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Hi Everyone,
We have had a very busy week here on the farm. The week started out with my Aunts being here for a few days. They wanted some soap—of which Mom did not feel well enough to make any for over a year. So my Aunt’s decided that they would help her make some. They gathered all the ingredients, and began the process. The end result was not soap though—but a pile of hard fat. We are not sure if the lye was too old, or the beef tallow was too old, but the whole process was a flop. So instead of making something that would turn dirty things clean, they made some that turned a clean garbage bag—dirty! We got to enjoy the presence of my Aunts until close to noon on Monday. They got to be the side line cheerleaders while we milked the cows. I think that the neatest thing to show people when they watch us milk is how each cow knows their name and comes when called.
After the Aunts left, we weeded in the garden—a never ending job. At the top of the priority list was to weed the caterpillar tunnel. The poor kale was being swallowed by weeds, and the crab grass was trying its best to take over the lettuce. Steve worked at cleaning up the walkways in the raised beds, Mom trellised the tomatoes, and I weeded the kale. I was almost done with the one row of kale when Mom heard the rain start. She asked if we should go ahead and make a beeline for the house. I looked out over the neighbor’s property and saw a white wall, and suggested that we stay right where we were. Steve hunkered down in the garden shed for a little while, and then he braved the rain and came and joined us in the tunnel. While we were eradicating weeds, Papa was putting new batteries in the golf cart. We may not agree with the government handing out stimulus checks, but they sure were nice to help us accomplish some goals that empty purses would not allow us to attempt. The golf cart broke sometime last year. Papa was able to get the broken part fixed, but the batteries were finished—and they are not cheap. Every time money came in, Papa would ask if he could get the batteries, but it never failed that something else was more important. When papa got his stimulus check he knew just how to spend it. Mom and I had our own ideas on how to spend our stimulus checks. We knew that we needed more greenhouse supplies, and that we needed more covered space to grow our winter crops. We have one caterpillar tunnel, but we realized that four rows was nowhere near enough space to grow all the collards, kale, cabbage, broccoli, Swiss chard and lettuce that we need. So Mom and I decided to go halves to buy the new garden supplies.
We have truly been blessed with rain this week—and the best part was that it was not in torrential downpours but in gentle, steady rains. Tuesday was Mom’s birthday, but getting out of work was not on the agenda. Since it was raining we decided to camp out in the kitchen and do KP duty—you know, like military style where they sit around for hours peeling potatoes. Yep, it was time to start canning the white potatoes. Steve peeled the potatoes; Mom cut them up and packed them in the jars. I cleaned up the dishes from breakfast and lunch, got the canners all ready, and then I cleaned up some onions that were starting to go bad and got them sliced and on the dehydrator. In the past we have always cut the potatoes into one inch cubes and canned them that way. This year Mom decided to cut the bigger potatoes into wedges—like steak fries. Then she filled a quart jar with the steak fries and filled it up with water. Once the jars were canned we opened one and drained the liquid out, then we coated the fries with olive oil and spices and baked them in the oven for 40 minutes (20 minutes on each side). They turned out scrumptiously delicious!
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we had film maker on the land. Samuel Crane (the youngest of the Crane young men who likes to spend time helping out on the farm) has fallen in love with photography and videography. He has been trying his hand at vlogging, and has his own YouTube channel. A few months ago he was approached with the idea to make a documentary on what it takes to get a chicken to your table. He has spent countless hours here on the farm videoing chicken chore time. Thursday he came over so that he could go with Mom to the Post Office to pick up the newest arrival of baby chicks. Then Friday he was here at 6:00 in the morning so that he could go with Papa to load the eight week old chickens into the trailer so that later he could film the processing. When he wasn’t filming on Thursday there was plenty to do to help get the poultry kitchen all ready for butchering day. Little by little we have been getting the necessary tables and sinks that we needed to the poultry kitchen. Last time we got the eviscerating table, but it lacked a hole in it to drain the water out. Samuel’s Dad and older brother Timothy worked long and hard to get that hole drilled for us Thursday night. The stainless steel was pretty thick, and two hole saws were wore out. They returned Friday morning with a new bit, and the mission was accomplished. Thursday a new sink arrived for the quality control station. Last time we only had a tub to rinse the birds over—and the tub filled up with water, ran over the sides and soaked the quality control person. This time we had a new sink with a drain plug. Everyone was so happy with the new progress. Before we got the eviscerating table we used a flat table and all the water ran off the sides—and soaked us. The new table has three inch high sides, and now with the hole in the middle all the water drains out there. With all the new killing cones, tables, sinks and a family of seven to help us we have been able to work so much more efficiently. Instead of spending all day with just the three of us, we were done in four hours on Friday—from starting to set up, to finished cleaning up.
Saturday was catch up day—and the first real day that the cows started to give us more milk. We are not back up to the fifteen gallons we were getting, but eight gallons is better than six. Our afternoon was spent putting away laundry and making beds that had been washed. I also worked at finishing my first Garden Blog and getting it published on our website. Later in the day we got to visit with my sister Nichole who came over with a birdhouse that she and her husband had made for Mom’s birthday.
Tomorrow starts a new day, a new month, and a new week. June is finally here—and our dining room is saying good bye to the spring décor and hello to summer!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare