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Hi Everyone,
If it can break . . . it is. Last Sunday we didn’t make it to church because when we headed down the driveway in the van we noticed that the van was making a pretty strange knocking sound. Since our church is an hour away we decided not to chance it and stayed home. The next day Papa took the van down to our mechanic and the diagnosis came back that the engine was failing. It was knocking high and low. The high part could be fixed, but the low part could not. With over 300,000 miles on the van it is no surprise that the engine is wearing out. A new engine is not in the budget just yet--because hay, property taxes, and car insurance are—so the decision was made to put on what I will call an engine Band-Aid. It was also found that one of the tires was so bad that the metal was exposed—so a new set of tires was a must.
In the meantime, life on the farm was becoming very challenging. The golf-cart has had a broken axel for a few months—so it was jacked up in the garage. The Gravely is in the shop, the van was in the shop, and once the morning chores were done in the truck, Papa had to go to town in the truck—which left us without transportation on the farm. Thankfully as soon as milking was done I loaded into the truck all the gardening equipment that I would need and took it to the garden. I thought that I had everything under control. I had the rakes, the broadfork, the tilther, the gridders, the weed buckets—but then I realized that I needed buckets of compost (that were way over in the Market Garden area) and I needed all my seed trays full of snapdragons (which were in the greenhouse at the house). I didn’t know how to get all of that transported to the garden—and I didn’t have a horse and wagon, but Steve did have his truck and I was grateful that he was willing to use it. We had 120 garlic cloves to plant—we really had over 200 but the bed would only hold 120. Then for the first time I was planting ranunculus—a really pretty dainty spring flower. I ordered 100 of those little “spider” looking crowns. I needed too plant spinach seeds—but decided to wait until Monday (tomorrow), because I also had over 70 snapdragon plants to transplant out and I just didn’t have enough time to plant garlic, ranunculus, snapdragons and spinach. We got all but the spinach planted, but Steve had to leave before we were done. Thankfully I had taken the old-fashioned two-wheeled cart out to the garden. We had Steve put all the big gardening tools away, and then we just had to carry all the little stuff back up in the cart—which was a big balancing act.
Tuesday was a long day. Mom and I got the milking done, and Papa got his morning chores done—and then I had to go get the heifers and put them in the panel pens because the vet was coming. With no vehicles to use I had a lot of walking to do—it is good exercise, and it really wasn’t that bad. Once the heifers were gathered it wasn’t long before the vet arrived. We had some heifers that needed their horns cut off, a young heifer that needed to be pregnancy tested (thankfully it was negative for she is only seven months old), then we had a few calves that needed some attention because they got pneumonia from the hurricanes. Life and Death, it is the beginning and ending of all on earth, but as farmers it is a reality that we see often. Calves and lambs are born—some live for many years and once in a while some have a very short life span. We do not know what tomorrow may hold—for our animals or ourselves, but we know the One who holds tomorrow in His hands—the Lord Almighty, the Creator God.
Once the vet left we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the garden. Mom and Steve had to finish covering the garlic and ranunculus beds with compost—and the spinach bed so that it would be ready for planting. I had roselles to harvest for a customer and for our chef so that she could make some roselle jam to go on the cream puffs for our Farm to Table dinner dessert. Mom and I also worked on harvesting some of the sweet potatoes for our chefs needed them to make sweet potato stacks for the Welcome Table at our dinner. When we came in I put dinner in the oven and headed for a shower. Later while I was finishing up dinner, one of Papa’s work buddies stopped by to tell Papa that someone they used to work with had passed away over the weekend. Mr. Miller was the Senior Geologist when Papa started working for the Phosphate mine back in 1979, they even carpooled to work. Years later Mr. Miller was early retired and Papa became the Senior Geologist. Then eleven years ago Papa was early retired and the company decided they didn’t need a geologist—but that is okay, for we needed a farmer!
After dinner that night I had sixty emails to answer—for I had spent the last two days outside instead of answering emails as they came in. So before I could make the receipts for the Jacksonville delivery I had to first answer all the emails and put the orders in. Mom and Papa had to go pick up our van—which was thankfully up and running again. Then Papa had to finish his evening chores and go to town to get ice for packing the coolers. Mom had all the dishes to do. The question was: “Who would finish everything they needed to do first?” Mom was the winner, and I finished just minutes before Papa walked in the house finished with all his chores and errands.
Wednesday morning was spent packing the orders and milking the cows. Then I made some kombucha and bottled the batch that had been brewing. I had to make sure it was done in time because it is used to make the Roselle Kombucha Mule (mocktail) for our dinners. My piano student had been gone for the last two weeks, but she returned for lessons on Wednesday. Then I had a few hours of relaxing before Mom and I headed to town to find some pumpkins and flowers to decorate the tables and entrance to our “Barn Dining Hall”. We got home just minutes before night was to arrive so Mom and I quickly headed out to pasture to separate the calves and lock up the turkeys. While we were getting the calves, Dijon the Jersey bull, left the field and headed up the lane to the panel pens where we lock the calves up at night. By the time Mom and I had the calves in the lane we could hear Dijon moaning and groaning and bellowing like an angry bull. Mom stayed at the field while I herded the calves up the lane. As we got closer to the panel pens Dijon’s bellowing grew louder and louder and the calves were not too sure about going to bed. With a little bit of encouragement I managed to get them into the panel pens, and I found out what Dijon’s problem was. The cattle chute where we dehorned the heifers is in the panel pens and Dijon saw the horns and smelled the blood and decided to take revenge on the cattle chute. I just stood back and watched. Then I realized that the calves were trying to get into the barn, but the gate was closed. So I climbed over the fence in the barn and opened the gate. I was fixing to climb back out of the barn when Dijon decided he was done with his tantrum and was leaving the panel pens. I decided to stay in the barn until he passed by for I didn’t want to be in the lane with him at that moment. He is usually a laid back bull and I have no problem commanding him around and telling him to do this or that, but that night I wanted to keep my distance.
Thursday was a busy day. A load of hay was delivered and Papa had to stack it in the barn. I washed down the oilcloth tablecloths that we had on the picnic tables from the farm tour two weeks ago—somethings take longer to clean up than we intend. Papa also hung our farm sign. It is temporary, but at least it is hung. Mom and I folded up the tablecloths, and then we began brainstorming on how we could get a wall up in the dining hall to separate the table area from our storage area. We used to have tarps hung, but Hurricane Helene and Debby rendered them useless. While we were brainstorming and visiting with the hay farmer our chefs—Brett and Jenni showed up. It was a little after 1:00 when they arrived and almost 4:00 when they left. There was a lot to discuss and a lot to collect. There was the schedule of when to do this and when to do that. Then there was the menu ingredients pertaining to how much of this and how much of that. We had to go to the garden to harvest the ginger for the kombucha drink, picked a few lemons for garnish, and got a good look at the bok choy and onions so that I would know how much to harvest. Then they needed the one and only pumpkin that our farm produced this year to put in the Pumpkin Butternut Bisque (soup). They needed chuck roasts for the Apple Cider braised chuck roast, and beef tenderloin for the crostini’s. There were chestnuts to roast to top the salad and lemon juice for the citrus vinaigrette, and the roselle to make the jam for the cream puffs. Then they were off to start their meal preps. I put dinner in the oven, and then Papa headed east to pick up some 2 x 4’s and some fancy plywood to build the wall in the dining area, and Mom and I headed to town to do a few farm errands. When we all got home Mom and Papa spent the rest of the evening building the wall with a few interruptions for: Papa and I to separate the calves and lock up the turkeys and ducks; all of us to eat dinner; and Papa to gather the eggs, feed the dogs and lock up the chickens for the night.
Friday’s schedule was packed too full! We had all our morning chores as normal—but then there was much more to do. When our hay was delivered on Thursday, 20 bales were also dropped off for another customer. They arrived a little after 8:00 Friday morning to load their hay. Papa couldn’t do his morning chores until they were done using the tractor, so Papa sharpened the knives, and set up all the chicken butchering equipment. When they were done loading their hay Papa went to do his chores but the tractor would not go into gear, and when it did it wouldn’t stop (no brakes). The clutch was broke! Papa had to find a tractor mechanic and a tow truck came and took our tractor off. Thankfully Papa had fixed the golf-cart on Tuesday so he was able to go out and feed the chickens—but he couldn’t move them. The people would be coming back to get the rest of their hay (for only 10 rolls fit on their trailer), so Papa had to go down the road and borrow a neighbors tractor so that Papa could load the hay for the people.
Once the chickens were processed we had an early dinner because Papa was going to the viewing of the man that had died. I had wanted to go, for his wife had been my elementary school chorus teacher and I hadn’t seen her for years—but on second thought I realized that I would never get everything done that I needed to do for the Farm Dinner if I went. So while Papa headed to the funeral home, Mom went to pay the van mechanic and pick up some alfalfa for the cows, and I headed to the garden to harvest the bok choy and onions. I also had to separate the calves and lock up the turkeys. I was really happy that I could use the golf-cart, but that joy didn’t last long when the golf-cart came to an abrupt stop and slid off to the side. I heard that the other axel could be broken so I abandoned the golf-cart and went and grabbed the old-fashioned two-wheel cart. We sure are getting our exercise of late. When Papa got back he said that the golf-cart was okay to drive—just not too fast. He wasn’t sure what was going wrong with it—but it wasn’t the axel. Mom and I then headed to the Poultry Kitchen to wash all the dinner dishes that we would need for the dinner. It took about an hour to wash 30 dinner plates, 30 salad plates, 30 soup bowls, 30 bread plates, 30 dessert plates, and 6 serving platters. I had spent the day loading and unloading the dishwasher with all the drinking glasses. Once all the dishes were washed and dried then we came inside the house and had to do our dinner dishes—which were a challenge since we were more than ready to relax on the sofa.
Saturday dawned nice and sunny, although once in a while some clouds would roll through. The weather was absolutely perfect for an outdoor dinner. We had to do our morning chores of milking the cows and feeding the chickens and then I had to bottle the kefir and pack the Gainesville order. Then the dinner prep began. The tablecloths and napkins were washed two tables at a time and then Mom would start setting the tables. About the time she got the first two done the next two would be ready. There are six tables to set and six settings at every table. Brett and Jenni arrived around 1:30 to get their stuff set up and the wood fired oven cooking the meat. It was about 3:00 before I finally got to the garden to pick the flowers. I had my eye on the marigolds for weeks—but to my dismay they were starting to turn brown the day of the dinner. Thankfully the sunflowers were just starting to bloom and the volunteer zinnias were in full bloom.
Dinner started at 4:00 and after some welcome snacks of Sweet Potato stacks and Maple Lemonade we went on a hay wagon ride around the farm. With the tractor in the shop Papa had to use the truck to pull the wagon. The truck was much quieter than the tractor so my job of “stewardess” and “Tour guide” was much easier because everyone could hear me talk—but the truck could not pull the wagon up the steep hill that lead to the chestnuts and pass the Jersey milk cows. So we all had to unload and walk up the hill to make the load lighter and Papa was finally able to get the wagon to the top of the hill. On our way back we stopped at the Market Garden and the chef met us with some Beef Tenderloin Crostini’s. Everyone had a tour of the gardens and then we headed to the picnic tables where some bread and butter were waiting us. Next to arrive was the Pumpkin soup, followed by the salad that was topped with our roasted chestnuts. The main course consisted of Apple cider braised chuck roast on a bed of mashed potatoes and a side of sautéed bok choy—that was cooked in the wood fired oven. For dessert we had some herbal tea and a roselle jam cream puff. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and by 8:30 the last of the guests had left—with many of them traveling two hours to get here. It was then time to clean up. By 10:30 all the dishes were washed and the first load of silverware and mugs were in the dishwasher. It was then shower time—and bed time. Thankfully the time changed and we got an extra hour of sleep.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare