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Hi Everyone,
I was finally well enough to return to church today—and I promise you, spring is here! The white lilies were blooming by the river, some dogwoods were in bloom, and the hog plums and redbuds were too. I was sleeping when we passed by the place that has a gorgeous Japanese Tulip Magnolia tree—but I am sure that it was in full bloom. I have to say that it is my favorite spring blooming tree and it is on the top of the list of my “Most Wanted” trees. We have some dogwoods and redbuds to plant in our back yard—and I hope they do for I really enjoy the redbuds in bloom.
Monday morning when I woke up I knew that I was well. It had been exactly five weeks since I had come down sick with Covid, and it took its lovely time hanging around before it decided to leave. Mom is still dealing with high blood pressure and being tired—but we are accomplishing more and more on the farm. Mom is also finding herself hanging out inside doing a little crafting as spring has arrived and spring décor is needed. Most of the time that I was sick we let the calves drink their mama’s dry because we would have too much milk otherwise. That was very nice for me since I was so exhausted—before I even began to work. While my cows ate I would piddle around in the green house and on Monday I worked on pruning the strawberry plants. I hadn’t cut all the dead leaves off of the potted plants which desperately needed a “hair” cut. When we were done milking we headed to the garden and I trimmed off all the unsaleable leaves from the collards and fed them to the chickens—they devoured them in no time flat. When you have chickens no food is ever truly wasted. Steve and Mom worked on weeding in different areas. Mom weeded the carrots and Steve weeded alongside the onion bed—the weeds were such a rich dark green because they were stealing the nutrients from the onions. After lunch I watched a garden how to video and Mom, Steve, and Papa worked on finishing the repairs of the chicken tractor and getting the woodchips spread out inside it. I also had the chance to practice my piano and read some. May I say that it was a great day?
Tuesday morning as I was fixing to start milking the cows, our worker Steve came up and told us that one of the heifers was in labor—and she wasn’t supposed to be pregnant. Mom and I headed out to the field with Steve and by the time we got there a wee little calf was on the ground. Autumn had given birth to the cutest little heifer calf you ever did see—and I mean real, real little. When I came back up and checked my paperwork I realized that she had gotten bred when she was only six months old and still nursing on her mama. Then Mom and I realized that the calves we had nursing on their mamas right now were seven months old. They needed to be weaned a month ago—but we were too sick to deal with it. So the calves became top priority, and that night when we brought the calves in for the night—we didn’t return them the next morning. I must say that we have a bunch of mooing going on around here lately as those calves moo for their mamas. Growing up is never easy.
When we finally finished milking the cows that morning I came inside and made some kombucha. Then there was yogurt to make, eggs to package, and to my piano students delight—piano lessons to teach. When the egg party was over the Tavernari’s stuck around to help catch chickens. The old chickens had been sold, and the chicken tractor had been repaired and it was now time to move the new laying chickens out to pasture. When you have six people catching chickens, one person counting and one person opening the doors it doesn’t take but 15 minutes to catch 150 chickens. The first few nights we had to go out and pick up about 30 chickens and put them in the chicken tractor. The last two nights we just had to stand and watch them and one by one they all climbed the ramp and went to bed all by themselves. Right now they are behind hotwire netting so that they cannot run back to their old house, and so they cannot decide to sleep under the house—going out at night and pulling 150 chickens out by their feet while you lay on the ground in their poop is never fun. It won’t be long though before they can start freely roaming the pastures and following along behind the cows and the sheep.
Wednesday morning found me sitting in the milking parlor—milking all of my cows since the calves were now weaned, and Thursday found us doing the dreaded job of creaming—but O it tastes so good. Time will tell whether or not we cream again any time soon because this week we have to dry off two cows because they are due to calve in a few months. Penelope is also due to calve this week—March 1st. She is the first cow due in the spring caving season. From now to August we shall be drying off cows and cows will be calving. Our goal is to have one to two cows calving every month—so that we always have enough milk. We can plan—but many things can make those plans not go as planned. Cows can die or not breed back when expected, so we shall see what the Lord has planned for us this year.
Thursday afternoon we prepped one of the garden beds in the West Tunnel so that we could plant red potatoes on Friday. Steve had already weeded the bed and I just had to pick through it to get some straggling nut grasses out. Once the weeds were gone I marked out the row with the tape measure and some cables, and then Steve added two inches of a woodchip/mushroom compost mix and an inch of chicken compost. Then I sprinkled wood ashes over the top and broadforked it to mix it all together. Friday after lunch Mom and I headed to the garden with our seed potatoes and buried them in the ground and transplanted the fourteen leeks that sprouted in the greenhouse. I had planted a lot more leek seeds—but only fourteen sprouted.
Friday morning after milking a customer came over to pick up her order. Her sister had ordered some collards—but I hadn’t harvested them yet by the time the customer arrived. That was okay though because she loves to visit the garden. She had lost her husband a few months back due to heart issues caused by Covid—so it was really nice to get to spend some sweet time with her. We walked through the gardens and I picked her a bouquet of spring flowers. The narcissus is blooming and the yellow and white flowers are so cheerful.
All week long I anxiously waited for Saturday afternoon when we could take down all the winter décor and decorate with all the spring décor. The red, white and greenery of winter were replaced with pink and soft green and lots of rabbits. In the middle of our demo and decorating some new customers showed up to pick up an order and see the farm. They used to own their own farm, but recently moved and don’t have any farm animals yet. It was nice to meet them and to share farming stories back and forth.
That was all for last week—our daily chores, new life, planting for future meals and having fun creating beauty all around.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare Street