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Hi Everyone,
Have you adjusted to the new time change? I will admit that this week has taken some time to get used to. Thankfully the week wasn’t too busy!
For the last few years our tiller has been broken—so instead of tilling under weeds we had to pull them all by hand. This year Mom has been beginning a new garden for the grape vines and the area had lots of grass and weeds that needed to be removed—but since the tiller was broken the grass was being removed by hand after the broadfork loosened the area. It was taking forever! So Mom finally decided that it was high time to fix the tiller. So last week Steve and Papa worked on the tiller and after a few hours and a new belt it is up and working. Therefore, on Monday it was put to the test and a lot of grass sod was caused to disappear with tilling and raking. It is nice to be able to conquer the garden a lot faster. While we do not use the tiller to prepare our beds to plant in—it does help to bring order to overgrown areas and new beds.
When I went to bed Monday night I had one thing on my mind—getting up at 5:00 in order to see the lunar eclipse. The last lunar eclipse I was able to see from my bed, but this one was due to happen in the early morning in the west—the opposite side of the house. I will admit that I didn’t get much sleep as I anticipated getting up early. I woke up a little before 5:00 and quietly headed out to the front porch to see the condition of the moon. The moon was about three quarters of the way eclipsed when I arrived. Shortly afterward Mom arrived on the porch and we stood there together watching the light of the moon slowly disappear. When the last bit of light left and the moon got its red color, Mom headed inside and I curled up in the rocking chair on the porch to continue watching—I wanted to see which side of the moon got light first as the moon came out of the eclipse. To my dismay the moon only got darker and the sun was starting to come up before anything changed—6:00 had arrived and it was time to start my day. I will admit that the best part of the whole morning was just sitting on the porch relaxing for an hour in the peaceful quietness of the morning. Many a Sunday morning we head outside around 5:20 and it is so peaceful and still—no bugs chirping or songbirds singing, just stars twinkling and the coolness of the morning air. On those mornings all I want to do is curl up in a hammock and enjoy the morning—but I cannot because there are cows to be milked so that we can go to church. So to be able to just sit and enjoy the morning was really nice on Tuesday.
On Wednesday Papa has deliveries to Jacksonville so I usually do some of the evening chores before he gets home. Sometimes Mom helps, sometimes she doesn’t. When it gets dark late all we have to do is lock up the ducks and turkeys and separate the calves. Chickens cannot be herded to bed so you have to wait until the sun sets and then they will go to bed on their own and you shut the door behind them. Well, the time changed last week and so now we will have to have the chickens locked up and the dogs fed also before Papa gets home—but last Wednesday we had run out of dog food and therefore we were not able to feed the dogs until Papa got home with some food (so we didn’t lock up the chickens either). We did lock up the ducks and the turkeys—and that went easy . . . but separating the calves was a different story. The cows were in one of two of the worst fields for separating, and with the grasses being so short and the peas all eaten the cows are very ready to leave their field when you head their way. So as Mom and I approached the field sure enough the whole herd started to come toward the gate. Mom decided to be the “gate opener” and I was the one elected to herd the calves toward her. Every time I got the calves close, the other cows would head for the gate and Mom would have to close the wires. After about three to four times of this happening I told Mom that she was just going to have to let some of the cows out—we would shoo them back later. Mom didn’t like that idea so I continued our hopeless chase—although we did get some calves out. Then the bull decided that he wanted to leave too, and Mom was not about to let him out because she didn’t want to deal with him up at the calf pens. Once Dijon left the exit, then I would chase the calves toward it, and then Dijon would run back up to the area where Mom was opening and shutting the wires and Mom would have to shut the wires. She wasn’t too excited about being face to face with the bull. We probably spent twenty minutes or more chasing calves around the bull, shutting the wire to keep the bull in, and trying to keep the cows in also and get the calves out. Finally I told Mom that she was going to have to just open the wire and let everyone out—we would sort out the calves at the calf pens. So she opened the wires wide and the whole herd left: calves, cows and Dijon the bull! We followed them up the lane in the golf-cart and they ran kicking up the dust along the way—and every once in a while Dijon would stop and be a bully and not let his harem go any further up the lane. When we got to the calf panels the gate was closed, so I had to climb over the panels and go open the gate—because the whole herd was standing in front of it. Once some had entered in Mom took over control of the gate and I began to herd the calves toward the gate—but the cows in the panel pen wanted out and Dijon decided that he wanted in. She just barely got the gate closed before Dijon was face to face with her. I was stressing my poor Mom past her limit of comfortability; because I didn’t want to give up for if I did we would not have enough milk for sale. Then the cows found the hay in the back of the golf-cart and the bucket of alfalfa pellets in the front of the golf-cart and that side tracked everybody long enough for me to be able to shoo in the last of the calves and Mom was able to let out the cows that had entered the panel pen. We then had to run all the cows and the bull back down the lane to their field—and once again Dijon kept being a bully and stopping in the lane and not letting anyone past him. We were very glad when we finally got the whole herd back where they belonged.
The winds rolled in on Wednesday, and the rains rolled in on Thursday. I have to say that I did worry about the green beans and the zinnias, and one time when I was praying about them the Lord seemed to help me put things in perspective: I was worrying about the garden when other people were actually losing their houses and vehicles. We headed outside at 6:30 in the morning to rearrange the hotwires in the milking parlor so that we could bring the cows up closer to the parlor and not have to go down field in the heavy rain to bring them in to be milked. Taking care of the chickens was the wettest part of all the chores—so Papa and Steve got pretty wet. Clayton and I milked the cows which did take a little longer than usual as we had to dry them off before we could milk them. Once all the outside chores were done we all came inside: Papa worked on tax paperwork, and I made kombucha. As soon as lunch was over I was going to finish making some salves and get them bottled, Mom and Clayton were going to wash dishes and then a little later Clayton and I were going to make some beef bone broth—but before we could get up from the table the electricity turned off. In a few minutes the generator clicked on but the well is not hooked up to the main generator and therefore we did not have any running water. You cannot wash dishes without water. You cannot make salves without water (because it is a messy job). You cannot make broth without water. So we changed our plans! I set up the ironing board and we put in a movie and had a relaxing afternoon. Around 5:00 Clayton and Papa headed outside to do the evening chores. It wasn’t raining that hard when they went out—so they took the golf-cart, but by the time they were done the rain had picked up and they came inside drowned rats. I was working on dinner when the electricity came back on—or should I say when the generator turned off and the power took over and we had running water again—which meant that the guys could get a nice hot shower.
By Friday we had received a nice two inches of much needed rain. The cows came in nice and clean—even their tails felt silky and not grimy. Our morning was spent trimming up the strawberries in one of our GreenStalk planters. Then after lunch we went to check on the condition of the garden. The green beans faired really well, and so did all the greens. While most of the zinnias looked okay, some got a good beating. There were plenty of flowers to make a really nice bouquet though. When we got back inside I was finally able to work on the salves—I got two out of four made.
Come Saturday it seemed that all Mom and I wanted to do was relax—for the time change has really taken a toll on our energy level. Do you adjust to time change easily? Getting the morning going doesn’t seem so bad—but we are so ready for bed come 7:30 and here it is 10:00 as I am bringing this journal to a close. So good night!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare