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Hi Everyone,
Do you ever make plans—and then they get changed because someone else made plans too? Last Monday did not go as I had planned—but it did go as Mom had planned. I at least managed to get done half of what I had planned to do, and truth be told my “To Do List” was impossible anyway. The week before our sweet potato slips had arrived in the mail—but the garden was not prepared for them. Then we had to package eggs, process chickens and give a Farm Tour. So my Monday goal was to prepare five 3 ft. wide by 20 ft. long garden beds, and get them composted and planted—before I went to bed. Reality was: Penny was sick, so Steve had to wash the milking equipment, which meant I did not have man power in the garden, which gave Mom an excuse to go to town looking for some plants and other items for the courtyard—and she wanted me to go with her. So off to Lowe’s we went and a few hours later we returned with more roses, more Echinacea (I wanted enough to fill a whole bed with them), more plants, more flowers, and four flat metal trellis’s that we planned to connect into a four sided tuteur to go over our bleeding heart vine. After lunch Steve and I headed to the garden and Mom played in the courtyard—after Papa helped us put together the tuteur. With Steve’s help we were able to get four rows all cleaned up. First we had to pull up all the bitter lettuce. I was so upset that my beautiful heads of lettuce turned bitter before they were ready to harvest. I found out that I was still growing cool season lettuce. The leaf lettuces cannot handle the heat. I needed to have already changed over to the romaine—they tolerate the heat better. Next we pulled up all the spent forget-me-nots. I need to learn to pull them up when they are in full bloom—otherwise they produce seeds that stick all over you. Then we cut off the collards and took them to the beef cows and the lettuce to the chickens. I then had to transplant the nasturtiums to another bed and Steve pulled up the spent Swiss chard. Then we weeded the beds. It was 4:30 when we finished—which meant the working day was over.
Penny was back on Tuesday which enabled Mom, Steve and I to head back to the garden as soon as the milk and kefir was bottled. We finished weeding the fifth row and Steve pulled up all the cabbage plants –I had already harvested their heads. Papa went to town to get a yard of compost mix. After lunch I made yogurt and then we all headed back to the garden. Steve emptied the compost out of the truck and spread it on our garden beds. I helped Mom fix the fence on the Eastern Summer Garden. The garden tunnel had been removed, and the little fence that ran down the side needed to be secured with t-posts since the metal ribs had been removed that were holding the fence up. After the majority of the fence was done Mom finished up the fence and I broadforked the beds and then I tilthed the beds. Then I spaced out the sweet potato slips and Mom and I planted them.
We were given a challenge to put up one YouTube video a day for 30 days. We had fun last week looking for different things to share. Some were pretty easy—like the birth of a new calf “Meet Floret”, the arrival of 70 new broiler chicks “How fast do broiler chicks grow?”, and the blowing over of a massive oak at our 1915 house “30 mph wind gusts at our 1915 House”. Yes, Friday morning dawned anything but bright and sunny—it was dark and cloudy with some strong winds. By 8:30 we had a wind gust of 30 mph and the rains started to pour. We were just fixing to head outside to milk the cows and Steve was fixing to head out to the pasture to feed the chickens when the rain let loose—we decided to postpone our chores a little. Poor Papa though was already out to pasture bringing in the cows—so needless to say he came back drenched. A little later the lights flickered and then the power went out. When the rain did let up (but not before it quit) we all headed out to the milking parlor. Papa and Steve helped us while Mom and I milked the cows. Thankfully we have a generator so we didn’t have to milk the cows by hand. Before we finished milking a customer came by to pick up an order and told us that a HUGE oak tree had fallen at the old house on the corner. We realized that he was talking about our 1915 House. Papa drove down to check it out. A giant oak in the back yard had fallen over—roots up in the air and they had a good diameter of 10 feet. The top of the tree landed in the road, and took down an old pecan tree with it. Thankfully it missed the house, and the dumpster that was beside the house. It seems that ever since we bought the house we have been doing more tree work than remodeling work. Hurricane Idalia toppled about four giant oaks, and we still haven’t gotten them 100% cleaned up before this storm brought down more. I am thankful though that we own the house—for it was abandoned and I do believe that if all those trees had fallen down before we bought it the house would have just been hidden by fallen down trees. With this tree we were blessed to have a neighbor down the road to come over with his tractor and grapples to help clean up a lot of the tree mess. There is still a lot left to do.
Thursday morning I was awakened at 5:30 by the telephone. I knew that it was the Post Office calling to tell us that the chicks were in. Our hallway is very, very long and since it was already on its second ring by the time I got out of bed I ran lickity split down the hallway, through the dining room and into the kitchen to answer the phone—but I missed it, because in the dark I managed to run into a tall swivel chair that was in the walkway and I crashed into it sending it toppling to the ground with me on top of it. So needless to say I was on the ground when the phone rang for the fourth time. By the time Mom made it to the kitchen to see what the commotion was all about I had managed to stand up—but was in much pain, especially my toes and foot that had managed to kick the chair in the process of running into it. Of course Mom reminded me that it is not wise to run through the house in the dark. The last time I did that I ran my head into her forehead and cracked her bone and gave her a black eye—the family was playing hide and go seek in the dark (inside the house—and I will not tell you how old we all were). Anyway, thankfully the Post Office left a message and after listening to it I went back to bed—even if it was for only 20 minutes.
Once the milking was done I managed to spend the rest of Thursday in the green house and the garden. In the greenhouse I planted some romaine lettuce—I am trying to see if I can grow lettuce in Florida’s hot summer. I also potted up some green peppers and the roselles. To my delight the Cayenne peppers are finally sprouting. I also repotted a bay tree and planted some “freebie” plants in a planter behind the milking parlor. Then I fertilized all the fruit trees and watered them. After lunch we packaged eggs, and then Steve and I headed to the garden. He pulled up all the kale plants while I weeded the bed. Then he got a load of chicken compost and top-dressed the row for me. I broadforked the row and tilthed it and then I planted some okra seeds. Once that was done I headed over to the raised beds to transplant the Echinacea and the anise hyssop that we had bought. By the time the day was done—I was done in!
Saturday afternoon Mom and I weeded the lemon squash bed. The crabgrass was taking over and with a whole week of rain predicted my goal was to have that bed weeded before the rains arrived. I was only going to weed for an hour—but when the timer went off I only had about three feet left on my side of the row. Then Mom told me to bring my handy-dandy weeding tool to her side and help her finish weeding her side. For Mother’s Day I bought Mom her own handy-dandy weeding knife so that she could weed faster too! Speaking of Mother’s Day—I have had a tradition since I was a little girl of picking my Mom a bouquet of flowers. When I was little they were always wild flowers. Once my girlfriend and I went horseback riding and came home with a bouquet a piece for each of our Mothers. For many years now I have been blessed to have a garden full of flowers to make the most beautiful floral arrangements for Mother’s Day. Today I took the camera with me and took a little video of the flowers and showed you the end result of a large beautiful flower arrangement for my Mom. I picked the flowers—but Mom did the arranging. You can watch the one minute video here and see the flowers in the garden and then the flowers in the vase. I even figured out how to add music to the video—my very own piano playing too!
If you are a mom, I hope that you had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare