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Hi Everyone,
Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same.
All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His name!
In just two weeks life as we know it has changed drastically. For some the changes have been very BIG. Children are no longer going to school; parents are no longer going to work; there are no activities to entertain us away from home—and no restaurants to go out to eat at. Grocery shopping has become a nightmare as certain things that have become household essentials are vanishing from the grocery store shelves faster than they can be stocked, and some of them will never be restocked. One of those items is toilet paper--an item that everyone has come to depend upon so much, but has become a worldwide scavenger hunt to find. It seems that prepping has become the number one occupation for every family—although the idea of prepping is to be ready for a crisis, not to react when the crisis begins. Families are being forced to spend time with each other, cook meals at home—and hopefully they are sitting around the table and fellowshipping while they eat. This isn’t the first time in history that this has happened either. In 1918, toward the end of World War I, the Spanish Flu hit the world killing one-third of the population worldwide. During that time churches, schools and shows were cancelled. Everyone wore surgical masks, and people were encouraged to not gather together in large groups. The places that abided by the rules had fewer deaths, but those cities that refused to quarantine and keep their “social” distances experienced record numbers of death. This is one of those times where we can learn from history, and help save lives.
Here on the farm it is easy to see ourselves as little nobodies, but as COVID-19 moved into our country, and grocery store shelves began to empty, the little local farmers are being called upon to supply food for families that are used to eating out, are usually too busy to cook, or who all of a sudden realize that they need to be taking care of their bodies and eating good nutritious food. We are now somebody to whom people can turn to in order to find food to feed their families. Some farms are suffering greatly as they were used to supplying restaurants good quality meat, eggs, and vegetables. Now that the restaurants are closed, the farmers must figure out how to get their food to the people who are now at home cooking meals in their own kitchens. I wonder how many stoves and ovens have been turned on for the first time. I wonder if there is a big increase in the sales of pots and pans.
I know that life here on Shepherd’s Hill Farm was extremely interesting last week. Life started out very simply, with the only thing on my agenda was to get the garden ready for spring planting. There were two problems though. The first was that the broiler chicks needed to be moved out of the brooder house and into the portable hoop houses in the pasture—that was taken care of pretty easy as soon as we finished milking. The other problem was a little bigger. Sunday night when Mom and I did the chores we found that the sheep had strung the hotwire all over the pond field and had managed to tie some of it in knots. So as soon as we were finished milking Monday morning, Steve, Mom and I headed down to the pond field to put the hotwire in order. We worked on it until 2:00—when a non-GMO sales rep showed up to try to sell us his products. He was here for an hour, and then we decided that we had better break for lunch. By 3:30 we were back down field stringing wire, untangling it, and putting in more t-posts to better secure the wire. It was 5:00 when we hooked up the last wire and climbed into the Gravely—but alas we were supposed to leave the house at 4:30 for a dinner engagement. We quickly got ready, and headed off to meet with a family that is interested in helping us on the farm. We had a lovely time visiting with them, but the clock hands spun way to fast and we found ourselves leaving their house at 11:30 that night. It was 12:15 by the time we arrived back at the farm.
On Monday I had gotten a glimpse at how big our Jacksonville delivery was going to be, but I was not prepared for the flux of orders that would pour in all day on Tuesday. The agenda was huge, but the time was limited—there are only 24 hours in a day and sleep is important. We had the week’s supply of eggs to package, but due to the way the day ended up going, we only got two bucket packaged. Our friend Sue came over and she worked in the greenhouse potting up seedlings, and then after lunch she transplanted beets to the garden. Steve, Mom and I headed to the garden to weed some walkways and prep garden beds. For the last 6 weeks or so we have had a silage tarp over all the mulch on the side of the barn hoping to help it brake down so that we can plant the Calabaza pumpkin there the beginning of April. We went ahead and removed the silage tarp and took it out to the garden. Steve tilled in the pumpkin bed, and then we covered it with the silage tarps. On Monday, Papa had bought us a trailer load of compost and had filled the back end of his truck up with wood chips. The compost in the trailer was fine—but Papa needed his truck emptied so that he could go buy feed and hay. It took us until 5:00 to get the truck emptied of the wood chips. While Mom and Steve finished mulching the walkways, Sue and I worked together harvesting the broccoli, Swiss chard and collard greens for the Jacksonville delivery. I got inside around 6:00 and not only did I need to cook dinner, I also needed to get the breakfast and lunch dishes done. Mom worked on labeling the vegetables and getting them to the cooler. It was about 8:00 by the time we finished eating, and since the meat order was HUGE, we headed over to the milk house to package meat. It was 10:00 when we finished—and our shelves were now mostly empty. We came inside and Papa and Mom worked on dishes, while I worked on making the receipts. When Mom finished the dishes, she worked on receipts while I got a shower. Then I finished the receipts while she got ready for bed. It was 11:30 by the time we climbed into bed.
Wednesday morning dawned too early after two late nights—but there was much to do to get everything done for Papa to leave for Jacksonville by 11:45. We were thankful that it was the Crane’s day to help on the farm—for we needed it. They were able to help Steve package 5 buckets of eggs. That was a huge blessing! Then when the milking was done they helped get the milk bottled and all the meat, milk, and eggs packed into the van. Wednesday morning orders were still pouring in. We usually have about 27 customers on an average Wednesday, but last week we had 50—all of the Moms are home cooking meals for the family! We were so thankful that we had packed all the meat the night before, for it took us a long time to get everything packed into coolers, and if we had to package and weigh the meat also—Papa would have never gotten out on time.
By Thursday our energy was waning. I couldn’t help but remember what the cashier at Publix had said a few weeks ago. The lines were long outside before they had even opened, and there was a steady flow of customers all day. She said, “I do not know if I can keep this up for two weeks.” With people home cooking meals—this will not be over in two weeks. The blessing though is that it makes for good business. We had some friends from Canada scheduled to eat dinner with us Thursday night—therefore, we had some house cleaning to do. When we are very busy, it is easy to wash laundry, but folding and putting away is a different story. We usually get caught up on that on Thursday’s. Then with both vacuum cleaners broke, we had some dust bunnies to chase around with a dust mop. We love gardening, but when you can plant seeds in the dust on your furniture—it is time to dust. So, inside we stayed all day in order to get a little cleaning done. The company was due to arrive at 4:00, and by 3:30 we had our cleaning done and we were able to start on our dinner preparations. Did I mention that in the midst of all this a new batch of baby chicks arrived at the Post Office and needed to be picked up, and the hay guy finally got around to delivering the last of our hay supply? All did get done, and we were ready for our company by 4:00—and we had a lovely time of fellowship. When dinner was done, Papa and the two young men went out to do the evening chores. We ladies stayed behind to do the dishes, and to make up for spending the whole day inside, we had the privilege of going for a walk to and through the garden once the dishes were all done. In the end we harvested a fresh head of lettuce, a handful of orange carrots and a large Vidalia onion so that they can make a delicious farm fresh salad.
I had grand plans to work in the garden on Friday—but milking, bottling kefir, and making yogurt was all the energy I had for the day. So I was delighted to be able to sit at my desk and have time to plan the spring garden. Since we have not had any cold snaps since I think February, I fear that we should have had the garden planted a month ago—climate change! I sat at my desk with 6 pieces of paper (one for each large garden bed we have), colored pens, and a list of vegetables, flowers and herbs that we want to grow. A few hours later the paper was very colorful, and I could visualize how each bed would look. Now if we can just utilize our time, energy, and resources properly we might get this garden planted by April 6.
Friday night when I put together the orders for Saturday’s delivery to Gainesville, there were very few orders—and I thought that Saturday morning would be an easy pack. Maybe I could pack each person’s order in their own ice chest to help protect against any possible coronavirus germs, but when I woke up Saturday morning I found the email full of orders. Most of the meat we had packaged on Tuesday—it was selling so fast we had to know what we had and didn’t have for any last minute orders that came in. Sure enough we had more meat to package Saturday morning, and they pretty much emptied us out. On Friday I only had an order for 2 bunches of collards—and I picked them Friday night after dinner when Mom and I went for a stroll through the garden to see if the irises were blooming yet. Come Saturday morning we needed more collards plus Swiss chard and broccoli leaves. We had an extra set of hands though to help us with the work load. My dear friend Lydia has been in my neck of the woods for the last week helping her sister Emily after the birth of her newest nephew. Since Emily’s husband would be home from work on Saturday, Lydia thought that it would be a good chance to get some different scenery—instead of children she would have cows, customers, and garden seeds (plus a friend!) Lydia arrived at 8:00 in the morning—just in time for a delicious breakfast of pancakes and eggs. Lydia then helped Mom with the dishes, while I put together the milking equipment. Then we all worked in the milking parlor. Mom and I milked; Lydia mixed the feed (alfalfa, fermented molasses, and apple cider vinegar), and Moises brought in the cows. Once the cows were all milked, Lydia helped Mom bottle the milk and I began packing the order. At noon Lydia and I headed to the garden to harvest the vegetables for the order. We got Papa on his way by 1:15, and then we had a little bit of time to eat lunch before the customers started to arrive. One would leave, and another would arrive. The rest of the day we had customers. At 4:00 Lydia and I left Mom with the customers and we grabbed some seed packs and headed to the garden. First we planted 20 gladiola bulbs, and then we planted a bed of carrots, and a bed of radishes. I have been amazed at how long a radish lasts in the fridge. We are still eating on the radishes that I planted in the fall. It was about 6:00 by the time we finished in the garden, and we were finished too—yet, there was still dinner to cook. Mom, Lydia and I decided to crash on the sofa for about 40 minutes telling stories and get in some good laughs. It was going on 7:00 when we finally mustered up the energy to cook dinner. It was 8:00 by the time we sat down to eat, and by 9:00 we were saying our Good-bye’s. It had been too long since Lydia and I have had a chance to spend time together, so we really enjoyed our day.
As for today, we had a new kind of Sunday. There was no church, so we slept in—which meant that instead of having the chores done by 8:00 on a Sunday, they were done by 11:00. That was fine though—for I enjoyed sleeping in until 7:00 instead of 5:00. The rest of the day we found time to stroll through the garden, sit on the porch steps, listen to a sermon, talk to friends on the phone, read the Bible, take a nap, and of course write my Sunday journal.
In the midst of these trying times, we can find comfort in the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:20, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare