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Hi Everyone,
Have you noticed how “Springy” it is outside lately? I am cherishing every bit of sunshine and warm weather. I want to spend every possible moment outside digging in the dirt, listening to the birds sing, and on the warmer evenings hearing the frogs croak in the pond. Every day the fields seem to get greener and greener—some with spring weeds and some with winter grasses that we planted for the cows to eat. With all the rain we got over the last few days it won’t be long before those cows are getting the chance to graze some luscious green grass—and then they shall turn their noses up at the hay and when they come in to milk they will shower us with brown water hoses because the green grass of spring makes for dirty “diaper” if they do not eat enough hay to bind them up. Spring is when I can change my wardrobe to pinks, yellows, lavenders and blues—but I really do not think that cows like pink for they seem to think it looks better with brown polka dots all over it.
In the garden tunnels the broccoli, collards, mustard plants, celery, and spinach are all growing so beautifully. I have never seen mustard leaves as BIG as they are this year—a good two feet long and still tender. The cooler weather has knocked the bugs back considerably, but it sure doesn’t stop the weeds from growing. Here in Florida we always have a weed season and the winter weeds are so lush this year. We pull them and fill five gallon buckets with them and then we feed them to the sheep. They come a running when we call them. It is so cute to watch them get a mouth full of chickweed. Spring weeds really are not that hard to pull up—except for maybe thistle. Due to the rain I was only able to work in the garden last Monday, but last night Mom and I were able to stroll through the garden with basket in hand filling it with fresh broccoli, a head of cabbage, parsley, Swiss chard and a head of lettuce to go with our stew we were having for dinner.
Monday afternoon Papa, Mom and Steve worked in the heifer barn building a new hay rack and putting up a back wall using the fence panels that a hurricane knocked off the back wall of our garden years ago. All the heifers could not get around the old hay rack at the same time and Steve had to pull hay off of the hay roll and stuff it down the side hay racks that Mom built last year. We decided that it was time to change things up a little, so they built a new hay rack and the old ones were disassembled. While they were working at the heifer barn I was busy in the greenhouse rat proofing my second shelfing unit. To my great delight I have a tray full of cabbage seedling and one of lettuce seedlings. I do not know if the half inch hardware cloth is actually working or if the rats have just moved away—or are on maternity leave. Anyway, I hope that the rats have moved far away—but for now I shall find security in the hardware cloth.
Some days cannot possibly get any busier, and last Tuesday was one of those days. Papa always goes to town on Tuesday to get ice, and I needed a few things in town so as soon as I was done milking I quickly bottled the kefir and then Papa and I headed to town. I needed a new hose and sprayer for the greenhouse. My old hose was white and full of green algae, and my old sprayer was ruined in the freezes. I got a dark rubber hose that can handle the heat—and I hope it will work real well. I read the label on the hose though and I had to laugh. It is a “hot water hose”, but it said not to run hot water through it—go figure! Then it said, “When not in use store in your house.” Would you please tell me who stores their hoses in their house? The sprayer is just a typical multi-dial hand sprayer. It will do—but one day maybe I will find that “perfect” greenhouse water wand. I got home from town just in time for the egg packaging party, and then I had to finish making the yogurt. It was going on 4:00 and since Mom, Steve and Papa were once again working on the heifer barn I decided that I would transplant some Florist Ferns that a friend gave me a few years ago. They have been sitting in big clay pots near the milking parlor for the last few years because I didn’t know where to plant them. I finally decided to get an old oblong metal water tank that Papa was using in the barn to store junk in. It had little pin holes in it so I didn’t have to worry about it holding water. While in town earlier that day I bought a few bags of dirt. So I headed outside to the van and backed it up to the milking parlor. I got out and went and opened the back doors and saw the ice chests and remembered that Papa had put the dirt in the side door. So I got back in the van to back the van up further—so I wouldn’t have far to carry the dirt, but when I got in the van and turned around to see behind me I noticed that there was no dirt in the van at all. I then got back out of the van and walked up to the house. There in the garage were my bags of dirt. The golf-cart was broke—so I couldn’t use it to transport the dirt and Mom and the men had the Gravely. I went over to the bags of dirt to see how heavy they were, and while I could get them a few inches off of the ground I knew that I would never be able to carry them all the way over to the milking parlor. So I gave up and went inside and practiced my piano to my heart’s content. It wasn’t until Thursday that Papa was able to cart the bags of dirt over to the milking parlor—and by then the golf-cart was fixed so he just had to load them up and drive them over. I removed Papa’s collection of junk from the metal water tank and took it up to the milking parlor where Mom and I worked together to transplant the ferns—now we can return our friends clay pots!
Thursday afternoon we had two more heifers to deliver to new farmers, and since two heifers were leaving the heifer field it was the perfect timing to wean three more heifers who were almost seven and eight months old and still nursing on their mama’s. We also weaned a nine month old steer so that we could dry up his mama so she could have a break before she calved again in April. Now Papa has one less chore to do every night—separate the calves. The only calf we have left is little Merry, who was born Christmas morning—and she is not for sale!
It is that time of year again when the roses need to be pruned—and as always I still do not own any rose gloves. I only think about them while I am pruning—and once the roses are pruned I do not need them. I do not know where to go to find the perfect rose gloves. I have had leather gloves before—and they are so stiff that you cannot bend your fingers and if you do they rub them raw. Then again—my arms and fingers are pretty raw from thorns when I am done pruning! On Thursday Mom and I pruned on the roses in the front courtyard until the rains drove us inside. Friday we grabbed the pruners again and finished in the front courtyard and then we headed to the garden to prune on those roses. I think that we have over forty roses between the courtyard and the garden—and I love every one of them, even though they do not treat me very nicely during pruning season. We pruned in the garden until once again the rains drove us inside, so I decided to head upstairs to the sewing room and do a little sewing.
Between Thursday, Friday and Saturday we were blessed with close to three inches of rain—well mostly blessed. The grasses sure did need the rain so that they could grow lush and ready for the cows to graze—but the lane washed again and Papa will have to move dirt around to cover the water pipes that are supposed to be buried two feet deep, but are now showing. Rainy afternoons mean that we can do inside work—but I must say that my body screamed for a nap instead and I accommodated it. The morning had been spent milking the cows and packing orders. We were trying our best to get the cows milked before the rains arrived—but we didn’t quite make it. Thankfully it never rained really hard until late in the evening. Wally came over in the morning to grind up some more peanut butter—which has been a very good selling success. Then our old-time farmer friend, Jesse Green, came over and we had a nice visit. He was interested in seeing our new South Poll bull, Jabez, and then after he mentioned that he had never seen a really good looking Jersey bull we took him out to pasture to see our Jersey bull, Dijon. He was pretty impressed—and we are too. Jesse Green raises beef cows, and beef cows are full of muscles—but Jersey cows are usually a little on the bony side for they turn all their fat into milk. When Dijon was born we knew right away that he would make a great bull for our Jersey herd—he has muscles, stocky legs, a sweet disposition, and his mama had a nice large, soft udder. So far he throws some really nice calves, and the first calf he sired, Blossom, will have her first calf this year. I cannot wait to see what her udder will be like.
Papa has already started cleaning up along the fence beside the barn, but Steve will have to help him this week to move a whole pile of glass doors that we bought a few years ago to build a glass greenhouse with one day—soon I hope because the floor is rotting out of our recent greenhouse. Anyway, they need to be moved because the fence needs to come down and everything in the area needs to be relocated because next week the builders will start adding a lean-to on the side of the hay barn so that Papa can store some equipment there. One side of the lean-to will house our new feed room—so we can move the one ton feed totes out of the garage. As always we have another busy week ahead of us and it is time for me to get some sleep so that I am ready for any adventures.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare