544

Hi Everyone,

               I do not know how this is going to work but we are going to give this a try. I think that important business men who dictate to their secretary don’t know how to type, because I find it easier to type what I have to say than to tell someone what to type.  One of my fondest childhood memories when I was probably about eight involves curling up on the neighbors sofa couch with my friend and watching Wonder Woman.  Evidently the other day I tried to be Wonder Woman.  It was Thursday and after milking cows we had three men come and help us in the Market Garden.  Along beside them I pulled weeds, filled five gallon buckets with woodchips, and shoveled compost.  We spent about three and a half hours working before we stopped for lunch. Steve went home after lunch because it was raining—but it wasn’t raining too hard to prevent Mom and me from going back outside to finish the woodchips and clean up all the tools.  While we were rinsing the mud and woodchips off all the tools and buckets we realized that Bonnie did not have her calf.  So once we were all cleaned up we went in search for Miss Lassie.  We found her hanging out with the teenage heifers.  I did a little ring around the rosie before I finally caught her. She wasn’t easy to hold on to and I about lost her and I caught her by the back leg and reeled her in.  Then I thought the best way to get her to the gravely was to carry her.  At three weeks old she was pretty heavy.  I thought nothing of it till later that night when my hand started to hurt.  On Friday the pain was starting to intensify—but there were chickens to butcher, and come Saturday there were green beans to plant.  After all of this my arm and hand were in a lot of pain. Now it is Sunday afternoon and typing is not possible so here I sit dictating to my Mom.

               After weeks without rain we finally got some last week.  I was getting worried about the potatoes I planted in the Market Garden.  The sprinkler system isn’t hooked up yet so I had no way to water them. After last Sundays rain the first potato plant sprouted through the ground, and after three days of misty rain the second potato has now sprouted. With the rain the grasses grow even faster, but thankfully Momma felt well enough to get some mowing done this week. 

               While Mom was mowing and Pa was shopping for building supplies I set up shop in the greenhouse.  First things first, it needed a good sweeping and hosing out.  Then I got all my seed trays in order and my labels made.  Once that prep was done I filled all my seed trays with potting soil and then I planted my seeds. I planted collards, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, broccoli—green and purple, cabbage, bok choy, mustard greens, celery, parsley, sage, chamomile, snapdragons and rudbeckia.  By Friday most of them were sprouted. That means that we have one month to get the first Market Garden tunnel and the West Garden ready for planting.  With the help of the three men on Thursday we have been able to get the second Market Garden tunnel beds ready for planting.  Now we just need to finish the east wall and get the plastic on the roof.  Out in the East Garden the carrots and onions are sprouted and I think the lettuce is beginning to sprout. For the last few I have had a hard time getting things to sprout in the greenhouse so I have had to resort to starting my seeds in the garden tunnels and then transplanting them when they are big enough. This year the lettuce in the greenhouse is sprouting and growing faster than the lettuce in the garden.  I was able to find a better quality potting soil this year. 

               Have you ever had one of those days where everything needed done at the same time?  Last Tuesday was one of those days for us.  After I milked the cow and neatly bottled the kefir—no messes this week, I weeded in the courtyard while Mom and Papa worked on the tunnel wall.  At 1:00 I came inside to start lunch and finish making yogurt.  The phone rang and soil guy said he would be here in an hour.  At 1:30 my parents came in with my brother-in-law who needed me to print some paper work for his business.  Then my brother David called to ask if he could use our dryer because his broke.  As 2:00 rolled around I had just finished making yogurt, Mom had just finished making lunch, my brother came in with his laundry, my brother-in-law needed his paperwork copied and emailed back to him, the soil guy arrived and our friends arrived for the 2:00 egg packaging party.  My brother had to help himself to the dryer, my Papa had to copy the paperwork and email it back to my brother-in-law, and our friends had to do the eggs by themselves.  While pumpkin soup and grilled cheese was on the menu for lunch, all Mom and I had time to do was grab our sandwich and a bottle of water and head out the door to meet the soil guy.  He was in the area checking on his customers and wanted to stop by to see how we were doing with our twenty yards of compost.  Starting a new garden we needed something to boost the fertility of our soil and to help our clay soil produce better.  He was very impressed with the garden and helped me realize that I will also have to use our chicken and cow/leaf compost for added fertility.  After checking out the gardens I got some advice for our compost bins and then I took him up to the chestnut field so he could pick and taste his first chestnut—the chestnuts are just starting to ripen and fall from the trees.  Since the guy owns a few nurseries I was able to pick his brain about growing citrus and figs.  By the time he left my brother was gone and the eggs were all packaged.  Mom and Papa worked on the tunnel door, and I broadforked some of the garden beds.   I was working on the third bed when my sister Nichole came over for a visit.  As I started the fourth bed I thought it would be fun to let my sister see just how hard packed the dirt was, so I told her to give the broadfork a try—and she had so much fun that she wouldn’t give it back.  To my dismay the dirt she was working in was soft and crumbly until she reached the last four feet of the twenty foot bed.  Then it got compact and exhaustion set in and she gladly handed the broadfork back to me to finish the row.

               Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were rainy days. We relaxed inside on Wednesday, worked in the garden in the rain on Thursday and processed chickens in the rain on Friday—at least Papa processed in the rain the rest of us were inside the poultry kitchen.  Come Saturday the sun came back out and Momma mowed and I planted green beans and picked cayenne peppers.  Then before I headed back inside I fertilized the figs and the citrus trees that we have in pots.

               Well I think that I have dictated everything that my fingers would have said . . .  so until next week.

Serving you with Gladness,

Dictated by Tiare / typed by Mom