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Hi Everyone,

               Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31 . . . and last Friday was the 31st day of May. The last week of May was normal around here—BUSY!! The bad thing about living at your job is that you never have a day off. There is always something to do, and no one to tell you not to come to work. While the cows have to be milked every day—all 365 days a year (and this year we have to milk them one more day than we did last year, or than we will do next year), and the chickens, dogs and cats need fed every day, the gardening, farm projects and house work really can be put off until another day. So, last Monday, being Memorial Day, Mom decided that we would have a day off. We invited my sister Nichole and her family over for dinner and games. Did I say that we had the day off? Oops! I think that I made a mistake. Yes, we did our morning chores and Mom and I got the milking done. Steve and Penny still came in and did their normal chores—but once the milk was bottled and all the milking equipment was washed they went home. When Mom and I were done milking we headed to the garden to do a little weeding. We had bought a mulberry tree back in April and it was so root bound that it was starting to die. We had what David the Good calls Analysis Paralysis—the inability to plant something because you don’t know where to plant it. We wanted it in the yard, but Papa has a rule of no fruit trees in the yard. Mom finally came up with the idea of turning one of the old fenced in garden areas into a Berry Patch—mulberry, blueberries, and raspberries for starts. We have not grown anything in that bed for two years now—because the deer found the bed. Needless to say, the weeds took over the whole bed. We marked off the corner for the Mulberry tree (a 10 ft. x 10 ft. area) and then we went to work weeding. We only spent about an hour or so out there, and then it was time to come inside. The rest of the day I spent in the kitchen cooking. I made an apple crisp, some Oven-fried Chicken Drumsticks, and Scalloped Squash made from our lemon squash that is growing prolifically in the garden, and we heated up some canned green beans. My sister made some potato salad. We were supposed to make some Stuffed Eggs—but we forgot, and we were supposed to cut up a watermelon—but we forgot.  Papa and Mom spent the afternoon setting up the picnic tables and the picnic area. One table was set up with a wooden Tic-tac-toe box and a large cloth checkerboard. Out in the grass we set up the Bull’s eye washer game—two wooden boxes with a PVC pipe “hole” in the middle, with metal washers that you are supposed to throw and get to land in the PVC pipe. I personally hate the game—because it is practically impossible. Nichole and I decided to give it a try, and we actually had “beginners luck”—but just for the first round, for after that we never got a washer in the hole again. When we were done eating all the grandchildren went with Grandpa to go gather the eggs. It was after 8:00 by the time they went home—which was getting a little late for them since my sister now has a cow to milk.

               Tuesday was the normal milk the cows, bottle kefir, make yogurt, package eggs, get ice, and put together orders and make receipts—which is enough to fill the day to the max. Yet, we also finished weeding in the Berry Patch and planted the mulberry tree—and that took over an hour. Then around 3:00 the vet showed up to pregnancy test a few cows—one because we were selling her, one because she hasn’t calved in two years, and then my sister’s new cow. The one we were selling was thankfully pregnant—but the other two were not.

               Sweet potatoes grow for about six months, green beans take two months, and radishes are ready in 30 days, lettuce in two months— and white potatoes in three months. Back in February I planted 83 Red Pontiac potatoes with Steve’s help. They sprouted, they grew, they flowered and they began to die back—and harvest time arrived. A friend of ours, name Emily, is new to gardening and wants to learn all she can. When she found out that we would be harvesting potatoes she was very eager to lend a helping hand. So last Thursday Emily came over around 11:00 and we (Papa, Mom, Emily and I) headed to the garden to dig for buried treasure. There were two 22 ft. long beds full of potatoes to dig up—one in what was the East Tunnel Garden, and one in the West Tunnel. Emily and I worked in the West Tunnel—so Papa didn’t have to worry about not smashing the flowers, and Mom and Papa worked in the other garden bed. First we had to weed the bed, and then we had to dig up the potatoes. Mom and Papa made a good team—Mom weeded, and Papa dug. Emily and I both weeded, and we both dug. Some plants produced more than others, and the ones that grew in the clay section didn’t do very well at all.  We dug them up, put them in a bucket and when our bucket was about half way full we would take them out and dump them on a feed sack so that the sun could dry the dirt on them. We ended up with about a bushel and a half of potatoes. Emily stayed for lunch and then she went home. Papa and Mom headed out to the Market Garden area and worked on pounding in more pipes for the first garden tunnel. We have four of them to put up by September. Mom’s goal is to get one up a month—but the first month has come and gone and the first tunnel is still not assembled. Thankfully it has been started. While Mom and Papa pounded away, Steve and I wiped the dry sand off of the potatoes and packed them in the half bushel baskets and then we stored them in the air-conditioned sewing room. Then we went to the barn and trimmed up all the onions that we had laid out to dry a few months back. It was time to move them out of the barn and into the kitchen. Some I put on the counter, and the rest I put in the Crisping Drawers of the fridge. That seems to be the best place to store onions for the longest time—the temp and the humidity must be just right.

               Friday night we had a Graduation to attend at our church—that was the end goal of the whole day, but getting to the end was no easy task. We had to milk a little early, because the vet was scheduled to come and dehorn some calves around 9:00. Once the vet left I had to bottle the kefir, and then I had to vacuum seal some yellow squash that we had sliced and froze. I had them on cookie trays in the freezer so that they could freeze separately, but I needed to bake some cookies for the graduation—so I needed my cookie trays back. Before I could make cookies I had to finish making the yogurt. I finally did get around to making some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, and while I baked them I also had to get dinner going because we had to eat early so that we could leave by 5:30. I could finally sit back and relax once we got in the van—and since we had a little over an hour to travel I was able to relax and read a good book.

               How many days do you make plans that never come to fruition? Saturday we had plans to change the dining room décor from spring to summer, make kombucha, and maybe get some ironing done. Well, we got the cows milked and the orders packed, and I ran out to the garden to harvest the squash before it got too big—then the truck driver showed up to pick up the cow that we were selling, my two brothers showed up to visit, and one by one customers showed up as the afternoon passed away. Papa got home just as the last customer was leaving—and it was almost time to cook dinner, and nothing on the “To Do List” was done. I did manage to get some piano playing done after dinner.

               Yep, it was a busy week, and we got a lot done. We shall see what this next week beholds.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare