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Hi Everyone,
Winter has arrived and one of the things you do when winter arrives is to tidy up the garden and get it ready for spring. This year we decided that it was time to remove some weeds that have been around for a few years and to clean up some areas that got over grown just this summer. Monday morning we had two families come over and help us in the garden—but some places were a little overwhelming. Spanish needle may make you look like a porcupine when you are finished pulling it up but the only pain you get from it is maybe some sore muscles because the roots can get pretty big. Goldenrod has roots that mimic the highways in Atlanta, GA—but they are easy to pull up with no pain involved. Then there are the blackberry briars and the cat’s claw vine (yes it is as painful as it sounds). If you go real slow you can grab a blackberry briar at the bottom of the stem and pull it out with no pain—but most times the briars like to jump out and grab you around your arms, legs, clothes, and hair when you walk by them. Few pokes is one thing, but if every time you turn around you are attacked—well, you rejoice when the two hours in the garden is over and it is time to package eggs or go home. The cat’s claw vine has crept across our garden this past year, and you can dig forever and never find the end. They began on the back wall—and that is where we were weeding on Monday. I was determined to dig up as many of the “mother loads” as we possibly could. The roots of the cat’s claw vine are like ginger roots on steroids. If you find them when they are young, they are only the size of a dime, but give the roots a few years and they will fill a few people’s hands. One of the young men and I teamed up together to dig out some of the roots. We would find a vine and then dig all around it—we filled a five gallon bucket to over flowering with just two vines. Then I found one that was close to the edge of the box, yet in the middle of the bed where another box joined to it. We got up some of the roots, but I could tell that there were more roots deeper down. He dug some, and then I dug some, and I finally unearthed the “rock”. Yep, what I thought was a root tuber was a rock that we had place under the wooden frames to level them 13 years ago. Oops! I put the rock back and covered in the hole—and moved on to other weeds. By the time 1:00 rolled around we could see all the way through the garden—for the first time in we do not know how many years. Now we can focus on the root masses under the ground and removing the small weeds and putting down mulch to prevent weeds next year.
When we came in from the garden one family headed home and the other stayed to help us package eggs—the other family would have loved to stay but they had another place to be. What a blessing when children enjoy work! When the eggs were done then that family left and Steve, Mom and I headed to the garden to clean the walkways. The walkways are covered with 3 foot wide black conveyor belt to keep the weeds from growing in the walkways—unless the dirt piles up and the weeds grow on that. Cleaning up the walkways is very easy though—we just push a shovel around and dump it in a bucket. Since we had the dumpster we then dumped the buckets it there. The dumpster was to be picked up on Tuesday, but god had other plans for us. The rains came in Monday night and by Tuesday morning our back field drive lane was soup—muck soup that is. Papa called the people and asked if they could wait a few days or else they might have a stuck truck and dumpster. They told us that they would see us after Christmas (Monday or Tuesday). We rejoiced for the extra time and spent every raining (and sometimes misting) moments in the garden cleaning the walkways and a few more problem weed areas. We haven’t finished all the walkways—oh it would be nice if they wait until Tuesday so that we can have one more day to tackle the garden.
Since it rained on and off on Tuesday I decided to get some much needed kitchen work done. It is very hard for me to work inside when the sun is shining and it is warm outside—if it is cold outside I do not care if the sun is shining, I just want to hibernate. Anyway, I made kombucha in the morning and lip balm and soothing salve in the afternoon. I did manage to get to spend one hour in the garden from 1:00 to 2:00. Then we called it a day, Steve went home and we hibernated inside out of the cold rain. Papa worked on tax paperwork, I worked in the kitchen and Mom made a new wreath for the dining room wall. At 5:00 it was still cold and rainy and Mom and I made the call to not separate the calves for the night. We have no barn to put them in out of the nasty weather, so they were better off nursing on their mama’s all night and finding shelter under the portable cattle barn that travels with the milk cows. We knew that the decision would mean that we would have even less milk the next day, and that we would have to deduct even more milk from people’s orders—but we had to think about our calves first. We could separate the calves and get 10 gallons of milk, and run the risk of our calves getting sick and dying—or we could leave the calves on their mama’s and only get 4 gallons of milk—but have healthy calves. We chose to do what we could to have healthy calves even if it meant less money, because we had fewer products to sell.
Wednesday night Mom and I were heading down to separate the calves for the night and we noticed that the first lamb of the season had been born. She is a very cute little girl—mostly white with brown splotches dotted here and there and a brown neck. She was very tiny—but she can run very fast. Papa got some good exercise catching her the next day so that some of our customers could pet her. The little 2 year old was petting the lamb when it “baaed” and he jumped back in total shock—his face was priceless. The next day we had two little black twins born—so the flock is multiplying and before we know it lambs will be skipping and jumping all over the fields.
Thursday’s goal was working in the garden for the weather was absolutely perfect. I did get to work for a few hours, but then to my dismay I got very sick on my stomach (thankfully the others could keep working). I spent the rest of the day inside which gave me a chance to print out all the cow calendars, garden calendars, and poultry calendars that I need for 2022 so I can plan when to bring in chickens and turkeys, when to start seeds in the greenhouse and plant in the garden, and when to breed heifers, wean calves, and dry off cows—yep there is a lot of planning that goes into running a farm.
Friday morning Mom woke up with the room spinning and sick on her stomach—we must have caught the stomach bug. Those “bugs” are better smashed than caught. Mom was better off lying down, and breakfast was out of the question (except for her chicken broth). The BIG question was—“Would I have to milk all the cows by myself?” I thought for sure that I would, but Mom was determined that she would milk her part of the cows. To my delight Mom did make it out to the milking parlor—but Steve had to mix up her feed for her because she couldn’t bend over. We managed to get our cows milked, and then we were done for the day, and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
Christmas Day dawned early for us even though it was a holiday and it was Saturday. On holidays our goal is to get our workers home as soon as possible so everyone starts early. Our original plan was to go to some friends house for the day—but since Mom was still not feeling good and my energy wasn’t back to normal we had to cancel our plans. As soon as we were done with our morning chores we headed for the front porch to try out our new cushions on our porch furniture and to bask in the sun like lizards—as Papa described us. The sun was very warm on us and it felt so delightful—for I have been so cold of late. Our calico cat, Catalina, came over and jumped in my lap for some loving and to make me look like her—for she shedded so much that I was covered in cat hair. As I sat there relaxing I could hear the cattle mooing, song birds singing, and the mama sheep baaing for their lambs. Every once in a while a crow would fly over and cry out “Caw, Caw.” I could hear the rooster crowing down field and the duck gently quacking as she laid another egg beside our porch in our flower bed. The air was so still that noises travelled far and we could hear the neighbor children laughing as they enjoyed riding their new bikes. None of the sounds were loud—all were gentle and soothing. As we sat there relaxing the atmosphere around us was very peaceful and still and I didn’t want to break the spell but after thirty minutes or so I had to pull away and head inside to do a little Christmas planning. I wrote an email to all our friends and family, and then Mom came in and started on the dishes while I made some Red hibiscus jello. With the kitchen all clean and the jello in the fridge we then sat down and relaxed for a few hours before we headed back to the kitchen to make a chicken pot pie. After our simple Christmas meal was eaten Papa headed out to do the evening chores and I played the piano—Christmas music of course! When Papa came back inside we enjoyed learning the history behind many of the Christmas Hymns. It was almost 9:00 when we called it a night and tucked ourselves into bed.
It is hard to believe that another year has almost come and gone, but in a few more days (six to be exact) we will be beginning 2022. So fair well for this year and until next year we shall continue to be-
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare