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Hi Everyone,
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
“A time to be born and a time to die;”
Clayton has lived on a farm now for the last ten months, but it wasn’t until last Monday that he got the chance to see something that isn’t always witnessed. When Bonnie went into labor a month ago Clayton hoped to be able to see her give birth—but alas it happened while we were all busy trying to get the order packed and the milk filtered for the Jacksonville delivery. On Monday we were eating lunch when I looked outside and noticed that Rosy was walking around a little strange. She was a week past her due date, and it looked like she was finally in labor. I am a slow eater, and I was trying my best to eat my sandwich before she gave birth. To my delight I got the last bite in my mouth and my hands washed when I noticed that the calf’s feet were starting to exit the security of Rosy’s womb and enter into this vast world. I tapped Clayton on the arm and said, “Come on!” Papa and Mom finished their lunch while we headed outside to experience the birth of one of our precious Jersey cows. We made it to the back fence when I noticed that Clayton didn’t have his glasses on—O me, O my, O, how was Clayton going to see this spectacular sight that he had been waiting so long to see! He assured me that if he squinted he would be fine—and if we could get closer. I wasn’t sure how close Rosy would let us get to her for each cow is different. We slowly made our way across the field and once Rosy saw us—she got up and walked away. We continued to slowly follow her. By now the nose and tongue were showing themselves and I knew that it was getting close, and Rosy laid down. Then to my delight I saw that Clayton had his phone on him—and he was getting a video of the birth. We didn’t know at that time just how much of a video he would get. Soon one of the cows came over to investigate the “mother in labor.” Then another cow and a few of the heifers and then Dijon the bull came to investigate. Rosy then got up and came over to Clayton and me and looked at us. I wasn’t exactly sure what to think for some mama cows can be very aggressive when they have their calves and I really didn’t know how Rosy would be for her mama can be pretty feisty. There was another reason why a cow will come up and look at you—and that is to say, “I need help!” Rosy then turned around and walked off and then stopped and looked back—yes, she was asking for help. So I spent the next ten minutes being her midwife, and in the end I actually caught the calf on its way down for Rosy decided to give birth standing up. The calf ended up being a bull and I let Clayton name him. He did real good matching the calf’s name with the mama’s name, and now Rosy has a little Thorn!
“A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;”
Back in July Papa planted seven fields with iron clay peas so that when fall arrived and the grasses stopped growing so fast the cows would have something fresh to eat. Monday Mom and Papa spent their day fencing off one of the pea fields into six different paddocks. The Murray Grey beef cows would have one end of the field and the Jersey milk cows would graze on the other end of the field and it would take the cows three days to consume most of the field before we moved them to another pasture and moved the sheep into graze the rest of the peas and grass. Milk was getting low before we put the cows in the pea field, but after a week (because of the freezing temps) the milk went from 13 gallons to 19 gallons a day.
Last Spring I planted Roselle hibiscus seeds in the greenhouse and they grew into ten nice size plants that I then transplanted to the garden in May. The week before last we harvested all the calyxes off of five of the plants, and then last Monday we harvested the other five plants. On Tuesday we started the long process of cooking the calyxes in water with cinnamon and allspice to make a juice that on Thursday we began to can so that we would have roselle juice all year to make jello with. We still have more calyxes to turn into punch. Yum! Yum!
We have been harvesting pumpkins for the last six weeks and with a prediction of frost Clayton and I headed out right before dinner on Tuesday night to harvest the last of the pumpkins—well the last of the ripe ones. I am amazed at how well the pumpkins grew this year. It truly was a bumper crop of pumpkins. We must have harvested close to 70 pumpkins or more this year.
Tuesday night I harvested the first batch of collards this year and we all agree that they are the best collards we have ever eaten—they are so sweet, tender and scrumptious. I usually pick ten leaves per bunch, but I only needed five leaves because the leaves are giants! The bok choy has also been a great success this year and we have almost harvested all of them. I wish that I could grow multiple plantings of bok choy but after trying for two years with no success I have finally surrendered to the truth that once bok choy gets a cold snap it bolts—no matter how big they are.
“A time to kill and a time to heal;”
They say that turkeys look for every excuse to die—and I do not believe that they are exaggerating. Thursday night when Papa and Clayton were locking up the turkey’s one of them started gasping for air and ended up dying in Clayton’s arms. Papa brought it up to the house and we decided to go ahead and harvest it. Papa bled it out and then I put a big pot of water on to get hot so that we could scald the turkey so that the feathers would pull out easily. We did the whole thing—scalding, plucking (all four of us—Papa, Mom, Clayton and me) by hand and gutting on the tail gate of Papa’s truck. We then packed it on ice and Friday night we enjoyed the first turkey dinner of the season.
“A time to get, and a time to lose;”
Well—Thursday morning we woke up to our first frost—and FREEZE of the season. The frost is about a month early, but the freeze is about two months early. I woke up at 3:30 and just had to know what the temperature was outside. So I headed to the living room to read the temp on my weather station and it said 32! UGH! It was 36 at midnight and so I knew that it was a long cold night. By the time we woke up at 6:00 the temp had dropped to 29—and that is too cold for the middle of October in Florida. The frost caused us to loose most of our green grass—but thankfully the cows and sheep still have iron clay peas to eat and a lot of “standing hay” (grass that got too tall and was never grazed). Actually the standing hay did protect the grass underneath so everything is not brown.
Wednesday I feared that it would freeze and so I headed out to the garden to harvest all the flowers that I could—before they were killed off. I brought in cinnamon basil, bleeding heart vine flowers, zinnias and roses. I then spent an hour arranging them in vases for the living room and kitchen windowsill—so we could enjoy the beauty of the garden while we wash dishes and cook meals. Thursday afternoon I walked out to the garden to see how it faired after the freeze. The green beans that the deer, rabbits and worms had eaten—were dead. The zinnias had turned brown also, but underneath the garden tunnel the green beans and the zinnias were still nice and green and lush. The zinnias are fixing to bloom. I am so grateful for the tunnels and glad that I thought to plant the green beans and the zinnias under its protection. I will admit that I lost a little bit of sleep Wednesday night when I noticed that we were not only getting a frost but also a freeze. The tunnels only have a plastic roof over them, we do not have the sides down on them yet—so I was a little fearful that the freezing temps would creep in underneath and freeze the beans and zinnias. I finally just had to tell the Lord that if He wanted us to have beans and flowers that He would have to protect them—because I wasn’t accomplishing anything worrying about them in bed in the middle of the night. So I was very grateful to see that the Lord had mercy on those plants.
Yes, to everything there is a season—and it looks like our cold season is arriving a little early this year. I know that everyone says that it is too early and they fear what may be ahead. We shall see, but for now we just have to live one day at a time and I think that we shall be enjoying 50’s and 80’s for the next ten days.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare