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Hi Everyone,

               This has been a very interesting week with so much happening, and little things turning our days upside down and totally redirecting our plans into a different direction. We met new people and saw how God uses the simple things in life to create healing. We didn’t get everything accomplished that we wanted to—but there is always next week and God knows the perfect timing to accomplish all things.

When Cows go on Strike

               Of course the week started out with Mom and I both sick with a cold—so we really were not up to par to do very much. The nice thing about farming is that it gives you a reason to get out of bed every day of the year—rain or shine, hot or cold, and in sickness or in health. We are at the time of year when we are starting to dry off a few cows here and a few cows there, here a cow, there a cow—but not all the cows. It seems that as the cows get around nine weeks away from their due date, they not only start drying their selves off (by giving less and less milk)—but they also decide that they really do not care to come in to be milked anymore. Lately Abby has been getting harder and harder to get to come in, and after getting a video of how fast Ellie Mae comes in, I couldn’t resist making a video of Abby. One day I was calling and calling her—but she would just turn her head and look at me, but refused to get up and come in. After about five minutes of calling her to no avail, I finally ran inside to get the camera so that I could share what it is like to call a stubborn cow. You can check out that video here: https://youtu.be/cvkZ3g5XeNM Needless to say, the next day I couldn’t get Abby to come in at all, then the next day I couldn’t get Ella to come in, and then a few days later I couldn’t get Rosa to come in—it was okay, because they all are just two months away from calving so it was time for their “maternity” leave. As we dry off cows, it also means that it is calving season. We have two cows due any day now—Emma and Honey.

To Weed or not to Weed

               When we finished milking Monday morning we headed to the garden to weed. Mom and Steve weeded the onions and I worked on marking out a few new beds and then I started weeding one of the rows. I didn’t get very far before it was lunch time—of which I was most glad because I was weeding a row that was full of nutgrass and I am not the most efficient nutgrass weeder. After lunch we were all planning on going back to the garden—but I had burned my arm on a hot potato Saturday night and the bandage was causing the burn to fill up with fluid. I couldn’t go without a bandage due to the risk of sunburn and getting it dirty and not being able to scrub it clean—so I had to stay inside. Mom and Steve did manage to head back out and get some more weeding done.

Don’t cry over Spilt Milk

               Training new heifers seems like an endless job around here, and we are about five heifers behind. One of the newest added heifers to the herd is called Anne. It only took a few days to get her to come into the milking parlor stall and eat out of the trough. We thought that all was going well. One day she got a little spooked and left the parlor, but she came back in and finished eating. Tuesday was a different story though. She came in with no problem and was busy eating, when she got spooked by me walking up to the parlor too fast. Anne didn’t go far before she turned around and came back in—but she didn’t go back into the stall with the food, she went into the middle stall that leads to the feed room in the back and where the milk tanks are kept. Macy was good at that until I learned to put ropes across the opening—but Macy was also very calm and we could squeeze past her into the room and push her back out. Anne seemed to be a bit high strung so Mom was not comfortable with going in the stall with Anne. We coaxed and called her and when she finally turned around to come out—she tangled her legs in the milk and air hoses that were attached to the milk tank. We hoped to be able to get her untangled, and save the milk—but alas Anne pulled the hoses just tight enough and the milk tank fell over and the lid fell off and out poured the milk all over the concrete floor. UGH!—but remember, you are not supposed to cry over spilt milk. We were grateful that it was Mom’s “less full” tank and not her “very full” tank. Needless to say, Anne has not entered the milking parlor again since that episode.

A Fox in the Hen House

               Shortly after we finished milking a lady stopped by to tell us that she had just seen a fox leave our chicken house and head across the road to the neighbor’s property. It seems that our new puppy cannot grow up fast enough. The good news was that the fox did not have a chicken in its mouth! We had a lovely talk with the lady and went from strangers to friends in a short amount of time.

Banished to the Garden

               There is never enough time to spend in the garden, but sometimes things happen to give us a little more time in the garden—and Tuesday was one of those days. Mom and I were both sick with a cold and we didn’t want to share it with the lovely family who helps us package eggs every Tuesday afternoon—so we went to the garden instead. I will admit that I felt so much better outside in the fresh air than I did inside the house. I had to cancel piano lessons—so that gave me even longer in the garden. We did manage to get three new beds all weeded and ready for compost. We managed to get the compost on the beds on Thursday and now the beds are ready for the seeds and plants. Later that afternoon we had a new customer show up—and I really enjoyed visiting with her. She is living in the city right now, but grew up on a farm and has worked on farms. She was having “country life” withdrawals and was camping down by the river. After searching www.realmilk.com she found us (just a few miles from the campground) and came over to buy some farm fresh goodies.

Congestion Tea

               Thursday found Mom very bad off. Her lungs were full of fluid, her heart was racing and her oxygen level was below comfort zone—it was pastime for me to make her some Congestion Tea. Years ago we were all sick and one night Mom couldn’t sleep because her lungs were rattling very loud—you could hear them across the room. I grabbed all my herb books and catalogs and searched through them looking for any herb or spice that said anything about (congestion, colds, sinus, flu), and then the next criteria was that it had to be in the cupboard. I threw all the ingredients in a quart jar and filled it up with boiling water and let it steep for 30-minutes. I sweetened it with honey and then we drank some—and we spent the next 45 minutes on the front porch coughing stuff up out of our lungs. Years later a lady came over with her husband who was working on our tractor and she mentioned that she had been dealing with congestion for the last month. I went inside and made her a quart of tea—and by the next day she was feeling much better. So, Thursday morning it was time to make Mom some tea—actually it was past time. I grabbed my tea strainer and put it in a quart jar and filled it with:

·        ½ cinnamon stick

·        A big pinch of cayenne pepper

·        2 packages or 4 teaspoons of green tea

·        ½ teaspoon orange peel powder

·        ½ teaspoon dried thyme

·        ½ teaspoon dried sage

·        1 teaspoon chamomile flowers

·        ½ teaspoon fennel seed

·        ½ teaspoon ginger powder

·        1 crushed clove of garlic

By that night Mom was improving, and by Saturday her lungs were pretty much cleaned out. God has truly made the leaves, seeds and fruit of the plants for our healing.

Movie Night

               The Biggest Little Farm is a great movie that documents seven years of a family taking a “dead” farm in California and bringing it to life beyond your wildest imagination. We decided to have a movie night at my sisters and watch the movie together. My brother-in-law, Gary, was in charge of grilling the hamburgers. My sister, Nichole, made some potato salad with some of our home canned potatoes; I cooked garlic and green beans from our home canned green beans. As soon as we were finished milking the cows that morning, Mom and I made an Angel Food Cake. Later that afternoon Mom harvested all the strawberries and we cut them up and added maple syrup to them so that we could top our cake with them.

Do rats like to eat onions?

               It was time to harvest the sweet onions, but we had no idea where to cure them. In the past we have cured them in the brooder house—but this year it is full of chicks, and it always gets way too hot in there. One year we used the tool shed—but it is full of wood and tools now. Last year we cured them in the poultry kitchen—but this year we are processing chickens at this time, and therefore it will be too moist in there. The farmers at Hoss Tools cure them in their barn, and so does the farmer at our local feed and seed store. We just couldn’t do that because of the rats that find their way into the barn. Thursday morning I woke up at 4:00 and brainstormed for an hour on how to build a drying rack that was rat proof. I thought that I had come up with a grand idea—and I fell back asleep. Later that day when I shared my idea with Mom, I was told that it wouldn’t work. Ugh! We brainstormed and brainstormed—we had to harvest the onions on Friday, but where were we going to cure them safe from the rats. Then I got an idea to Google—“Do rats eat onions?” The answer was amazing: Rats hate the smell of onions, and will die if they eat them! WOW!!!! I lost sleep for nothing, all we need is a drying rack on some saw horses and we are good to go. So on Friday afternoon between making Angel Food Cake and cutting up strawberries, we harvested the onions. We videoed it too—but it isn’t edited yet.

Dust Be Gone!

               Saturday afternoon found Mom and I doing one of my least favorite chores—dusting. I try to look on the bright side that at least I have things that need dusted—but does anyone know how to eliminate dust? Years ago when I was in my teens and early twenties I would have gladly chosen to dust and vacuum the house over mowing the lawn or weeding in the garden. I loved house work and would rather do it than sweat outside. As the years went by and I fell in love with gardening and my brothers and sisters left home and I had to do more and more outside chores—like milking the cows, I found myself liking the house work less and less. We have been reading a farming book lately and I could relate with the farmwife who was having trouble cooking a meal because there was so much to do outside. It seems that farms years ago had lots of people working on them, but as the modern farming began to take over the extra people left the farm for higher paying jobs in the city and the farm had to be run by the farmer and his family—which meant the wife not only had to keep up with the house, but she also had to help in the fields and barns. Finding balance is hard—for dust just sits quietly and collects, but cows moo and chickens lay eggs and weeds run a race to see which one can grow the biggest, and which one can cover the vegetables in the quickest amount of time. There is so much to do outside on a farm, and so much to do inside a home (cooking, cleaning, sewing, practicing the piano and taking care of the orders). It seems that the only way to accomplish it all is with a schedule—but it must be a flexible schedule, and then it isn’t very scheduled! Some things are scheduled like breakfast (at 7:30), milk the cows every morning, move the animals every morning, gather the eggs every afternoon, and write my journal every Sunday night—and I just finished that, so now I can get ready for bed, which happens around 10:00 at night.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare