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Hi Everyone,
Today is Resurrection Sunday, and we fully intended on spending it at church where we would celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by singing such hymns as:
“At the Cross” (written by Isaac Watts, 1707)
Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?
Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity grace unknown and love beyond degree!
Refrain
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
And:
“Christ the Lord is Risen Today” (written by Charles Wesley, 1739)
Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia! Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply, Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia! Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia! Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!
Yes, that is how we intended on spending our day, but alas Mom and I both are suffering with a head cold, therefore, we did not make it to church today. We slept in and milked the cows late. Then Mom and I took a little bit of time to walk through the garden ooh-ing and aw-ing at all the roses, snapdragons, forget-me-nots, lilies, comfrey, gladiolas and strawflowers in bloom. The roses are just bursting with beautiful flowers this year. The last few years the first bloom of the roses has been distorted by bugs—but not this year. When you open the door to the East Garden Tunnel the perfume of the forget-me-nots fills your senses with an aroma that is breath taking. Mom and I also picked the first of the sugar snap peas and a few spring carrots. When we came inside we had a little snack of peas and dip with cottage cheese and pineapple. Then we sat down and listened to an Easter Sermon. Dinner wasn’t until 4:00. It wasn’t elaborate, but we did manage to have a leg of lamb, some roasted sweet potatoes and a fresh garden salad. The weather outside was on the drizzly side, but it was much cooler outside than inside, so we took advantage and ate our lunch at the table on the back porch. While we ate we watched the new puppy run around the yard skipping and jumping, chasing her tail, and playing with the dandelion flower tops. It was her first time to really get to romp and play since we got her last Sunday night.
The secret is out now—for the surprise that we were supposed to pick up last Saturday was a new puppy. Mom and Papa did manage to go get it Sunday night, and Monday morning we put together a little YouTube video about her. She is 50% Anatolian Shepherd and 50% Great Pyrenees. Her job will be to guard the chickens and/or sheep. Yasha usually is guarding the sheep, and Jill is guarding the chickens—but Jill is so old that she isn’t very good at guarding anymore. The other night Papa found a fox in the midst of the chickens at one of the chicken houses—and Jill was asleep in her doghouse. The next morning Papa took Yasha to help Jill guard the chickens. In a few months the new puppy will head out to pasture and the older dogs will teach her the ropes—although honestly guarding comes pretty natural for the breed. We still do not know what to name the puppy—so why don’t you go on over to our YouTube channel and watch the video and leave a name idea down in the comments https://youtu.be/4V1URe8hu5Y
On Monday we were supposed to have two families helping us in the garden—but one of the families ended up with sickness in the family and couldn’t come. Therefore I didn’t have to figure out who was going to get the job of creaming so that Steve and I could be in the garden helping the “weeding” crew—because there was no morning weeding crew so Steve and I creamed the milk. When lunch was done Steve helped Papa put the shade structure for the cows back together. The other family arrived and I helped them tackle a bed where the dog fennel, thistles and blackberry vines had taken over. We were also able to weed all around the fence that went around the bed. We got all the big stuff out, and some of the little stuff. The sheep had “mowed” down most of the weeds in the area which was really nice—but made for a very poopy working space. Now I need the tiller to work so that we can get the last two beds tilled and planted—I still need to plant squashes. While we weeded Mom set up another hotwire fence on the other side of the garden and then she moved the sheep from our side of the garden to the other side of the garden. My energy actually gave out before they were done, so once the sheep were moved Mom took over my job and I headed inside to do the lunch dishes and then I sat down to relax—at the computer to type my delayed “Sunday night” Farm Journal.
I spent Tuesday morning working in the greenhouse while Mom mowed down some over grown weeds in the milking parlor drainage area. I potted up roselle hibiscus plants—some for sale and some for us. The afternoon was spent making yogurt, packaging eggs, and teaching piano lessons. Once again I found my energy crashing early in the day and was not able to harvest the garden for the next day’s delivery. Thankfully I had more energy the next morning and as soon as I was finished milking the cows I grabbed a helper and headed to the garden to harvest the collards and Swiss chard. Later that day I worked in the greenhouse planting seeds of celosia, marigolds and other flowers. Mom was able to edit the “puppy” video and we got it posted to YouTube.
I woke up Thursday realizing to my dismay that I was sick—probably why my energy kept crashing all week. A cold had moved into my head—anybody have any idea why it is called a cold, for it doesn’t make you shiver? I managed to get the cows milked, and then since Steve has to feed and move all the broiler chicken pens I had to bottle the kefir. I walked in the milk house and it was nice and clean—five minutes later a volcano erupted in the building and the room was covered in kefir—and I was too! I was pouring the big two gallon glass jar of kefir into the colander to strain out the kefir grains when I lost my grip on it and it came crashing down to the table. Thankfully the jar didn’t break, but when it landed kefir shot up out of it like a volcano erupting. The explosion missed Penny (the lady who washes all our milking equipment) by just a few inches, but the front of me was covered. It took me a little bit to overcome my shock, but Penny was quick to notice that the walls, the door, my coat, the floor, the table, the sink, and an egg bucket were all splattered with kefir. I was thankful that everyone could have a good laugh—and that everyone was willing to pitch in and help me clean up the mess. There is a saying around here that goes like this: “No one can do it as good as Tiare”—and they aren’t talking about some gorgeous creation, they are talking about a mess.
Last year I needed to finish making some salves—but I was out of beeswax. Then in the fall I was able to get some beeswax—but I couldn’t remember to make the salves. In the past month I have had some Mom’s with babies needing the Soothing Salve for diaper rashes, bug bites and acne. Then this week I got a call from someone needing the Black Drawing Salve for a poisonous bite—and I was out, but thankfully one of her coworkers had some to share with her. So I was determined that I could not procrastinate any longer and therefore I spent Thursday afternoon in the kitchen making salves and lip balms.
Another batch of chickens was ready to process on Friday, but I was too sick to be in the building with everyone—so my lovely sister offered to come and take my place. Mom and I milked the cows and then she started setting up and I printed labels for the chickens and redesigned my Lip Balm label. Then I ate lunch and headed for the garden. When health is not up to par, you get behind in things—and I am behind in having the garden beds weeded and planted. Little by little things are getting done, but I do have to admit that it does get discouraging. So instead of being cooped up in the house all day I decided to go work in the garden. Heavy labor might not be the best for a sick person, but I felt so much better outside in the fresh air than I did inside the house. My goal was to plant some acorn squash seeds. First I had to spot weed the two rows where Steve had pulled up the spent spinach plants. Then I top dressed the rows with some chicken compost and broadforked the rows to mix it in. The next thing I needed to do was to cover the rows with 2 inches of the topsoil/mushroom compost mix that we had bought—and it was at this point that I really wished that I had Steve’s help, but he had already gone home for the day. I grabbed the wheelbarrow and shovel and headed over to the trailer that was housing the compost mix and started shoveling. I put 20 shovelfuls into the wheelbarrow and then went and spread in on most of the first row. That was encouraging to know that I only needed to do that two and a half times. Once the compost was all spread out I planted the acorn squash seeds and then I transplanted a marigold (they are growing like weeds in one of the garden tunnels) beside one of the roses and then I cleaned up. Before I headed up to the house I harvested a five gallon bucket full of flowers—dark purple gladiolas, all colors of snapdragons, periwinkle blue forget-me-nots, white forget-me-nots, white fleabane and rose colored strawflowers. I thought that I was collecting enough flowers for a large bouquet—but Mom turned them into four absolutely beautiful bouquets. When I got back up to the house with my flowers I found Nichole (my sister) and Mom visiting in the garage—they thought that I was inside and my sister didn’t want to come in and risk the chance of getting sick. They were quite shocked to see me—and I was glad to be done in the garden.
By Saturday I was not the only one sick—Mom was joining the club (we forbid Papa to join the club). So needless to say—we milked the cows, packed the orders, took care of customers, and then relaxed the rest of the day. I am not sure how this week will work out—there is so much to do, but time will tell what actually gets done.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare