436
Hi Everyone,
Sometimes we come across a thing in life that looks absolutely hopeless—and that is when God asks us to only do what we can and to leave the rest to Him, for with God nothing is impossible. A few weeks ago I was walking through the garden when I noticed that one of the fig trees that a friend of mine had given me a few years ago for my birthday was looking dead. She gave me three of them and two were still looking good, but when the rains had stopped flooding on a weekly basis we had forgotten to turn on the water in the garden. One of the fig trees was suffering greatly and actually had no sign of life (except for one slightly green tip on a stem. The fig trees are still in pots (because I still do not know where to plant them) and I had them brought up to the milking parlor area—where I can see them daily and keep them watered. I gave them a good soaking, then a week later I gave them a good fertilizing, and I kept them watered. Then a few days ago I was tickled pink when I noticed tiny green leaves bursting forth in the midst of the drooping dead leaves—the fig tree was going to live after all.
Farmer Tom—I mean Mechanic Tom
We have watched a few farmers YouTube of late, and read a few farming books and it seems that things are always breaking and the farmer has to fix things constantly. Well one YouTuber’s title summed it up real well—“Welcome to our farm—where we work on equipment more than farming with it”. Poor Papa it seems that that is exactly what he has been doing of late. He finally got the cylinders back for the hay baler and got them installed—but he still has to put the rest of the baler back together. The truck lights quit working one day—so he had to tear out the dash to see if he could fix it. Thought he would need to order a part, but didn’t get around to it—and a week later the lights came back on, but then the truck refused to start. Papa worked on the battery and the trucked worked again. Then last Monday the Gravely started squealing when in gear and the golf-cart broke a part, while we were mowing in the garden one of the cables on the push mower broke—and the riding lawn mower was still in the shop. So Papa bought parts to fix the push mower and the golf-cart—and got them working again. He still needs to work on the Gravely, and lo and behold the mechanic told us that the riding lawn mower was fixed so Papa brought it home on Thursday. Mom was so excited to have the lawn mower back that she eagerly jumped on and began to mow on Friday—but after lunch it blew another fuse and didn’t work anymore (the reason we took it to the shop to begin with). We need to make hay when the sun shines—but the equipment has to work. Once the hay baler is fixed, then Papa has to fix the hay rake—sounds like we are working on the equipment more than farming!
The best way to get tired enough to go to bed is to—Count Sheep
When the milking was done Tuesday morning we headed to the garden to do a little weeding, harvest the okra, and mow down the iron clay peas that we had planted in the early summer as a cover crop and it is time to prepare the garden for the fall planting. Steve was able to get one tunnel all mowed down, but before he could get the other tunnel completely mowed down the cable broke on the lawn mower and we were out of business. It was time for lunch anyway and after lunch we packaged eggs. When the eggs were all done we all headed to the sheep barn to sort out sheep. We have a waiting list of people that want sheep and Mom and Papa have been so busy or sick for so long that we haven’t had time to sort through the sheep. Our new intern, Clayton, is very interested in sheep so he was very excited about the chance to learn how to handle them, how to check the skin around their eyes for health, how to give them a boost of minerals to help them fight off parasites, and how to trim their hooves. Papa and Steve took turns catching the sheep. Mom gave them a dose of minerals and Clayton trimmed their hooves. I kept the tallies on the paperwork and opened the gates to let the sheep out. When all was said and done we had a total of about 75 sheep—with 16 of them being ram lambs and 14 being ewe lambs. It was a very exhausting job and I have to admit that we quit when there was just ten sheep left. It was 6:45 at night and we had been catching sheep and tending to them since 3:00—and nobody could go any longer.
Gardening Reality—not all roses!
A few weeks ago I planted some seed trays with some collard, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and bok choy seeds. To my delight they sprouted—but to my dismay I went into the greenhouse the other day and found little green stems with no leaves. Worms are eating the tomatoes and evidently are going on strolls away from the tomato plants and feasting on the broccoli and collards—so far they don’t like bok choy. I am not a happy camper and have done my best to find and evict every caterpillar I can—but they must have lots of cousins. Then I think that it is time to take the shade cloth off of the top of the greenhouse for the sprouts look a little spindly. I guess in another week I shall be replanting a lot of seeds and starting a lot more—and since the tomato plants are so hospitable to worms I might have to move them out of the greenhouse. Out in the garden though there are bigger pests. I was walking through the garden tonight to see if the green beans needed to be watered—since we haven’t had any rain lately (but we did get almost half an inch tonight). The Spanish needle and the October Daisies were looking a little droopy, but the green beans were still strong—at least the ones that I could find. Yes, the top leaves were missing off of some of them and there were hoof marks in the sand. The deer had returned and this time it had found the green beans. UGH! We have some big bright motion lights that I think we shall have to put in the sweet potato bed and the green bean bed—and if that doesn’t work maybe we shall try what an old time gardener told us. String a line of hot wire waist high around the garden, attach some tin foil to it and smear peanut butter on it. When the deer comes along he will lick the peanut butter get a good shock and decide that your garden is unsafe and leave. If all else fails—we might have deer meat on the menu this winter and I will serve it with green beans and sweet potatoes. Gardening would be so easy if all you had to do was plant a seed, water, and harvest!
Please make it HOT!!!!
For months we have been working in our milking parlor without the wires being hot—we had no way to electrify them. Most of the time it isn’t a problem, but when the cows decide that it is their turn they are likely to just barge right through the wire gate and insist that it is their turn to be milked. Now that we have eight calves though and the wire isn’t hot they have just been walking through the wire, unhooking it, stringing it out, letting the cows out and getting out in the yard, and, and, and . . . making a mess and wasting our time. So I started begging for a hot wire charger—and Friday when Papa and I went to town we went by Tractor Supply and got us one. We then spent the afternoon hooking it up and fixing all the hot wire fencing that the calves had unhooked from the stakes—of which some were broken and some were pulled out of the ground. It took a few hours, but in the end the wires were all hot and I was looking forward to contained calves and no barging cows the next morning during milking. When I arrived at the milking parlor Saturday morning the calves were in the milk stalls—on the wrong side of the hot wire and the cows were close to barging. The wire wasn’t hot! Papa had to fix it and that fixed the barging problem, but the calves still manage to jump through the wires. I plan on spacing them closer together tomorrow in order to make it where they cannot climb through the wires without getting shocked. Hopefully we shall get this problem fixed soon—but I do have to admit that it is so cute to see the calves come into the milk stall and pretend to be big cows and eat from the troughs.
I hope that you have a blessed week.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare