat all of our squash plants in the fall, but these plants must have grown as undercover veggies. By the end of the afternoon we had the ribs of the caterpillar all put up. Now we wait for another day to work on it again—hopefully before it freezes.
Tuesday was the infamous Election Day. I have to say that nothing in 2020 is normal, so surely we didn’t expect the election to be any different—but I will say that I am sure that we all hoped it would be nice and simple. Our day definitely didn’t start off normal. We woke up at 6:00—which is normal, but as soon as we got dressed for the day we ate breakfast so that we could leave for the voting polls by 7:00. There was a line when we got there, but we did manage to make it back home within an hour—and it is only 10 minutes away. We got our first taste of winter as we stood outside in our winter coats at 38 degrees—freezing! When I was younger I used to love the cold weather—because I hated to sweat! I loved all the layers that you could put on, and the pretty sweaters. Mom never liked the cold because it made her body hurt—because she could never get warm. Well . . . I guess I am getting older because I can never get warm when it is freezing outside and the heavy coats and sweaters make my neck and shoulders ache real badly. I was glad that it warmed up quickly and that I didn’t have to milk the cows in all my winter “gear”. May I say that I am not looking forward to winter?
After we milked the cows we had to cream the milk—but we didn’t get much cream from the process (7 pints). We had about 14 gallons, so I guess it took two gallons of milk to make one pint of cream. When we were done creaming it was time for lunch—but first I had to get dinner (stew) in the crock-pot. Needless to say, my dinner cooking made lunch late! After lunch we packaged eggs. At 3:30 I left the egg party to teach one of my piano students. Then it was time to harvest the kale and bok choy for the Jacksonville delivery on Wednesday.
For the rest of the week I was so grateful that we had a farm to run—and we were able to stay busy. With the time change I decided that it was time to get the evening chores done before Papa comes home from the Jacksonville delivery on Wednesday. He gets home around 7:30, so half of the year he has to feed the dogs and lock up the chickens after he comes home—for the chickens do not go to bed before sundown. Since it is now dark by 6:00, I headed outside around 5:00 to feed the dogs (Great Pyrenees—Jill, Sheba and Yasha), lock up the turkeys (all 44 of them), and lock up the chickens (all three houses). That night after dinner, and just before I started to do the dishes (at 9:00 at night), I walked into the laundry room to put my last load of wash into the dryer. To my horror, I found a big puddle of water on the floor around the washing machine and under the dryer. While Mom and Papa cleaned up that mess, I cleaned up the mess of dishes in the kitchen. Thankfully my last load for the day was the cow towels—so we had them for the next day. On Thursday I was not able to wash any laundry. Off and on Friday we investigated the drainage system to the washing machine—but we could not find a clog. The sheet rock was even removed and the pipe was cut—but to no avail for we still couldn’t find a clog. It was late Friday when Papa finally hooked a garden hose up to the washing machine and ran it out the door, across the porch and out into the front yard. I was very grateful to be able to get some laundry done, for we had Thursday and Friday’s wet cow towels to wash, and the towels from cleaning up the water mess—and let’s just say that it would have been a good time to have a broken smeller. All day Saturday I washed laundry using the garden hose to empty the washing machine. By 5:00 I had three loads left, but Papa wanted to investigate the drainage pipe some more so the garden hose was removed. It was late by the time he finished—and I never got to do anymore laundry. We do not know how we shall fix the problem, but Papa did hook the garden hose back up this afternoon—and my last load is in the wash now!
Thursday morning Mom got to the milking parlor first and returned to tell me that I could not milk unless Papa could fix my parlor wall. We built the milking parlor 6 years ago, and for the last 2 years it has been slowly rotting and falling apart. The foundation is totally rotten, and some of the wall posts are not attached. The cows managed to push 2 of my posts off of the foundation and it was starting to disconnect from the roof. Thankfully Papa was able to pick the wall back up, and then he used a 2 x 6 to hold them in place. We are in desperate need of a new parlor, and Papa has it all designed, but the company that we wanted to build it turned us down. This time the milking parlor will have a concrete floor and a metal frame—if we can find a way to get a sturdy metal frame.
As soon as our milking was over Mom headed to Gainesville to pick up our AZURE order—how nice it was to be able to get a whole case of apples. The bad thing is that we got Gala apples, and after I ordered them I found out that Galas are not a good storage apple—so I guess we shall be eating an apple a day to help keep the doctor away, and making some fried apples and apple pies. Next time I shall order some storage apples. While Mom was gone, Steve and I headed to the garden. Steve worked on finishing up weeding the mullein bed so that I could sprinkle seeds all over it, and I worked on a bed for carrots. I also planted some elephant garlic which is supposed to be the best kind of garlic to grow here in Florida. I should have bought more—for I only had eleven pieces to plant.
Friday was another chicken processing day—and we had the contractors/plumbers here working on some doors, and insulating all the plumbing in the attic and on the outside walls. Mom has been working on painting the doors on the outside of the house—well, after she painted the back French doors they shifted and you couldn’t open them. So while the workers were working on them, Mom also had to paint another coat on them—while she was processing chickens and visiting with my brother David who had dropped by to visit. Later that day my sister Nichole dropped her two children off for us to watch for the weekend while they worked the County Fair. After the chickens were all done, Makenna helped me lock up the ducks and then she helped me cook chili. It is amazing how well a child eats something that they got to help cook or even grow.
Saturday Makenna and Josiah eagerly helped us milk the cows. Makenna helps me mix up the feed (alfalfa, fermented molasses, apple cider vinegar, and minerals), and then she is learning how to strip out the cows after I milk them. Josiah helps Mom with her feed, watches the milk run through the milk hoses, pets the cows, and once he saw that the cows had eaten all of their feed so he put a scoop of alfalfa in each bucket and fed them to the cows as an extra treat! After milking we packed the Gainesville order, and Makenna and I headed to the garden to harvest some bok choy and kale. Makenna is very good at harvesting the bok choy. While we were harvesting a storm rolled in and we were thankful that we were under the tunnel. It had stopped raining by the time we were ready to head back to the house. Once we got back I made a kefir smoothie (kefir, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, and honey) for everyone—Makenna can drink a whole pint by herself, and Josiah gobbles it down really good too. When Makenna comes over it never fails that she asks if I am going to make a smoothie. The afternoon was spent playing, working on paperwork, labeling lotion bar tins and juicing limes. Around 4:30 I took Makenna and Josiah outside to go feed and lock up the ducks for the night. It was a good walk for me—but they ran all the way, which was perfect for them. When we got back Mom and Papa were working on the washing machine, so the children and I got out the croquet balls and mallets and hit the balls around in the yard. Then we came inside and Makenna helped me cook dinner—Oven Fried Drumsticks, potatoes and green beans that we had canned and all Makenna had to do was pop the lid and dump them in the pots. Then I also cooked some green peas and a salad. Dinner disappeared down their throats very quickly—and Josiah was getting to close to falling asleep at the table. It was amazing what a bath and food in his stomach did though—for he was full of energy until it was time to go to bed at 9:00.
I hope that you have a great week—I know that we have lots to do!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare