352
Hi Everyone,
I must admit that I have been struggling lately with the lack of flowers blooming in the garden. It is very hard to find a flower to stick in a vase. I can probably count the number of flowers in the garden on one hand—unless you count the Hen-bit weed that is in full bloom all over the garden. For a year I have kept a journal page for each month where I list what all is blooming in the garden. When I look back at last January the list is long—Dianthus, daffodils, Florida Narcissus, Pineapple Sage, Blue Sage, Pink Salvia, Roses, Gerbera Daisies, Viola’s, Pansies, Mustard, and Camilla’s. This year is so different—because in the month of December we had three to four nights of temperatures below freezing for twelve hours dipping down to 25 degrees. Those freezes put everything into dormancy. I had planned on having lots of pansies in the garden this winter—but none of them sprouted, and I haven’t made any trips to town to buy any. I have one Camilla that might bloom later, but two are looking like the cold was too much for them. I really do not think that they like where I planted them—full sun! The one that is doing the best is in the shade—maybe I should move the other ones. On Monday I had the chance to weed in the garden, and to my delight I found hundreds of little one inch Johnny-jump ups. That gave me such hope that blooms are coming!
Close to a year ago some friends gave us a wood chipper to try out with the option of buying it. We hoped to use it in July—which is when you are supposed to trim trees and shrubs that you do not want to produce a large amount of regrowth. When you prune in the winter, the spot where you cut will shoot out lots of new growth. Well, July came and went, and last Monday was the first opportunity we have had to prune trees. We have two oak trees growing in our garden area, and the branches have gotten so long that you have to duck to walk around the garden beds, and they have grown into the drive lane. Last week Steve and Mom trimmed up one of the oak trees, and on Monday we tackled the really big one. We trimmed up the oak so that we can now walk around freely in the garden. While we did trim off all the little branches in the drive lane, we still need to take a chainsaw to take down some larger limbs so that we can drive under the tree again. Then we took some tree grabbers that we borrowed from some friends and pulled up quite a few unwanted trees in the garden—wild pears, cherry, little oaks, sour orange, china berry, and a pecan. The pecan tree we have “pulled” up by hand a few times when it was small—but it always grew back. This year it reached about twelve feet tall—but it is in the middle of our raised bed garden. When they hooked the grabbers up to it, we were amazed that the tap root was a good four feet long and as big around as my arm—no wonder it kept coming back.
Time ran out on us on Monday before we could get the wood chipper out and chip all the branches and small trees. On Tuesday we set up the wood chipper and an empty trailer and started feeding the branches to the wood chipper. We soon found out that the wood chipper didn’t “eat” the branches like a hungry machine, but had to be force fed like a rebellious child. That really scared us—so Papa found a 2 x 4 to use to feed the machine instead of his hands. We only got to woodchip for an hour, because Papa had to run errands, and the rest of us had an egg party.
Speaking of parties, on Thursday we had a Lemon Aid Party. A few weeks back we harvested close to 15 five gallon buckets of lemons off our Ponderosa lemon tree. They have been hanging out in the cooler ever since waiting for us to find time to juice them. Finding time is a laugh around here with everything that we have to do—but when the Durmaz family came to help with eggs on Tuesday lemons were discussed and a plan was made. On Thursday afternoon the Tavernari family picked up the Durmaz children and arrived around 2:30 to be the Aids at the Lemon Party. A few weeks ago Steve, Mom and I juiced 3 five gallon buckets of oranges—and it took us two hours. Steve and Mom took turns washing and juicing the oranges, while I peeled the zest off the peelings before they cut the oranges in half and juiced them. We had 11 people to aid Mom and me with the lemons—ranging in age from 4 to 20, plus the Mom. Everyone had a job—the two youngest (4 and 7) were responsible to keep lemons in the wash sink for the two Tavernari teenage boys to wash them. Then the two youngest would bring the washed lemons over to Liberty (13) and me to peel off the zest. Once we peeled them at one table, then the group at the second table would take them to their table and cut them in half for the three people who were running the three juices (two electric and one press). Then someone poured the juice into the bottles. As time went by one by one people ran out of a job. First, all the lemons were in the sinks, then they were all washed, and next they were all peeled—but the juicing table was getting piled up. I had thought of going and buying two more juicers that morning, but Mom vetoed my idea. Then my sister and her family showed up and saw what we were doing. One of the things they do for a living is sell lemonade. So my brother-in-law, Gary, went back home to get his two juicers for us to use. In no time flat the lemons were finished—and it only took all 13 of us two hours to turn 15 five gallon buckets of lemons into 40 quarts of lemon juice. It was a blessing to get it all done.
Friday night we held a “Goodbye” and “Thank You” dinner for the Durmaz family. They have faithfully helped us package eggs and process chickens since May. They have been lots of help and a HUGE blessing. We decided to have chili and carrot cake. The chili I make is tomato free—so maybe I shall have to do a recipe blog on it. I have one for the Carrot Cake. We had a good evening together, and they didn’t leave until 11:30—but it may be the last time we get to see them before they move to Pennsylvania in two weeks.
Really and truly I had one goal for last week—get two rows in the garden weeded, composted, manured, wood ashed and broadforked so that they were ready for us to plant a little over 200 yellow onion plants on Saturday. I worked on the rows on Tuesday and Friday and got them all weeded—at least the part where I wanted to plant onions. Friday Papa went to get us some compost, and Saturday morning while Mom and I finished milking Steve dumped buckets of compost on the rows—and that is where the story ends. Once the order was all packed and Papa was on his way to Gainesville then Mom and I were supposed to head to the garden to spread the compost, top dress with composted chicken manure and wood ash. Finally we would plant the onions—but alas cold weather (40’s) and too tired from going to bed after midnight caused us to abandon our plans. Instead I curled up on the sofa under a thick blanket with a fire in the wood burning stove and relaxed for the afternoon. I climbed out of my cocoon around 4:45 to get the laundry going, finally do the breakfast dishes, and help Papa separate the calves for the night. Mom ended up doing the dishes while I went out with Papa to lock up the ducks and get the calves. When I came back inside I did more laundry and then it was time to cook dinner.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a pretty day, and the nights are not supposed to freeze for a while so I think that we shall transplant those onions—but I best get to bed so that I have the energy to do it.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare