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Hi Everyone,

               We didn’t get to go to church today because . . . well it is a long story and I guess I had better start from the very beginning. Last Sunday we knew that a possible hurricane was heading our way. No one knew how strong it would become, but some weather watchers were predicting that it would be a major hurricane due to the fact that the waters in the Gulf of Mexico were very hot. The original path of the storm was projected to go right over us. So Monday and Tuesday were spent battening down the hatches here on the farm.

Monday morning started bright and early for us as we had collected five rams the night before and Papa had to have them at the butcher by 8:00—a forty minute drive from our house. When Papa arrived with the sheep he was greeted with the message that they could not take the sheep due to the approaching storm and the possibility of losing electricity. So Papa came home with our five rams and dropped them off in a back field. When milking was done Mom and Papa spent the day cleaning out the drain field from the milking parlor. Manure and sand clogs it up and once in a while it has to be cleaned out. We were expecting anywhere from 2 to 10 inches of rain with the storm and that water had to have some place to go instead of backing up into the milking parlor. The tractor was used to move the muck until the tire on the tractor went flat—which caused a postponement of some of the storm prep. I needed some groceries—water to make kombucha being on my list. With an approaching storm I wasn’t sure if I would even find water on the shelves—but Praise the Lord there was plenty. I ended up getting seven gallons, but I had no time Monday or Tuesday to make the kombucha, and by the time the storm hit on Wednesday I was afraid to use the water to make kombucha just in case we needed it to drink or cook with.

When I got back from town we ate lunch and then I headed to the garden. It was Monday and the sweet potatoes needed to be trimmed back and I needed to plant green beans. Since a storm was coming I also needed to harvest the ripe pumpkins before they split due to too much water. I decided to start with the pumpkins, but when I got to the pumpkin patch a devastating picture caught my eye. I no longer had to wonder where the pumpkins were (for they had been hidden in the leaves), for green worms by the thousands had consumed almost every leaf of the pumpkin vines—and now they were starting on the pumpkins. I decided to go back to the West Garden Tunnel and take care of the sweet potatoes and plant the green beans. Trimming the sweet potatoes was the easy part. In order to plant the green beans I had to first do a quick weeding of the rows, and then I had to empty some of the compost dirt out of the back of Papa’s truck and put it in the rows. Once that was done I broadforked the rows, and then I leveled the dirt and ran the tilther over the rows to make them light and fluffy. Then I used my zipper tool and opened up a row to plant the beans in and then I ran the tool back over the row and zipped the dirt shut over the bean seeds. A little rain shower had been showering down on us all afternoon—but thankfully not too hard to halt our work. When I was done with the green beans I drove the truck up to the barn and with Papa’s help we shoveled the rest of the dirt into a large wheelbarrow and parked it in the back of the barn in order to keep it dry. I then grabbed Mom and we headed to the pumpkin patch to rescue the pumpkins. We harvested 15 pumpkins, but we left three pumpkins behind because they were consumed with little green worms. The 15 pumpkins had some worms on them and we just had to wipe them off and then we rinsed them off to make sure we got them all. We then took them to the barn and laid them out on the drying racks in the back of the barn.

All day Tuesday we prepped the farm for the arrival of Hurricane Idalia. The porch furniture was taken to the Poultry Kitchen, and so were the 14 young and tender Ponderosa lemon trees that I had just potted up the week before. As we drove around securing this and that we always had our eyes open for what might blow away. Papa put t-posts alongside the chicken hoop houses and tied them down, and both duck houses were securely anchored too. The cows were moved to a field closer to the house and milking parlor. Papa told everyone that we wrapped the barn in Velcro and stuck the sheep to it so that they wouldn’t blow away. The gas tanks were filled, and Papa had to fix the small generator that runs our well. The tractor tire got fixed after lunch and then Papa was able to move the cow shelter to their new field and he emptied the manure spreader before it got flooded. We chose not to separate the calves for the night thinking that the calves would feel more secure if they were with their mama’s. We knew that it would mean less milk—but the health of the calves came first. As the day came to a close Idalia had been classified as a Category 1 Hurricane, and was predicted to become a Category 4 Hurricane before it made land fall. The path she was expected to take was no longer right over us—but about an hour west of us. We went to bed not knowing what the next day would bring forth, but knowing that we had done what we could and that God was in control.

We got up at 6:00 Wednesday morning and Idalia was expected to make land fall at 8:00. It was windy and rainy outside—but it was only going to get worse, so at 6:45 Mom decided that it would be best if we went and milked the cows before the worst arrived. When we walked outside there were two extra vehicles in our yard. Our workers Steve and Penny live in an old mobile home with lots of old trees surrounding it—and they didn’t feel safe there, so at 5:30 they came over to the farm. We had given them the day off so we really didn’t expect to see them, but we were glad that we could be of help to them. Mom and I had filled the feed cans up the night before so that we didn’t have to do that in the rain. Papa brought in the cows, while Mom and I set up the equipment. The milking parlor has tarps that can be pulled open or pulled shut—and with the blowing rain we closed them. The misty rain still blew through the parlor (for there are no tarps for the middle section). In order to keep my cows udders dry I had to hang a big towel behind my cow. As we sat there milking the cows, the weather got worse and worse. I watched as the plastic on the green house began to rip loose and then peeled back. I had fresh seedling in the greenhouse and I feared that I would lose them all. By 8:00 the electricity began to flicker on and off—and then it stayed off. A little while later the generator clicked on and we were back in business—though we had no water for the time being. The well is on a different power line and therefore we have to hook another generator up to it separate from the generator that runs the house, the milking parlor, milk house and walk in coolers and freezers. When we finished milking we waited for a lull in the rain so that we could transport the milk tanks into the milk house so that Steve could bottle the milk. Papa headed to the barn to pick up the generator with the tractor and take it down to the well so that we could have water to wash the milking equipment and cook breakfast. Mom and I cleaned up in the milking parlor and I headed out in the wind and rain to put the cows back. At one point the rain was blowing so fiercely that it was stinging my lips and I had to turn my head to keep my face safe. The cows were starting to get a little frantic, and instead of going through the gate they ran to the other end of the field they were in—their shelter was in the field on the other side of the gate though. I called and called but they headed on—so I followed in order to let them out through the hot wire lane opening. I got there and they turned around and ran back to the other end of the field by the milking parlor. Poor Emma was hobbling along after them not knowing which way to go. Mom came out in the rain to help me, and we finally got them to go through the gate—but by this time Emma had given up and had taken refuge under the roof of the hay rack. I called her, but she wouldn’t come—so I started to head inside. We got almost to the milking parlor when Emma decided to head back out into the rain in order to join her cow buddy’s. We were totally soaked by the time we got Emma put back. We headed inside to get some dry clothes and to fix breakfast. We told Steve and Penny that once the milk was bottled to come inside for breakfast. As we were fixing breakfast it was very hard to keep our mind on cooking—for all the cows were frantically running around in their field. Aliyah had gotten out and at first we thought she was chasing them—but Papa put her back and the cows were still running around. We then realized that the metal on the barn roof was flapping and flying off. We lost five panels off of the hay barn, which caused some of the fresh rolls of hay that we had just put in there a few weeks before to get wet. After breakfast Mama and Papa had to go to the barn and put a tarp over the hay to keep it dry. The other thing that distracted us while we were cooking breakfast was that the plastic on the East Garden Tunnel was taking in air and attempting to fly away—but it was so securely attached to the frame of the tunnel that it was picking the pipes up with it. So Mama sent Papa back out in the wind and rain to go and cut the plastic loose from the frame. Damage was already done—but it could have been worse. The pipes are secured by slipping them over a piece of rebar in the ground—but the wind picked up the pipes and the rebar’s stuck into the pipes which means we now have to re-measure where each pipe is supposed to go. The West tunnel was a little more secure and the plastic didn’t flap as bad. The pipes still were picked up—but at least the rebar stayed in the ground. The wind was pretty strong for when Steve tried to pick up the pipe to put it back on the rebar he found it impossible because the pipe is attached to so much structure. The wind was pretty strong that morning for we watched the wind speed progress from steady 15 mph to a steady 30 mph, to a wind gust of 47 mph. We finally did get breakfast cooked and the oatmeal, eggs, and broth tasted real good after a hard mornings work. Steve and Penny then went back to the milk house to wash up the equipment and Mama and I did the breakfast dishes. I decided to head upstairs to the sewing room to finish a dress that I had started—I wanted to make the best use of my “down” time and with the generator going I could still use my sewing machine. Our neighbor that bought the 1915 house with us stopped by after the worse of the storm had passed to share the details of what all he had seen in his driving around. Here on our farm we only have trees in the chestnut orchard and on the part that borders the road—so tree damage is usually not very much for us. We did manage to have some tree damage in the chestnuts though. The 1915 house is surrounded by large oak and pecan trees—or should I say was (or maybe it still is for the trees are still surrounding the house—just in the horizontal position instead of the vertical). The pecans are still standing, but four of the oaks came crashing down. One just barely missed the house—though the tips of its branches are resting on the roof. The old barn had a huge oak on either side of it—one fell toward the house and the other fell away from the barn taking out the side of the barn. I told Mama that we had bought a “Fixer Upper”, and now we had more fixing up to do. To see the damage that Idalia caused you can check out our pictures on our Facebook page: Shepherd’s Hill Farm.

It was close to 2:00 before it calmed down enough outside for Papa to go out and feed and water the chickens and let them out to roam for the day. The rest of the day was uneventful. We had cancelled our deliveries to JAX—so it really didn’t feel like a Wednesday. It was late afternoon before I realized that it was Wednesday and that I had forgotten to cancel piano lessons—but that was okay for with the storm they forgot that it was Wednesday too! We did separate the calves Wednesday night in order to get more milk to fill the orders. We had ran our house AC all day—but every time it clicked on or the freezer unit to the walk-ins clicked on there was a power surge and the computer and the stove would turn off. So we decided not to run the AC in the house anymore until we got power back. We also realized that the generator that was running the house, milk house, walk-ins and milking parlor only had a full 3 day supply of propane. So to conserve on propane we decided to turn it off at night time. Since the AC was down the week before—and I survived I thought that all would be well. Then I realized that when the generator was turned off everything was off—including my ceiling fan. Thankfully the weather had been cool and cloudy and we had run the AC all day—so that evening really wasn’t that bad. We got up and dressed and read our Bibles by 21st Century candlelight—aka Olight Flashlights. If you have never experienced the brightness of an Olight flashlight you haven’t experienced a real flashlight. It can light up a whole room bright enough so that you can read. We turned the generator on at 7:00 so that we could start breakfast and set up to milk. Once breakfast was over then Papa brought in the cows to be milked and turned on the generator at the well so that we would have running water. We turned the water on twice a day—morning so that we could milk and wash the milking equipment and evening so that the animals waters could be filled, we could cook dinner, and get showers. Both times I washed as much laundry as I could before the water was turned off, and at night I had to make sure it was dried before the electric was turned off for the night.

Thursday was a beautifully sunny day—but hot. We spent the day putting things back and fixing the greenhouse before it rained again so that my seedlings wouldn’t get drowned. The first thing to move out of storage was the 14 Ponderosa lemon trees. I needed to take them out to the garden so that they could be regularly watered until they are big enough to sell—but in order to get to the concrete pad we had to either weed a bunch (for one of the entrances was so overgrown you couldn’t get into the garden) or we would have to clip back some grapevines in order to get through the grape arbor entrance. We decided to trim back the grapevines. We got the trees all lined up in the middle of the concrete pad in the garden, and the next day when I was going around taking pictures of the hurricane damage I found  that something had dug up half of the lemon trees. Some of the trees were lying over, and a lot of the dirt was piled on the ground around the pots. I was dumb founded at first and just wanted to walk away from the mess. Then on second thought I decided to take care of the mess and repot the trees.

The second thing we put back was the four week old broiler chicks. Mama did not deem them big enough to weather a storm so on Tuesday all 70 of them were gathered up and returned to the brooder. Thankfully they only had to spend one day there because they really are too big for the brooder—and it is too hot in the brooder for them. Once they were happily out to pasture we took a break for lunch. Then we started on the greenhouse. The plastic on the greenhouse was torn up, so we grabbed the plastic that Papa had cut off of the garden tunnel and cut a section of it off to fit the greenhouse. The old plastic was held on by screws, but in order to attach the new piece of plastic we attached some channel locks to the bottom of the sides of the greenhouse and then we used wiggle wires to connect the plastic to it. It made for a very nice and secure roof on the greenhouse.

Once the greenhouse project was over it was time for Steve to go home. I worked on orders—for our delivery day had been changed from Wednesday to Friday. Papa headed to town to go to the bank and get ice—but the ice houses were not working. Then he had to get alfalfa pellets for the cows. Then he had to go and get more gas for the generator at the well—we had used our stash of gas all up. First he had to find a gas station that was open—had electricity and could therefore pump gas. In the meantime Mama and I decided to go bring in the calves so that Papa wouldn’t have to do that later. I got dinner cooked, and after we ate Papa left again to find some ice. We desperately needed to have ice in order to keep the dairy products chilled during delivery. It took Papa well over an hour to find enough ice. Most places had none—then some places had a few bags, and finally the last place he went which was over twenty minutes from the house had plenty of ice. It was well after dark by the time Papa got home, and then he needed to lock up the birds and finish gathering the eggs. Mama had managed to lock up one house of chickens and gather their eggs before it got too dark. It had been a long hard day, and we were all exhausted—but evidently we were not so exhausted that we could sleep under any conditions. It was after 10:00 that night by the time everyone had their showers and Papa could turn off the water and electric. When we climbed into our beds we knew right away that something had to change. The air was suffocating! I climbed out of bed immediately and opened up my bedroom windows (thankfully they still had screens for most of the house windows do not have screens due to the cats hanging on them). The north window didn’t help at all, but as soon as I opened up the east window I got a nice breeze. The wind came and went—but it was better than nothing. The next morning I heard my parents alarm clocks go off for ever and ever. I got up and got ready for the day and when I headed to the kitchen at 6:40 I noticed that they were not in their bed. They were not in the living room either—or the kitchen. I checked the front porch—but that door was still locked so I knew that they were not there. I found them sleeping on the back porch! They had tried to open their bedroom windows—but there was no breeze. They had tried the living room—but it was hot too. Papa said that if he had a bed he would sleep on the porch. The front porch had no air flow either, so they tried the back—and life was grand except they had no bed. So at 2:30 Papa went over to the Poultry kitchen, where all the porch furniture had been safely tucked away from the storm, and he retrieved the furniture cushions. They grabbed their pillows and some blankets and tried their best to get some sleep. Our twenty ducks live in a portable hoop house in the backyard—which at this time was not too far off the back porch. They tried to help Mama and Papa to get some sleep by singing them lullabies—but Mama and Papa considered it noise instead of soothing music to sleep by. All in all they had a very restless night.

On Tuesday I knew that I needed to make some more chicken broth—for we were running low, but I had waited too long. I was afraid to make it Tuesday night just in case the power went off in the middle of the night. Yes, the generator would click on—but the oven wouldn’t turn back on and the broth would spoil. I couldn’t make it Wednesday because the storm was upon us. Then we turned the power off overnight so I couldn’t make it while we slept, and if I made it during the day time it would be too hot to put in the cooler without the power on to cool the cooler down. Thursday morning we drank the last of the broth, but I wasn’t concerned because we had some homemade canned beef broth that we could use. Friday morning I was put in charge of breakfast while Papa and Mama did other things. I opened up a jar of the beef broth and turned it on. Then I was cracking the eggs when the broth came to a slight simmer. I turned off the burner and took the pot of broth off the burner and then I remembered that Papa always left the pot on the burner after he turned it off, and I thought that it would be a good idea too. So I set it back on the burner and went back to cracking eggs. Then to my horror I heard “Old Faithful” erupt. I looked and saw the pot of broth explode up in the air and land all over the stove and the surrounding countertops. Yes, I screamed! There was a little over three cups of broth in the pot, and the explosion had emptied all but about a half a cup out of the pot. We had not turned the water on yet, so all we could do was grab towel after towel and rag after rag until we got it all sopped up. Mama even had to pull the stove out a little bit to get behind it the best she could (she couldn’t get what had made its way to the floor). It was the second mess that morning, for when Papa turned the generator back on the ice maker on the front of the refrigerator shot water out across the room. We were starting our day off just grand! The rest of the morning went smoothly and we got the cows all milked. Thankfully the stress of the storm did not affect the egg production of the chickens, but the stress of the storm did cause two of our cows to get mastitis—that we are still working to clear up. Penelope is being a good girl and is eating her medicinal strength minerals, but Blossom doesn’t want anything to do with taking her minerals, and isn’t too happy about having to have her sore udder milked out.

We lost our phone Wednesday morning and got it back Friday morning—but we still didn’t have our electricity back. The propane on the generator was getting low, and although we were on the list to get it refilled we hadn’t seen the truck yet. Friday afternoon I drove around the farm and the 1915 house to take pictures of the damage, and we started to see electrical trucks in our area. I got my hopes up and started to pray that we would have power back before Papa got home from deliveries. It was 7:00 that evening and all of a sudden it got quite—and the lights stayed on. We had our power back, and the generator had gone to sleep. For three days we had listened to our generator and our neighbors generators—and I was grateful that we had them even though they were noisy. The propane tank only had 30% left before it would be empty—just enough to make it two more days, but thankfully we didn’t need it. It was after 7:30 before Papa got home. The well must be unplugged from the power pole and plugged into the generator in order for us to get water— but neither Mama nor I knew how to switch it back. About 5 minutes before Papa got home we ran out of water, because the generator had run out of gas. So when Papa got home it was the first thing I had him go do while I finished cooking dinner. When dinner was done I put a pot of chicken backs and the trimmings in a stock pot in the oven so that it could cook overnight and we would have more chicken broth come morning.

Everything was back to normal Saturday, and I was looking forward to making some kombucha and resting. Mama was starting to have some health issues from too much sweating (non stop for close to 3 days) and not enough sleep—so she was looking forward to a restful afternoon too. That was not to be though for as we sat at the computer we noticed a trail of ants running down the baseboard from the front door to the corner of the living room. So—for the next so many hours I vacuumed inside and Mama fought them outside with dawn dish soap, a shovel, a bucket and lots of water. When Papa came home from the Gainesville deliveries the living room was all torn apart. That night Papa couldn’t sleep and headed outside to get some fresh air—and found the ants swarming on the porch piling dirt up in the concrete cracks of the porch. So at 2:00 in the morning Papa was fighting ants with a bottle of Dawn dish soap and a water hose.

So why didn’t we make it to church today . . . because when Mama called the man who built the lean-to on our hay barn to see if he could please fix the roof before we lost our hay, and before we got more delivered—the only time he had to do it was Sunday (today), and he couldn’t bring his crew with him so he needed Papa to help him. He arrived at 9:30 this morning and they finished about 12:30. So the hole in the hay barn roof is patched, and the greenhouse is patched. Now we just need to put the garden tunnels back together and clean up all the downed trees.

We realize that we were really blessed during the storm. We had very little damage, and our electricity was back on within 3 days. We really were just inconvenienced for a few days. God knew just how much we could handle, and He faithfully supplied our needs. Other farmers that we know are still without power, and they had much more damage to roofs and structures—and they even lost some of their livestock. I know how hard it was for us those three days that my heart really goes out to them for they are not expected to have power for at least two weeks. Keeping those generators going is no cheap task. Some people even lost their homes. So yes, we were very blessed and we have no room to complain because life was just a little inconvenient for a few days. We thank you all for your prayers and phone calls to check on us. I think that I just wrote a book—but there was so much to share.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare