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Hi Everyone,
‘Tis the season for many things right now, and we found ourselves quite busy doing them this past week—and we had lots of help to do it all.
The Elder family has volunteered to spend their Monday’s here on the farm helping us accomplish whatever is on the agenda for the day. Last Monday the goal was to weed the garden row where I planned to plant Vidalia onion starts and the bed where I planned to plant the spring crop of carrots. I know it is fall, so how can I plant spring carrots now? You plant them now, and harvest them in the spring! Later this month I will harvest the carrots that I planted back in September, and they should last us until the spring carrots are ready—which should last us until the winter carrots are ready. We have just a few of last spring’s carrots left in the cooler—and they are still crisp and fresh. We harvest them and then layer then in a tote with layers of sand between the carrots. Then we store the tote in the cooler, and whenever I need a carrot I just dig through the sand and pull me up a carrot. It is so exciting to me to know that I have successfully not had to buy carrots in over a year. Needless to say, we are still trying to learn how to successfully store onions. We can grow lots of them—but we battle with them rotting and sprouting. We plant enough, and grow enough varieties that I can honestly say we only have to buy one or two bags of onions a year.
Our helpers arrived around 9:00 Monday morning and the two sisters helped us in the milking parlor while the brother helped Steve clean up some piles of concrete, wood, benches, and hay. When the milking was done and the milk all bottled we headed to the garden, and with six people weeding a 30 inch wide, 40 foot long row of weeds—it didn’t take us very long to accomplish our goal. Once the onion row was weeded, then we spent the last twenty minutes of our time weeding the carrot bed. I had just pulled up all the cayenne pepper plants so there really weren’t a lot of weeds where I planned to plant the carrots. At 1:00 their Mom arrived to pick them up, and we took a lunch break. After lunch I had to make yogurt before I could head to the garden, but Mom and Steve headed back to the garden and started weeding the bed where we would be planting beets. We have only succeeded in planting beets a few times—many years ago. Lately they are a total flop. I realized that I really haven’t been nourishing the soil where I plant them—so I am giving them one last chance. I had Steve dump lots of chicken house compost on the row, and then I liberally coated it with wood ashes. If I do not succeed this year—then I shall officially admit defeat and buy my beets from farmers who CAN grow nice big beets. When I finally got back to the garden I had to mark off the carrot bed so that Steve could dump some mushroom compost and a wee little bit of chicken compost on it. Then I dusted it with wood ashes and broadforked it all together. Once I had the bed all mixed and leveled back out I used my wooden gridders to mark the rows showing me where to plant the carrot seeds. Then Steve loaded the onion bed with chicken compost and I dusted it with wood ash—in case you didn’t know root crops like wood ash (call it an easy way to get calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus). Once we added al l the nutrients then I broadforked it and leveled it. I gridded the bed so that I had the rows marked and then I began the laborious job of planting 168 little onion plants. Once the carrots and onions were planted then I headed over to plant the beets—Steve and Mom had prepared their bed. I found the soil very sticky instead of loamy and I struggled greatly to plant the beets. It didn’t help that when I stood up I tripped in my dress which sent my bag of seeds tumbling around dumping a pile of seeds in the dirt. I picked them up, but I now had a handful of dirt and seeds—and my other hand was coated in sticky compost. May I say that my patience waxed thin and those beets might be planted in rows, and they might be planted in clumps—but they were not planted in a nice checkerboard pattern like I had planned. By the time we were finished in the garden I had planted beets—and I was beat!
Tuesday dawned another pretty day—but the schedule was not any emptier. My sister, Samantha, came over around 7:30 to spend her day off from work—with us! When the milking was done I came inside to make and bottle kombucha. It was done two weeks ago, but I just never could get around to it. Once the kombucha was done we headed out to round up the ducks and lock them up for the day. The Crane Crew was back to pour the concrete in the heifer’s hay barn and the sidewalk leading away from the milking parlor so that the cows don’t walk in any mud. The ducks would play in the concrete mud and leave webbed foot prints on the damp concrete (like my turkeys did on the first concrete pad at the milking parlor). Thankfully you can “herd” ducks—because you cannot herd chickens. If you needed to lock the chickens up in the middle of the day, it would be a hopeless cause. It didn’t take long to get the ducks locked up, and then we headed to the garden to raise the sides on the caterpillar tunnels. Then it was lunch time so that we could be on time to the egg packaging party. At 2:00 the Tavernari’s showed up to help us package eggs. When the eggs were done then it was time for me to teach piano lessons. Steve had managed to “beg” out of egg packing because it was such a beautiful day and he wanted to spend it pulling weeds in the garden—in the raised bed section where the weeds are four and five feet tall. I gladly granted permission because the roses were blooming—and you couldn’t see them, and the daffodils were coming up—but you couldn’t see them. When the eggs were done Mom headed to the garden to help Steve. My piano lessons were over by 4:00 and then I headed to the green house to plant a package of yellow onion seeds. I was a week late in planting them, so I had to get them done and everything was getting in my way. I needed three trays, and to my dismay I found out that I only had one 72-cell seed tray empty, all the others were full of plants that either needed to be potted up or transplanted into the garden. I found one tray that only had six baby’s breath plants that sprouted out of 72 cells—that’s what happens when you use old seed. So I decided to pot up those six plants into a six pack. Then the lettuce was past due on being transplanted to the garden so I grabbed the seed tray and headed to the garden—I needed to harvest some collards and pick up two lemon trees for Jacksonville’s delivery anyway. I knew just where to plant the lettuce, so I grabbed the gridder, marked the rows and began planting. Then to my great dismay I ran out of space before I ran out of lettuce. I really didn’t have any place prepared to plant more, but I thought that I had a spot between the broccoli and kale in the other caterpillar tunnel. When I got there though I found that I only had space for five plants, and I had about 30. So, I planted them down the middle of the broccoli row, and they fit perfectly. Now that I had my tray empty I sped back to the green house so that I could plant the onion seeds before it got too late—but first I detoured through the kitchen to put some sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot (I already had a lamb roast in the oven, and then all I would have to do is come inside and fix some green peas). While dinner cooked—I planted, and when dinner was over I worked on the orders and receipts for the next day’s delivery.
December arrived at last, and while it would have been the perfect day to exchange the fall décor for the winter décor, I wanted to hold on to it a little longer since my friend Lydia was coming up to spend a few days with me—and I really wanted her to see the fall décor. Instead of decorating, Mom and I spent the afternoon putting together my birthday present. Years ago we had seen a set of heavy duty metal gridders (wheels and bars that make a grid in the dirt so that you know quickly where to plant your plants); wanting to save money—Mom made us a set out of plywood. They have worked greatly, but it is a little cumbersome to straddle the 30 inch row while bending over and rolling the wheels down the row. We had tried to make a handle—but we lacked those engineering skills. Well, this year Mom and Dad bought me the metal gridder set—and I cannot wait to use them (what a shame that they came after I planted the onions, carrots and beets.
Thursday morning I quickly vacuumed my rooms and cleaned the bathrooms because Lydia was coming to spend a few days with me. She was supposed to come up the week before to spend time with me for my birthday, but her car was in the shop, and I wasn’t feeling well anyway. The delay worked out for our good because we got to spend three days together instead of only two like we would have had to do the week before. Lydia arrived around 10:00, and we spent the next three days doing everything together. Thursday night Papa took us to see the Christmas lights at the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. Shortly before we were to leave my youngest sister, Nichole, popped in unexpectedly. It was a pleasant surprise. Her birthday is six days after mine, and since she is working in Tennessee right now we were not expecting to get to see her for her birthday. So, we talked Nichole into going with us to see the lights and we had a very enjoyable evening. We girls had a nice time sitting in the backseat catching up on each other’s news and telling stories.
Friday was busier than I liked, but it was a good day. Shortly after we finished milking the cows a customer arrived—and we spent the next hour or so taking care of customers who happened to arrive one after the other. Mom wanted us to have lunch done by 1:00—but it was 12:45 by the time the last customer left. Mom and Papa were working on the woodshed, so that left me to figure out lunch. Have I ever told you that I hate fixing lunch? I find it too stressful. Mom stresses out over dinner, so she usually fixes lunch and I fix dinner—but Friday I had to fix lunch, and it took me half an hour to figure out what to fix. I finally settled on bean soup, and we managed to eat around 2:00. While the soup cooked I had to finish making the yogurt. Just as we were finishing lunch Lydia’s sister, Emily, came over to swap some things out with her sister and to bring me a birthday gift—one part being a beautiful blue crockery pitcher full of the most gorgeous bouquet of large yellow sunflowers, hot pink roses, and some pine greenery. It was truly the “pink of perfection”! After Emily left, Lydia and I did the dishes and then we headed to town to get a few groceries. The first stop was Tractor Supply, and we just enjoyed ourselves looking around at all the metal signs, Christmas décor and the magazines and books. She found a horse magazine and we had fun looking through it as I told stories of the horses we had once owned. She first pointed out a Palomino, and I told her that my first horse was a Palomino named Thunder. Then she turned the page and there was an Appaloosa, and I told her that my Grandma had given me a yearling Appaloosa named Lotta Boy along with the Palomino. Lydia turned the page again and there was a picture of a Buckskin horse—which was Mom’s first horse whom she called “Bucky”. Then there was the Quarter Horse that we had named “Who Too”. We called her “Who”, and we had fun when people asked us her name, for we would answer “Who?” We saw a picture of a dapple grey Arabian—of which we also owned, and his name was Snoopy, and a chestnut colored Morgan—of which was my last horse I owned, and his name was Neil. There was the Lipizzaner’s—of whom we had the chance to go to one of their shows, and the Gypsy Vanners—of which would be Mom and mine’s future dream horse if we ever had another one. The only horse that we owned that was not in the magazine was the Belgium draft horse—we even had a two wheeled cart and a wagon for her to pull. When we finished talking horses we then headed over to Publix to get a few groceries. It was 5:45 by the time we got home and I jumped right on to dinner while Lydia put away the groceries. Fried chicken, sweet potatoes and broccoli were done in an hour, and then we spent the evening relaxing.
Saturday we milked the cows and then we packed the Gainesville order. We had to run out to the garden to harvest some collards, the last of the bok choy and pick up one of the lemon trees. We then took care of a customer, folded some clothes and sat around talking for a little while before she pulled out her violin and I grabbed my Christmas music and sat down at the piano and we played music together for an hour. Then we ate some lunch and we had time to do one last project together—take all the green tops off of the dehydrated cayenne peppers and pack them into a gallon glass jar for storage until I can get around to grinding them to powder. Lydia headed home around 4:30 and I headed over to the green house to water the plants—and I had two new ones to water because Lydia had recently been visiting a friend of ours in Pensacola who has a little plant nursery and she sent me home some Anise hyssop and some bee balm. It was then time to cook dinner and wrap up the week so that I could get ready for church the next day. I haven’t felt well enough for the last six weeks, so it was really nice to be strong enough to go back today.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare