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Hi Everyone,
Last week started the same way it did two weeks ago—prepping in anticipation of an approaching hurricane. You really never know where one will hit until it hits (just ask North Carolina residents)—but we typically have an idea of where it is going. Hurricane Milton was predicted to hit Tampa, and in the end it hit just a little south of there—but he gave a powerful punch that still affected Tampa and many of the surrounding areas. While the last two hurricanes came practically over us, we were thankful to have dodged this last one. We are still putting things back together from Hurricane Helene, (we still need chicken houses and we have a lot of tree debris to clean up)—but I am so thankful that we actually still have a farm, a home, our animals and our barns. So many people lost everything during these last two hurricanes.
Milking the cows is a daily adventure—and you never know how it will go. Last Monday when we went out to milk, some cows were walking through the electric fence. Yes, I said walking through the electric fence—which meant that the fence was not on. Papa fixed the problem and we started milking the cows. As we got down to the last six cows Mom told me that “Dolly” was the cow that was going through the fence, then she said that it wasn’t Dolly it was “?”. Yep, she didn’t know who the cow was—but that was because she wasn’t a cow, she was a heifer. Fiesta had escaped from the heifer field and joined up with the milk cows without us knowing. Thankfully she was not in heat, for she is too young to be bred. When we were done milking I headed down field to let the cows and calves out so that they could go to their grazing spot for the day, while Mom kept Fiesta locked up at the milking parlor. Then as I drove back to where the heifers where I closed off a lane so that Fiesta only had one direction to go. Once I reached the heifer field I yelled at Mom to let her go—and thankfully Fiesta followed the grassy green road back to where she belonged. I will admit that keeping the heifers behind the electric fence has been a bit challenging of late.
Monday found us in need of some groceries, and while I spent a few hours shopping in town, Mom and Papa worked on putting the end wall pipes back together after Hurricane Helene had huffed and puffed and pulled the pipes apart—after she broke the screws off. When I got back from shopping we ate lunch and then the rest of the afternoon was spent putting away all the groceries—washing and packaging fruit for better storage.
Later that evening while Mom and I were doing the dinner dishes Papa came in and said that he needed help putting the turkeys to bed—actually he needed help finding the turkeys. Dinner was a little late, and with the sun going to bed earlier, it had gotten dark before he got the turkeys locked up for the night. He didn’t think that it would be a problem because the turkeys are always waiting around their pens at night—but not that night. He had managed to find about 14 of them sleeping alongside the electric fence netting (that wasn’t on). We woke them up with our flashlights and sticks and guided them back to their house. Using a flashlight in the dark is horrible if I may say so myself. I would rather walk around in the dark than have a bunch of bugs flying into my mouth, eyes, ears and nose. With one house locked up, we went in search of the other 11 turkeys. We walked through the pea fields and the through the grass fields—which were both over our knees in height. We checked around the barns and near the garden and milk house, but we just couldn’t find them. I do not know how long we searched—but it was awhile. Then finally Papa called out that he had found them nestled down together in some tall grass. There were only 10 of them though. We could not see anymore, so we figured that we must have lost more than we thought we had. We got the 10 locked up and I headed back inside to help Mom. The next morning when we woke up we noticed a lone turkey walking around in the field where the last 10 were found the night before. Thankfully he survived the night out—it isn’t always safe to be out after dark. When Papa went out to bring in the cows for milking he found another turkey out, and when he came back with the cows he found a third turkey out. He said that we must have had 27 turkeys instead of 25—but I knew that we had lost three turkeys since Steve had moved them to pasture and he put 28 out that day. So I went out to pasture to check the pen, and sure enough they were escaping. The one lone turkey had spent the night out, but the other three (for a third one had found its way out too) were escaping through the back wall of their hoop house. When Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on our hoop houses she had bent up the frame so that the wire that made up the back wall had disconnected itself from the frame—and the turkeys had finally realized that they could climb the walls and escape. Steve and I fixed the wire by wrapping it back around the cattle panel frame and then we had another escape artist to deal with. Bullfrog the Jersey bull, who will replace Dijon, is a little Houdini. If there is a hole in a fence—he will find it, if there isn’t a hole—he will make one, and if the electric fence is not hot he will go over it. Twice last week he escaped and headed back to the heifer field to do some flirting. Thankfully their fence was hot, so Bullfrog was left to walk up and down the lane daydreaming of the girls on the other side of the fence. So Steve and I drove back to where he was and then while Steve turned the Gravely around, I walked Bullfrog back down the lane away from the girls and back to the bull field. He was a little frisky, but he was thankfully respectful. The next day I had to do it again—but this time by myself and I was grateful to be sitting behind the wheel of the Gravely instead of walking behind the bull. We have never had a bull that we have had to fear, they have all been very respectful and laid back. This was my first time really dealing with Bullfrog (besides feeding him) and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Steve tells me that he is pretty laid back too, so that is good. Bullfrog may get to become the herd bull sooner than later because I am starting to notice quite a few cows coming into heat over and over. If it was only one cow, I would say that she has a problem—but multiple cows seem to lean toward Dijon having a problem breeding. So I will give him one more month, and if America and Sally come back into heat, then Dijon will have to be retired.
I shopped on Monday, and it rained all day Wednesday—but I got to work in the garden Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week. Tuesday Steve, Mom and I weeded in the West Garden. Thursday Mom weeded between the Market Garden tunnels and I weeded in the West Garden some more. Then on Friday the Tavernari men folk helped us in the first Market Garden tunnel. They are such a big help. They are literally helping us move mountains—a mountain of compost and a mountain of woodchips. The eight beds are almost ready for planting, and my goal is to have them planted by the end of the week.
Come Saturday I didn’t actually work in the garden—I worked around the garden. When we moved the garden tunnels off of the East and West gardens it allowed the deer to enter and enjoy one of their favorite appetizers—sweet potato leaves. I have booby trapped the sweet potatoes like crazy—and the deer still got in. So a few months back Mom and I rigged up a seven foot tall fence around the East Garden and that worked. I didn’t want to do the West Garden until we could do it properly, but I need to start planting spinach and spring flowers inside the West Garden and the deer are still hopping the short fence to terrorize the one row of sweet potatoes. I couldn’t wait any longer for perfection—it was time to rig again. We didn’t have any more of the fiberglass electric fence rods (we used them all up on the East Garden, so I found some t-posts and started attaching them to the short little hog panel fence using fence clips. The plastic fence that I will be using is four feet tall, so I have four feet of the t-post sticking above the hog panel fence and about two to three feet attached to the hog panel fence. Then I will attach the plastic fencing to the t-posts using zip ties. Later that evening as I was telling my parents how I was fixing the deer problem I made my Papa speechless when he asked how much of the t-post was in the ground—and I said “none”. He turned around and walked off horrified. Mom thinks that it will blow over in a storm—but I am desperate. I need to deer proof this garden now—so it has to work! Planting time is now, not a few months from now, and with everything we have to do on the farm that needs to be done right now—well, this has to be the best for now. Hopefully we will not have any more huffs and puffs that blow fences down. I will reinforce the t-posts with hay string—tying the ones that are hanging on the fence to the ones that are buried in the ground. Mom says that it should help.
We didn’t make deliveries last Wednesday to the JAX area because of Hurricane Milton. We were told that we should be home by 4:30 in the afternoon in order to dodge the winds—and since Papa doesn’t usually get home before 8:00 we decided to postpone the delivery until Friday, because we didn’t know what the weather and damage would be like on Thursday. No delivery on Wednesday and the rain that day allowed for us to have a relaxing Wednesday. Then the weather was absolutely beautiful Thursday and Friday with nice cooler weather and gentle breezes that it was a pleasure to work in the garden. Papa made the deliveries on Friday, and our customers were glad that they didn’t have to drive in all the nasty weather.
This morning as I was heading to the house from the milking parlor I heard a noise that I hear every October—the Phoebe bird call. They arrive hear every October, and I was blessed to hear their call this morning. They arrived a little later than they have the last few years—or maybe I just haven’t paid any attention. This morning though I was quiet and they were singing! It is October for sure.
We have a Farm Tour next Saturday from 11:00 to 1:00—we will give you a hayride tour around the farm! Bring your family and friends!
In three weeks we are having our Fall Farm to Table Dinner—the food is scrumptious, as all farm fresh food should be! You will not want to miss it.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare