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Hi Everyone,
When tragedy strikes there are a few things that really help you move on from the trial:
1. Knowing that God is in control. It took me a few days to realize just how merciful God was when lightning killed two of our milk cows. Yes, some may say that God could have prevented the lightning from killing our cows, and that is true—but the truth of the matter is that God could have allowed that lightning to kill all of our cows and we would have been out of the milk business over night. That thought was so sobering to me when I grasped the full extent of how merciful God really was. Sometimes I may think that as the daughter to aging parents that it is my responsibility to figure out how to keep the farm going in the future—but the death of those two cows taught me a valuable lesson in that it was God who called us to be farmers, it will be God who grants us the wisdom, strength and help to continue to be farmers, and if God so chooses at any moment, God could decide that He no longer wants us to be farmers. We are farmers by the grace of God, and we will be farmers as long as HE so chooses.
2. Hearing how others suffered through the same trial. Swapping stories with other farmers is nothing new. It can be encouraging to know that you are not alone, and that the trials you face others face also. As I was sharing with another farmer last week about the loss of our two cows, she shared with me that the lightning hit their ground and killed 70 of their chickens. Another friend who gardens shared with me how the hail storm demolished her garden. Vegetables that were almost ripe (but not ready to eat) we destroyed when quarter size hail poked holes all in them. These are just the stories I have heard, I am sure that there are many more for the storm was pretty bad and covered a large area.
3. An ounce of humor! In Isaiah 61:3 we read that God promises to give us the “oil of joy for mourning”. Behind every cloud the sun is shining! We had a BIG laugh Monday morning as I headed from the house to the milk house to set up the milking equipment. As I was walking across the yard I saw that our bull Milkyway was stretching over the fence in order to eat the grass which was greener and taller on the other side of the fence. I was yelling at him to stop—but like a dog whose nose in on a scent; the bull paid me no attention. So I set down the basket of cow towels and the metal bucket I was carrying and began to walk over to the gate to shoo the bull away. I hadn’t gotten very far before the bull made a slight step backward and stepped on Aliya’s paw and she yelped. Since Aliya had too much of an appetite for chickens we decided to let her guard the bulls in order to learn some respect. They are getting along very nicely—they are big enough to play with her and she cannot hurt them, and she is usually quick enough to dodge them. Anyway, when Aliya yelped it scarred Milkyway and he jumped—but since he was leaning over the fence I watched as he actually summersaulted right over the top of the fence. How I wish that I had a camera rolling. It was hilarious to see the bull roll over the fence and land on his back with his feet in the air and then roll on over and get up on the outside of the fence. Boy was he happy! I picked up speed in hopes to get to the gate and shoo him back into the field before he got too far away, and Mom who had come outside because she heard me yelling at the bull quickly called Papa who was fixing breakfast to come help. I got the gate open before Milkyway got too far away—but he had no intentions of going back in the field for the grass was pretty good on this side of the fence. I opened the gate wider and we all circled around Milkyway and were able to herd him back to the gate just as the other bulls were fixing to come out. In the end Mom had to fix breakfast instead of helping me set up the milking equipment while Papa moved the bulls to a different (and greener) pasture. We have so many fences that need to be redone and now we have one more to add to the list—the fence around the yard that the bull has smashed almost to the ground.
Last week Mom and Steve worked at putting posts in the ground for the vineyard. Mom and Papa mowed, Steve moved chicks from the brooder to the pasture, and I spent another week in the kitchen making salves and canning the fruit of our labors. The celery is in great abundance in the garden and I want to preserve it to the best of my abilities. All the leaves I put in the dehydrator so that I can add them to stock when I make it—when celery is not growing in the garden it is one vegetable that is hard to keep on hand in the fridge when you only go to the grocery store every six weeks or so. So having dehydrated celery leaves on hand is very—handy. The next question was how to preserve the stalks for long term use. I had seen a recipe for canned cream of celery soup and thought that I would do that—but then I realized that I really do not cook with cream of celery soup. I do make a lot of chicken noodle soup though and the base is celery and onions—so why not can up a bunch of celery and onions? I spent hours Monday afternoon harvesting the celery, washing the celery, separating the celery leaves from the stalks, and cutting them up. Once I had nine cups of celery then I had to cut up onions—and that is where those 6 inch diameter sweet onions came in BIG handy. I just had to cut up two of them to get 8 cups of onions. Then I sautéed them in butter and then it was time for us to pick up our Azure order so I placed the pot in the fridge to be finished up the following day.
With our egg production so low we have been having to package eggs twice a week. Therefore, we only had three buckets of eggs to package last Tuesday instead of the normal seven so we didn’t bring in the family that usually helps us package eggs every Tuesday. The original plans was that we would eat lunch just as soon as Steve was done in the milk house and then we would all (Papa, Mom, Steve and I) package the eggs. Milking went really smooth that morning and with two less cows to milk we were done a little earlier. I knew that I didn’t have time to can the celery and onions so I used the time to finish making the Virus Salve and the Relief Salve. Mom headed out to mow. Then Papa headed out to mow, and then Steve took the chicks out to pasture. I realized that I would have had time to can the celery and onions—because evidently there was a change of plans. That time was gone now so I tried my best to use my time as wisely as I could. I answered emails, I made a list of which people wanted green lettuce and which people wanted red lettuce, I folded laundry and I figured out what to eat for lunch (rice cereal with the left over rice from dinner the night before). Then the yogurt needed to be made and everyone came in for lunch. After lunch we all headed to the milk house to package eggs, and then Mom and Steve headed to the garden to bury some more wooden posts and I headed to the garden to harvest lettuce and collards for the JAX delivery. Then I came inside and canned up the celery and onions. They turned out really nice, and Wednesday night I made a batch of Chicken Noodle soup with one jar and it tasted really good and actually made making the soup go much faster.
Come Thursday I had another canning project underway—Beef Stew. There were some carrots left from the spring harvest and I wanted to use them to can some beef stew—for the beef stew would also use some celery and onions from the garden. My goal was fourteen jars, but I only thawed out enough stew meat to fill up twelve jars—and we barely had enough carrots to fill up all twelve jars. I had more than enough celery, and the extra celery I just placed in a glass jar and filled it with water. If you give it fresh water about once a week the celery will last for a good six weeks or so. Celery sticks with sunflower butter and raisins has become my go to snack of late. When we were done milking Thursday morning it wasn’t raining yet so Mom and Steve headed to the garden, and I worked in the kitchen peeling carrots. The carrots that were left were mostly 2 to 4 inches long, and it took forever to peel them. I persevered and the job got done and after lunch the rains moved in off and on and while Papa and Steve cleaned out the drainage pipes from the milking parlor, Mom helped me to can the beef stew. We filled the jars with the beef, and then we added some cubed white sweet potatoes, a handful of carrots, ad handful of celery and a handful of onions. We then topped the jar off with a teaspoon of salt and filled it up with boiling water. Once they were in the canners Mom watched the canner in the pantry, and I watched the canner in the kitchen and got the celery leaves on the dehydrator and cooked dinner.
Friday we had a customer come to the farm for some milk and his wife and her niece took a liking to our courtyard flower garden. Then they wanted to see the vegetable garden, so Mom and I took them out to show them the gardens. They left with some rose snips, marigold seeds, and some lemon balm for a hot cup of tea. Sharing the garden with others is one of my greatest joys—especially sense so much in the garden are plants that were shared with us. When they left we ate lunch and then Papa worked outside and Mom and I worked in the kitchen canning the red potatoes that we had harvested a few weeks ago—but before we started on the potatoes Mom and I jumped in the golf-cart and headed up on the hill where the Jersey cows were to check on America. She had been acting a little uncomfortable when she was up at the milking parlor that morning, so we were pretty sure that she was in labor. When we reached her we were welcomed by her and her little calf. During milking that morning, Mom had asked me what I wanted America to have. I told her that I really wasn’t sure. I only have one heifer from her, and her name is Liberty. Poor Liberty has some breathing issues due to an accident when she was three days old, so we are not sure if she will be able to carry a calf or not. We are thinking that if we breed her so that she calves in the winter that it should help a lot. Liberty is the sweetest calf, and I really want her to be a good milk cow like her mama. America is my pet—and she is most lovable and gives a good amount of milk. So, I thought that it would be nice to have another girl from her—but I couldn’t come up with a Patriotic name for a girl. I couldn’t come up with a name for a boy either—so I was kind of neutral to what she would have. Mom said that we could name it Red—as in Red, White and Blue. I laughed and said that she would have to have a bull in order to name it Red. Well, when we saw America’s little calf it was all red just like her—and when I picked up its back leg to see if it was a boy or a girl . . . I saw that it was a bull named Red! Red won’t get to stick around very long—just a week to be exact. A family has been patiently waiting for a bull calf to be born so that they can bottle raise it with the excess milk that their cow is giving them. The good news is that Lord willing I will have the joy of milking America for the next ten months and we shall all benefit from her milk.
When we made it back to the house we got right on the potatoes. The potatoes were much easier than the celery and onions and the beef stew—or was it that I had help? Mom did most of the peeling and I chopped the potatoes and filled the jars. Mom then covered them with water and prepared them for the canners. We managed to fill 16 pint jars and 7 quart jars. To our dismay 3 of the pint jars busted in the canner, so we lost all of that work. We should be able to finish the rest of the potatoes in one or two days—depends on how much help we get. It is supposed to be rainy tomorrow, and that makes for a good day to spend peeling potatoes in the kitchen.
Saturday’s are usually our days to sleep in until 7:00—although we don’t always sleep till 7:00, but if we can we do. We had a lot to do Saturday so I was grateful that I woke up a little before 6:00 and was able to get up and get ready for the day and spend a little bit of time in the Bible before I headed outside at 6:30. The lettuce was at its peak of perfection and needed to be harvested along with some collards that were needed for the Gainesville delivery that afternoon. As I headed out I was treated to the BIG red sun peaking up over the trees—it was at just the stage that you can look at it and enjoy it. The weather was perfect outside! I got back to the milk house and got the veggies into the cooler and then I began to get everything set up for milking. I barely got started before Mom came over to tell me that breakfast was done. Once breakfast was over I took care of the last minute orders, and then I headed back to the milk house to put together the milking equipment. Once that was done I twist-tied the bags of lettuce shut. I then headed back inside and helped Mom get some baby shower gifts wrapped and some cards made. Then it was time to milk. To my delight Bella’s mastitis had cleared up and we were able keep her milk. We had planned on using her for a nurse cow—but kept forgetting to separate her with two calves. I guess in this case procrastination paid off. Once we were done milking Mom worked on packing the order and I bottled kefir. Then I helped finish packing. Mom and Papa packaged up the extra eggs that were needed and I finished up the receipts. Then Mom helped wash a few of the dishes because Mrs. Penny was too sick to come to work. At 12:45 Mom and I scrambled out of the house and headed to our church for a Baby Shower. We got home around 5:00 and Papa was out installing the new electrical fence energizer and making sure it was working. He soon came inside and we all relaxed for a little bit before Papa headed outside to do the evening chores and I got all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Then I cooked dinner and was grateful for Farmers Fast Food! You can get dinner on the table in fifteen minutes if you broil steaks, and heat up a home canned jar of green beans and one of potatoes. I took a little longer to cook the dinner though because I made a salad—but I did have dinner done in thirty minutes.
I know that I shall be spending some time in the kitchen this week finishing up the potatoes—but after two weeks inside I am starting to bite at the bit to get back to the garden. Weeds are taking over, and I have a tray of lettuce to transplant out, another tray to start and it is time to plant zinnias in the tunnels. I’ll tell you how it all goes next week.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare