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Hi Everyone,

               The week started out normal—we worked in the garden planting sweet potatoes, basil, and tomatoes. Mom and Papa started working on the fence of the new garden and the lawn was mown. There was kombucha to make, yogurt to make, kefir to make, eggs to package, and of course—weeds to pull. We processed chickens on Thursday—and they were huge (6 and 7 pounders). For some reason they are growing huge this year and in order to get them small 4 to 5 pounds we have to process them a week early—which is probably what we shall do next week so that we can have some smaller birds available for not everyone wants to eat “miniature turkeys”. There were two things that made our life very interesting though—cows and flowers.

               Last Sunday morning I milked four cows and Mom milked four cows. Then just as soon as the cows got put back out to pasture Bella gave birth to a little bull calf—so on Tuesday I milked 5 cows and Mom milked 4. That lasted until Friday morning when I milked 6 cows and Mom milked 4—because Rosepetal had given birth to a bull calf (but sad to say, it was born dead). The reason why I was getting all the extra cows is because I was able to combine my two milk tanks together which gave me one empty tank to milk the colostrum into. Then Saturday morning when Papa went to bring the cows in to be milked one didn’t come in—so he went over to see why. Ella had given birth to a little heifer calf. So this morning I milked 5 cows and Mom milked 6. Since most of my cows have been dried off—I was milking 2 of Mom’s cows after they calved (Bella and Emma). With three newly freshened cows it was time for Mom to take her two cows back to her side so that I wouldn’t spend the whole morning milking cows—for I can only milk one at a time since I only have one tank. There were nine cows due to calve from May to July—and three have already calved so that leaves six more to go.

               Last Monday our friend Amelia wrote and asked if we would be interested in doing the floral arrangements for the Homeschool Graduation Reception at their church today. Amelia’s youngest son Samuel and another young lady from their church had finally finished high school and were the Class of 2022. Mom and I were very interested in doing the arrangements, but Amelia wanted to make sure that we would have the time to make them—all 14 of them. I died laughing when she told me how many—for my brain was only thinking three or four. They needed a bouquet for every table—all 14 of them. Mom and I agreed and I really couldn’t wait until Friday rolled around so that we could pick buckets full of flowers and then spend time being creative as we arranged them in vases. As soon as we finished milking Friday morning Mom and I headed to the garden. We had about 5 buckets with us and we each had a pair of clippers. We walked around the garden snipping anything that looked like it would had beauty and character to a floral arrangement. We picked:

·        Black-eyed Susan’s (fresh ones, and those whose petals had died and left behind a big dark brown cone)

·        The long spikes of the Plantain seed heads still in the green stage

·        Gaillardia seed heads—little fuzzy reddish balls

·        Love-in-mist seeds pods

·        Zinnias—oranges, yellows, reds, pink, purples and cream ones

·        Sunflowers—burnt orange and yellow striped

·        Celosia—fuchsia and orangey/yellow

·        Apple mint

·        Dogfennel—who would have thought an ugly weed would make great greenery for a bouquet

·        Pigweed—the stalks are a pretty pink and the seed heads were perfect

·        Wild grasses

While we were gathering flowers (and weeds and grasses), my brother showed up for a visit and then a little while later a friend showed up to get some tomato plants and yellow squash—so our flower harvesting got cut short. After lunch we set the flowers out on the long table in the Poultry kitchen and began making arrangements. Mom started grouping the flowers together in her hand and then tying them together with a rubber band—but they were flat and just not right. So Mom got some ½ inch hardware cloth and snipped it to fit inside the rings of the canning jars. This gave us some homemade “floral frogs”. Then we made our arrangements by just adding the flowers and fillers one at a time into the jar until the bouquet looked full and complete. We ended up making 7 bouquets with the sunflowers, Black-eyed Susans and orange, yellow, red zinnias. Then we made 7 bouquets with the pink and purple zinnias, apple mint, pigweed and grasses. They turned out lovely and we were finishing the last one when they showed up to pick them up and transport them to Jacksonville to decorate with.

               Today we had the privilege to attend that Graduation and the decorators did a wonderful job and the flowers looked so nice on the tables, but there was something very special about all those flowers and weeds—we didn’t plant a one of them! I had big plans for another cut flower garden this year, but even though I had the flowers all started in the green house, we just couldn’t get around to getting the garden beds ready to plant the flowers out. All those flowers that we picked came up as volunteers from last year’s cut flower garden and wild flower sections in the raised beds. God knew well in advance that our friends would want some flowers for the graduation and that we would want some to enjoy ourselves—so He planted the flower garden for us this year, and it is perfect!

               I will admit that the week didn’t exactly end on a good note—and neither will my journal. This morning as we were eating breakfast Papa said that Jill was not doing well. Jill is our eleven or twelve year old Great Pyrenees guard dog. She has been guarding the chickens for years, but we noticed that she was starting to show signs of old age. When we bought Sheba, Jill decided to retire and gladly let Sheba take over guard duty—but then Sheba got out one day and was hit by a car so badly that we had to put her down. Therefore, Jill had to go back on guard duty. In the past year though she has lost her hearing and maybe some eye-sight, and after Papa found a fox in the hen house we decided that it was time for another dog. In the meantime, Yasha was moved from the sheepfold to the chickens to help Jill out. We also found another puppy—Aliya (a Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd mix). Aliya is now 4 months old and has spent the last two weeks out with Jill and Yasha following the chickens around. So far Aliya is afraid of the chickens. Sometimes we hear her yelping and whining and we look out to pasture and see her running away as a chicken is chasing her—so we do not have to worry about her eating chickens, but I think that she thinks that they will eat her. Well, back to this morning. Papa said that he found Jill lying flat out and when he went to check on her she only lifted up her head and looked at him then laid it back down. She was in the sun, so Papa picked her up and put her in the backend of the Gravely and drove her over to the pond and laid her down in the shade. When we got home tonight she had passed—and he had to bury her. Jill was a great dog—and so very sweet. I am glad that Aliya is already learning the ropes.

               Well, it is now a little after 10:00, and I must get to bed because we have a very busy day planed here on the farm tomorrow—a young man is turning 21 and wants to spend it working with us on the farm. Next week I will tell you how it goes.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare