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Hi Everyone,

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.”  Proverbs 6:6-8

It is truly summer here in Florida as the heat index soars up to 120, but with the high humidity also comes the rain—which helps to cool things off. We once had a worker who said that we people are never satisfied. When it is hot we want it cold, when it is cold we want it hot; when it is dry we pray for rain and when we get a lot of rain we pray for it to stop. The month of May is always dry here in Florida, but after four to six weeks of no rain we all begin to pray for rain. When June arrived—the rains did too. We have had around 20 inches of rain since the rainy season began. In May we ran out of hay—and the hay farmers had too. The hay fields were green, but very short and in order to get some hay they cut their fields. Usually grass is very long when you cut it for hay, and when it is baled you can separate it into flakes—or books as some call it. This hay was so short that as soon as you cut the strings it began to fall apart—but hey, it was green and the animals loved it! Then the rains began to fall, and the grasses began to grow and we didn’t need to feed our animals hay anymore—but summer is the time that we prepare for winter. The hay fields grew lush and green and very tall—but you got to have a week of no rain in order to cut the grass, fluff it, let it dry, rake it and then bale the hay and stack it in the barns. The hayfields were ready for harvest—but the rains wouldn’t stop. Then Tropical Storm Elsa came by and dumped even more water on the well saturated land—and we found ourselves praying for a few sunny days. Two weeks ago that happened and we went a whole week with no rain, and this week our hay farmer called us and told us that he had all our hay baled and stacked in his barn for us. Praise the Lord!

While the farmers have been busy putting up hay for the winter, we have been busy preserving some things ourselves. Everything has its own season and if you want to preserve the harvest you must “make hay when the sun shines” as the old saying goes. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel good or already have a million things on your “To Do List”—when something is ready for harvesting you have to drop all and harvest. Last week we took advantage of cherries being in season and when we placed our order with Azure we ordered a case of fresh off the trees sweet cherries. While we cannot eat all 18 pounds before they rot, we can preserve them and they will last longer. So on Thursday we pitted cherries—and I ate more than my fair share of fresh ones. The cherries that I didn’t eat ended up on the dehydrator or smothered in maple syrup and canned for future cherry cobblers. It is also pear season and I expect to be preserving them real soon—we like to peel them, cut them in half, fill jars up and pour half apple juice and half water on top and can them. Later we can open a jar and eat it plain, or I will heat them up and add cinnamon, maple syrup and arrowroot powder and make a gooey pear sauce to put on top of yogurt.

Summer usually means abundance—but not everyone is in tune with the seasons. I still believe that vacations should occur in the middle of the winter when the eggs and milk are low. When spring arrives the chickens begin to lay lots of eggs, and as the summer rains begin to fall they make the grass grow lush and green—and green grass makes lots of milk. Summer is the time of year when you could honestly bathe in milk if you wanted to—and not feel guilty about it. This is the time of year when you make cheese, stock up on whey, drink lots of chocolate milk (it is a great way to rehydrate), and cream. When we have more milk than we can sell, then we cream the milk. The skim milk is either turned into curds and whey, or it is used as fertilizer for the pastures—if you are adventurous or have lots of extra time on your hands a person could make cheese with the skim milk. Last week we creamed three days and the first day was an adventure in and of itself. The jars that I make curds and whey in were full with the last batch of skim milk waiting to be strained through a cloth and hung up to drain out all the whey. All the five gallon buckets that I fill up with skim milk for Papa to fertilize with were also full. So before we could cream—we had to empty containers. Since Papa couldn’t get around to spraying out the skim milk that meant that we had to strain the curds and whey. Steve and I grabbed a big porcelain bowl and lined it with a tea towel. Then he poured the jar of curds and whey into the bowl while I held up one side of the cloth to keep it from splattering all over the place. Then we tied the corners, hung it on a stick and placed it in the cooler to hang and drip over a large bowl that would collect the whey. We did that three times and then we had to wash all the jars and set up for creaming. It wasn’t long before those jars were once again full and sitting on the table to ferment and turn into curds and whey. Thankfully Papa was able to spray out the ten buckets of skim milk on Tuesday—so that we could fill them back up on Thursday and Friday. Abundance happens every summer—but it doesn’t last for very long. We have 13 cows calving right now, and while most of them have calved—we had four calves born in eight days last week—and they all gave birth to heifers. Sundae had Sugar, Penny had Dimah, Sally had Dolly, and America had Liberty. We have six more cows to calve, which means that our milk production will continue to multiply with every freshened cow—but after a month the calf will be able to drink every ounce of its mothers milk. At time we have control over the amount of milk that we produce. If the demand is low—we let the calves drink the milk. If the demand is high—we separate the calves at night and make them share.

In all honesty, life here on the farm is very, very busy right now. The rain and the heat make the grasses grow really fast—which means the lawn needs mowed more often and the cows and sheep have way too much grass to eat which means in some cases we have to mow the grass behind them. The weeds also like the rain and heat and they like to multiply and reach for the stars—but between mowing, creaming, packaging eggs, processing chickens, and the daily rains we are having the hardest time making it to the garden. Steve and I did manage to make it to the garden twice last week. One day we weeded in the garden tunnels so that I could plant field peas as a cover crop to keep weeds at bay and to nourish the soil with nitrogen. The other day we worked for 45 minutes in the raised beds opening back up the walkways and uncovering some rose bushes. I was once caught by my Papa gathering Spanish Needle seeds so that I could plant them in the garden. When he found me with a whole quart of seeds he promptly encouraged me to throw them in the garbage can. Today I can honestly say I only enjoy a Spanish Needle when it is nowhere near me, and definitely not in the garden. The needle like seeds tend to get stuck in your hair, on your clothes and worse of all in your socks. The plant itself gets so big that it suffocates the beautiful flowers or vegetables that we did plant.

Do you like spiders?  I have to honestly say that for me—it depends on the spider. Some I do not mind as long as they keep their distance from me, but others meet their death as soon as I see them. There is one spider that I greatly enjoy though—as long as she is at a distance. The banana spider is a fascinating spider that likes to hang out in our garden, but also in our milking parlor—there are plenty of flies to be had for breakfast there. For the past few years we have managed to have at least one build a web in our parlor—usually over one of the cow stalls. Since our old milking parlor was destroyed and a new one rebuilt, I wasn’t sure if we would have one this year—since her eggs were probably carried off with the wood of the old parlor. Well, one did arrive, and this time it built her web on Mom’s side. She isn’t too pleased with it—but I encourage her to leave it alone. When Lydia was here we had fun catching flies off the cows’ backs and throwing them into the web and watching “Charlotte” come down and eat them up. Once I managed to get five flies into her web—but I think that she was full because she didn’t come and eat them right away. Anyway, as I said, I like some spiders—but they must keep their distance. When Tropical Storm Elsa came through we had to hang tarps on the sides of our parlor to keep the wind from blowing the rain in on the cows’ udders while we milked. The next day I endured the “hot box,” but soon managed to get my two tarps pulled up like a window blind. We ran out of time to do Mom’s. Two weeks later the heat index was so high that I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the strings holding up Mom’s tarps and let them fall to the ground. It was quicker and easier to just take them down and fold them up and put them in storage. One side went real easy. I climbed the parlor walls like a monkey and made my cuts. The walls are made out of metal cow panels—so they have great places to put my feet for climbing. The second side I ended up having to use a ladder—because when I proceeded to climb the walls from the inside of one of the cow stalls I realized that my head was in the midst of all of “Charlottes” webs—yes she has more than one. May I say that I descended that wall a LOT faster than I ascended it! I then got the ladder and proceeded to cut the strings from the outside of the milking parlor in order to stay out of Charlotte’s way. I do fear though that she shall have to be moved as our contractors return this week to finish the last of the welding and painting on our new milking parlor.

I hope that you are enjoying your summer—and if you get bored, you can come spend some peaceful time in the garden for free (as long as you pull a couple buckets of weeds).

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare