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Hi Everyone,

Every week we get a new batch of little birds —Red Sex-link Laying hens, Cornish Cross Broilers, Khaki Campbell Ducks, and Large White Turkeys. The brooder house is working overtime right now. Up until last Monday it had two rooms—as of Friday it now has three. The remodeling job has kept Papa, Mom and Steve quite busy. If that was all we had to do around here then it wouldn’t be so bad—but the list of things to do keeps growing bigger and bigger, but the amount of people to do them doesn’t change.

Monday found Papa and Steve doing what most would call the impossible. The last few times that we put chickens out to pasture no one thought to move the empty pens to a new field. We have two acre pastures, and we run the chicken pens up one side, and then they turn the corner and come back down the other side. Since we are bringing in chickens every week—and all year, we totally covered one whole two acre field. The pens now needed to be moved to a new field—but they are all full of chickens. So Monday morning while Mom and I milked the cows Steve and Papa moved the chickens. There were eight pens, with over 350 chickens in them. Six of those pens needed to be moved to the new field—and since it would be too stressful for the chickens to walk that far, Papa and Steve had to carry every single bird from one field to the other. It took about three hours to accomplish that task—and the weather was not on the cool side. When Mom and I finished milking we bottled the milk. Mom then headed to her bathroom to put it back together after she had given it a new paint job. I headed to the garden to weed some more in the tunnel. When Steve was done with his morning chores, he arrived in the tunnel totally drenched with sweat. I sent him inside to package eggs in the air-conditioning. When I was called in for lunch, I had plans to return to the garden—but a red face changed those plans and we all spent our afternoon packaging eggs. The okra desperately needed to be harvested, and I thought that I would go harvest after the eggs were done—but when I opened the door to go outside, I was greeted with air that was very, VERY HOT. The heat index was well over 110. So I decided to stay inside for the rest of the day.

Tuesday found us creaming the milk, and taking care of the curds and whey from the last creaming adventure. Usually we hang the cheese in a large tea towel letting it drip over a pail—but tying up the towel can be pretty hard because it is heavy. So I had the grand idea of using our juice press which has a large container full of hole and a press to help squeeze out the liquid. There was one problem though—the container only holds two gallons, and we had six gallons worth of cheese and whey to strain. The whey drips out slowly—so it took forever for the level to go down before we could add more to the container. Therefore, we learned that while it may be heavy for a minute to hang the towels, it really is easier and quicker.

Thursday found us doing a farm tour. A young couple who is very interested in farming came out to see how we do things. They arrived just as we were heading to the milking parlor to milk the cows. They got to meet the cows, and dish out feed. When the cows were all milked they helped me bottle the milk so that Steve could help Mom build a new wall in the brooder house for we had chicks and ducks waiting for us at the Post Office. After the milk was all bottled, then Papa and I took the couple on a tour of the farm in the Gravely. They said that they learned a lot—but the one thing they learned that I found to be fascinating happened in the garden. I pointed to a plant and told them that it was a Paprika plant. He looked at me a little confused, and then said that he had only thought of paprika as a spice—not a pepper. When the farm tour was over I had yogurt to make and whey to bottle. The brooder house had three rooms, and the chicks and ducklings were nestled in cozily.

Friday was full from the moment our feet hit the ground. It was chicken processing day, and Samuel Crane was back to get some footage for his Chicken Documentary that he is working on. Actually, he had come to the farm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to do some filming. He and his Mom arrived around 6:00 so that they could get some footage of Papa gathering the chickens. Then we all had breakfast together and we were all off to do our morning chores. We usually start setting up to butcher around 11:00. Shortly after a friend of ours brought over a family to see how we process chickens. Then our normal team of seven that come to help us butcher could not make it. Half of the family was on vacation, and the other half had van problems. The mom did manage to come and help though—and that was a BIG blessing. We were supposed to butcher 70 birds, but only 53 made it to the last day. Since there was only five people instead of eleven people—53 was a welcome number. Papa and Steve could kill, scald, and pluck the birds just as fast as ever—but Mom, Kyoko and I had the challenge of keeping up. We were truly working full speed ahead as three of us did the job of seven. We did manage to keep up—but may I say that we were exhausted when it was all over. Kyoko had to leave around 3:30, and we only had half of the chickens packaged by then. It took Mom and I until 5:30 to finish packaging and getting the building cleaned up—Papa did help clean up the building. I was more than ready for a shower by the time we were done—but maybe I was just ready for some clean, dry non-smelly clothes. For three days in a row the cows pooped on us during milking. One day we had to totally change our clothes, but the other two we just hosed them off. Friday was a hose off day—so I was wet. Then I had the job of washing down all the equipment to get it ready for butchering—and water and me are like magnets, I usually get soaked when I deal with water. I spent my day in wet clothes—and after a while, wet clothes have a tendency to sour.

Saturday we had one goal—to cream the milk if everything went smoothly. I had wanted to cream on Thursday but with a farm tour, chicks at the Post Office, and a brooder house to remodel—there was no time to cream. We had lots of orders, so I really wanted to fill them. Saturday’s are usually too busy with packing to cream—but we were attempting the impossible. If all goes well, we shall cream—well, a phone call made us late to the milking parlor, then the cows pooped, and pooped, and pooped. I have found one thing that Mom actually panics over—a cow raising her tail to go poo! After each poo, the whole parlor has to be cleaned, and usually our dresses cleaned up too. During the farm tour on Thursday, the young man said that a poopy day would be the end of the day for him. Nope, you just clean up and carry on business as usual—you just might not finish the day out in the same clothes that you started in. It was 11:00 by the time we made it to the milk house to cream. Mom and Steve creamed while I first labeled all the chickens. When we process chickens, all the weights are put on a piece of paper, and then later that night I assign chickens to those who have placed orders. Then Saturday morning I sit on a crate in the walk in cooler labeling the chickens according to the person they belong to. It usually takes about 30 minutes—and yes it gets cold. After I am cold, then I have to put all the chickens in the freezer—and then I am really cold. Once the chickens were all labeled, I packed the Gainesville order. Then I finished up the receipts and Papa was off on the delivery run. I had planned to spend my afternoon relaxing, but something came up and I ended up in the garden. I was glad to get the chance to transplant the cayenne peppers out of the tunnel. They were not enjoying the intense heat of the caterpillar tunnel. Hopefully they will survive the move and enjoy life better in the fresh air where they can get some rain water. I also finally got around to harvesting the okra. When I came back inside I worked on my newest recipe blog. It was my parents’ anniversary, and I decided to make them a Peach Cobbler. It turned out real yummy, and we topped it with some of our fresh cream. We did get to relax after dinner.

I hope that you enjoy your last week of July; I know that it shall fly by very quickly.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare