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Hi Everyone,
May I simply say that Monday seems like forever ago! So much has been packed into these last seven days that it seems like surely a month has transpired since I last wrote. Some things happened as planned—but a lot happened that wasn’t planned at all.
A Sweet Deal
A few Fridays’ ago while we processed turkeys, Steve headed to the garden to harvest the sugarcane. On Monday we washed down all the canes with a wet rag and then we loaded them into the back end of the van. Clayton and I did our best to count them as we loaded, but believe it or not we both lost count at the same time. So we either had 55 or 60 stalks total—we couldn’t remember if we had just said “50” or “55” when we put the last five canes into the van. Then as soon as lunch was over Mom, Clayton and I headed over to our friend, Jesse Green’s house and farm. He is an 85 year old farmer who knows a lot about farming—beef cows, clover, gardening, sugarcane, oranges, tomatoes, heirloom corn and how to make grits and cornmeal with it. Years ago we got some sugarcane stalks from him and came home and planted a 20 ft. by 60 ft. garden bed full of the sugarcane. It did wonderful and the first year we harvested it we juiced 60 gallons and then we boiled it down and got about six gallons of cane syrup. The next year we didn’t get as much—roughly 30 to 40 gallons so we just froze it and sold it as Cane Juice. Then we found out that Mom was allergic to sugarcane and we let the pigs graze and root in the sugarcane patch. They managed to leave us one plant and I have protected it so that when we have farm tours I can show people what sugarcane looks like. Last year we sold some of the stalks, but this year we decided to juice them. Jesse Green has a really nice set up, and so we headed over to his farm. Clayton fed the stalks through the juicer and I pulled them out the back and loaded them into the backend of Jesse’s truck so that he could feed them to his pigs later. We ended up with seven and a half gallons of juice—and it sure is sweet and delicious! We got home from Jesse’s with just enough time for Clayton to do the evening chores and me to cook dinner. Then we all ate and left to pick up our Azure order—but Papa stayed home to lock up the chickens, turn the dogs loose for the night and do the dishes. Our Azure pick-up was very interesting as it arrived at 6:45 that night. The drop off is located on a country road in the middle of nowhere. We were all grateful for flashlights! Country living can be very interesting.
Training Success
Tuesday morning Clayton headed home for Thanksgiving—and Mom was back on milking duty. All went well until it was time to let Blossom out. Clayton had been working with her to train her to go out the “Exit” and not to bust through the “Entrance” wires. He was doing a great job and everyday was a little easier—but he still had to manually turn her around. Neither Mom nor I could physically turn Blossom, and we didn’t want to lose ground while Clayton was gone. Papa showed up to help at just the right time. I tried to tell Papa that he had to open the wire gate, and that he had to have both hands available to turn Blossom around—but he didn’t understand. He left the wire shut, and then Blossom came out so fast that she ran right through him and busted the spring on the wire gate before he knew what had happened. Papa said he didn’t realize that she would go so fast—but that he wouldn’t let it happen the next day. So Papa found a metal gate panel and the next day he set it across the “Entrance” opening and when Blossom backed out there was a “wall” that she couldn’t bust through and so she had no choice but to go out the “Exit.” We set the gate up the next day and the next and Blossom continued to leave by way of the “Exit,” because it was the only way she could go. Then on Saturday Mom let Blossom in but had not dumped her alfalfa pellets in the feed trough and when Blossom entered her stall and found the feed trough empty she put herself in reverse real fast—and left by way of the “Exit” like a good girl. We didn’t even have the metal panel gate up yet because we had just let her in. Then this morning was the real test, for Blossom did get to eat and when Mom untied her from her stall she backed out and left out by way of the “Exit.”
Allium’s in the Garden
It is onion season in the garden. A few weeks ago we planted some sweet onions in the Food Pyramid in the new garden bed called Martha’s Vineyard. I still have a few bunching onions to transplant out and when we went to visit Jesse Green we were able to get some more multiplying onion bulbs. We obtained some of them about 15 years ago and have been able to keep them going until a few years ago I lost the white ones (because I forgot to harvest them), and then this summer I lost the purple ones (because of weeds). I couldn’t find anymore, so I was really excited to see that Jesse was growing them and was even more excited to know that he had extra bulbs to share. Now I just had to get them planted in the garden. Last Tuesday I planted three trays of yellow storage onion seeds in the greenhouse—and if all goes well they should be ready for the garden come January.
Evening Chores—Me, Myself and I
Wednesday night’s Papa is making deliveries and I have the opportunity to do the evening chores. Sometimes Mom comes along to help, but most of the time I do them by myself. Now that it is dark by 6:00 there are a few extra chores to do—but at least Papa doesn’t have to come home and go outside and do any chores after he has been gone all day (which is what he has to do when it gets dark at 8:00 and 9:00 at night and the chickens won’t go to bed until dark). So a little after 5:00 I headed outside and grabbed the bucket of duck feed, some hay and a bucket of alfalfa pellets. When I headed through the gate into the field I was met by a renegade calf—they are becoming pros at escaping. The ducks were ready to go to bed, but I was making good progress chasing the calf back to his mama so I had to ignore the ducks. Earlier that day Steve was not able to put the cows back—they insisted on hanging out around the hay rack and I couldn’t blame them. I managed to get half the calves out of the field—but instead of heading toward the panel pens they headed the opposite direction. After a few more rounds of the field I was able to get the rest of the calves out of the field—and into the panel pens. Since the other calves were way down at the other end of the lane I decided to run the cows out of the field and into the field that they were supposed to spend the night—where they had shelter and minerals. At first the cows just stared at me, but I just kept encouraging them and finally they all left. Once the cows were secured I went after the renegade calves and was able to turn them around and get them into the panel pens. Then I fed them their hay and alfalfa pellets and went back to lock up the ducks. Once the ducks were secured for the night and fed, I headed over to the heifers and fed them some alfalfa and hay. Then it was getting dark and I headed down field to lock up the chickens, let Aliya out and feed both Aliya and Yasha their dinner: dog food and an egg, and their bed time snack: a doggie biscuit. The last thing I had to do was lock up the new egg layers and their guard goose and his two duck buddies. Papa was very happy when he got home to know that he didn’t have to go outside and do any chores after his long day of travelling the roads delivering goods.
Thanksgiving Day
I started my day at 5:30, and shortly after 6:00 we headed to the kitchen to start breakfast. By 7:00 we were heading outside to do our morning chores—a little early so that everyone could have as much time to enjoy their day. Steve came in at 7:00 to do his chores, and Penny arrived at 9:00 to help wash up all the milking equipment. Mom and I bottled the milk and then we helped Steve and Penny wash and rinse the equipment. I think that we were all done by 11:00. I then put some turkey thighs in the oven at 250 F so that they could cook low and slow—my favorite way to have nice tender and juicy meat. Mom and I relaxed for a little bit and then we headed to the kitchen to do the breakfast dishes. Once that first mess of the day was cleaned up we started the second mess—a pecan pie and some roselle jello. I made the jello while Mom worked on some of the dishes, then while she made the pie crust I put together the pecan filling. Then we did more dishes! It was going on 2:00 and we knew that the turkey would be done soon—but all we had so far for dinner was turkey, jello and pie. Mom wanted some zipper peas that we had canned back in the summer—and they only required heating up. I wanted a sweet potato casserole, but it was a little late to start that. Thankfully we had some left over sweet potatoes and apples from a previous meal so we heated them up. I had thought about having a broccoli soufflé, but alas it was too late for that too. Mom wanted either mashed potatoes and gravy or noodles and gravy and I told her to let Papa make the choice, and he thankfully went with the easier of the two—noodles! We got the noodles cooking, made the gravy, and Mom cut up some avocadoes and by 2:30 I think that we were ready to sit down and eat. I was very “thankful” for the simplicity of our meal, and though it wasn’t much I was still stuffed and didn’t want to see the pie until many hours later. We didn’t do the dishes right away. I wanted a family picture taken and was hoping to get Penny to take it for us before she left—but we were not exactly ready by then (not to mention Mom’s solid blue jumper was wet from washing the milking equipment and the water spots were pretty visible. So after we ate I grabbed the camera and we headed outside to get a picture beside our little wood shed shack (future old-fashioned outdoor kitchen). I got the bench set out and the camera set up—and then I realized that our camera did not have the ability to take a picture by itself. Ugh! Now what? I came up with the idea of putting the camera on video mode and stealing pictures from the video—and that is just what we did. What fun we had! In the end we had a few really nice pictures and I came inside and put together a Thanksgiving Email to everyone. You can see some of our “fun” at https://www.facebook.com/shepherdshillfarmfl
The rest of the day was spent with a mixture of relaxing and working. There were more dishes to wash, but I also had rooms to vacuum and bathrooms to clean for my friend Lydia was coming Friday morning to stay with me until Tuesday morning so that she could spend my birthday with me on Monday, the 28th. We also managed to finally get my dresser mirror hung back up on my bedroom wall. Two years ago when the water pipes in our whole house had to be replaced the sheet rock on one of the wall’s in my bedroom had to be removed in order to get to the plumbing in the hall bath. The sheet rock was replaced with a wooden shiplap wall—but I wasn’t sure what color to paint it, and when I decided I wanted a “green wash” instead of a “white wash” Mom was terrified of the painting mess it would create. So my wall is still not done and my mirror has hung out in the boy’s room ever since—until Clayton moved in last August. Then the mirror was moved to the room where my friends sleep when they come over which joins my bath and bedroom. I thought that since it was now in the walkway that it would get hung up real quick—because at this moment I didn’t care if my wall ever got painted I just wanted my mirror back, but almost four months past and still no mirror was hung. Then Lydia was coming—and the mirror would definitely be in her way and I seized the opportunity to get the mirror hung. So Mom, Dad and I spent a good 45 minutes measuring and measuring and holding and screwing and finally hanging up my mirror. I was also able to hang up a few art pictures that my Mom had painted when she was a child and I was able to have my room all back together—well except the paint and stain job.
Going with the Flow
Friday morning shortly after 6:00 Mom came into my room and told me that Papa was sick with a cold. I climbed out of bed to go call Lydia who would be leaving her house in an hour to head to mine—for I was sure that she wouldn’t want to camp out with me with Papa being sick. The Lord had other plans though. Our phone was broke, and our cell phone had been disconnected a few weeks ago. I couldn’t call her. The phone company had given us a new cell phone but we hadn’t activated it yet—and it looked like now was the perfect time to look into it. We figured out how to get the new phone working, but first we had to charge the battery. It was two hours later before I could finally make a phone call, but Lydia was only about 40 minutes away by then. She arrived and we discussed the problem and came up with a solution—she would spend the day with me, outside, and then since her sister only lives 10 minutes away she would eat dinner with her sister and spend the night there. So she helped us milk the cows and then she got to see her first calf born . . .
She is a Miracle!
When Papa brought the cows in to be milked Friday morning Mabel had two little feet hanging out the back of her—she was in labor. Her due date was Thanksgiving Day, so she wasn’t very late. Mom went outside to check on her, but Mabel wouldn’t let Mom get close. When I went outside later I checked on her and there were still just two feet. I tried to help, but only got to quickly check and see that she was not progressing. When Mom was done milking she told Papa that he would have to help her catch Mabel so that she could help deliver the calf—that had been hanging around for the last four hours. Mabel would not be caught though. So as soon as I finished milking my cows we cleaned up the stall and brought Mabel into her stall so that she could eat—and then we tied her in, put a halter on her so that she couldn’t turn around and then Mom checked her. To our dismay Mom found out that there was no head with the legs. The correct birthing position is for the nose to be on top of the two legs following them out—but there was no nose, head or neck to be found. So we had to call the vet, because Mom knew that she was not strong enough to turn the head around. When the vet arrived he confirmed that the head and neck were turned backwards laid on the side of the calves back. I am not sure how long it took, but after a lot of work the head was finally turned around and a little heifer was pulled out—was born! The vet did not expect her to be alive—but she was! We took her out into the grass and then we let Mabel out of the stall so that she could go and clean up her calf. The vet wasn’t sure that the calf would nurse—but it wasn’t long before she was up on her feet nursing away! The vet told us that she was the first calf that he has ever been able to turn the neck and head around on. He has been a vet for close to 30 years. I asked him how he got the other calves out if he couldn’t turn their heads around—and he just looked at me not wanting to answer. Then he did, and it wasn’t a pretty answer. Those calves don’t come out alive—or whole. It was then that we realized just how serious the situation was, and we praised the Lord for working a miracle on the behalf of our little calf. So we call her—Miracle. She looks just like her mama, all red with a little white check mark on her forehead. Miracle is very robust and has a great appetite. I think that she shall be just fine. This morning another heifer calf was added to the herd. I haven’t got to see her yet, but Papa told me this morning that Mya had a little girl. Now we have to figure out what to call her.
Friendly Adventures
Once the calf was born Lydia and I headed inside to fix lunch—but Mom and Papa ate their lunch on the back porch and Lydia and I had on lunch on the swing on the front porch. When a customer arrived an hour or so later he had no problem finding us he said—just follow the laughter. Then Lydia and I headed to the milk house and bottled the sugarcane juice into little squat jugs and placed them in the freezer. It was then time for me to start dinner and Lydia to head to her sister’s.
Saturday Lydia arrived around 11:30 and helped pack up the orders for the Gainesville delivery. Since Papa was sick Lydia and I would be making the delivery for him—and it would give us hours to spend together talking and laughing. The original plan was for Lydia to go to church with us today (Mom and I that is), but due to a lot of people being sick in our church we decided not to go. In the end I woke up a little under the weather today and we were not able to get together at all today. I had so hope to get to spend time visiting and walking through the garden—maybe tomorrow. I sure hope so, because it is my birthday!
When we arrived back from our deliveries it was 5:00 and time for Lydia to head to her sister Emily’s. I cooked dinner and then Mom and I did the dishes. I spent my evening playing the piano—how nice it would have been if Lydia could have been accompanying me on her violin (which she did bring with her, because it is tradition when we get together to play together). Clayton arrived back from his family around 9:00 that night, but he left around 3:00 in the morning to head north to visit another farm for a week—so Mom will once again be my milking partner this week.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare