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Hi Everyone,
Well, Praise the Lord, I am doing my own typing tonight. I really did take it easy last week, and by Wednesday my arms and hands were doing much better. I practically spent my whole week inside—and there was plenty to keep me busy. Believe it or not I didn’t pull a single weed last week. Last Monday it was still pretty hard to use my arms, but I did manage to answer the emails that came in with people placing orders. One customer said that she hoped that my arms were doing better, and I told her that they were getting there—they just needed some time to rest. She wrote back saying that she would pray real hard that I would be able to get some rest—for she knew very well that work on a farm never stops and it is very labor intensive. Then that afternoon after lunch I was doing some computer work and I fell asleep at the computer. I quickly woke up and decided to go lay down on the sofa—and I found myself fast asleep for the next two plus hours. I guess she did pray real hard for me to get some rest. While I slept Mom and Papa worked on one of the end walls to the Market Garden Tunnel. By the end of the week the walls were all done, and tonight Papa was finally able to get the sprinklers working so that the green beans (which are sprouting) and the potatoes (which are sprouting) could get some much needed water. I have been more than grateful for every drop of rain that we have gotten since we did not have the sprinklers hooked up yet. By Friday night the sides were rabbit proofed—and none too soon since the green beans are sprouting. Mom and Papa attached some hardware cloth down the side to keep the rabbits and the deer out—although the deer could jump over until we get the plastic covering over the top, but hopefully they will not find the new garden before the roof goes on.
The seeds in the greenhouse are also sprouting! The lettuce, bok choy, and mustard greens are ready to transplant out tomorrow. We have to get the other Market Garden tunnel weeded, composted and mulched before I can transplant out all the other plants—and time is short. I need all eight beds prepped within two weeks for the seedlings are growing very fast. Last Monday when I got up from my nap I did manage to go and do a little work in the greenhouse. I had Steve do a little rearranging for me and refill my potting soil tub—and then I was able to work. I grabbed two long flat trays and filled them up with potting soil. Then I used a small piece of PVC pipe to divide them in half. Next I sprinkled seeds on top of the soil and watered the trays well. Some seeds that are so tiny are not supposed to be covered with soil when you plant them. They need sunlight to sprout—therefore, you just sprinkle the seeds on top of the soil. I was planting thyme, winter savory, mullein, and plantain. I bought the thyme and winter savory seeds, but the other two I had growing were growing on the farm and I just had to go collect there seeds. Planting mullein is quite interesting. I just take one of flower stalks that are dried out and beat it on the ground if I am planting it in a garden bed, or I beat it in a tray and then sprinkle the “seed dust” in my seed starting tray. To my delight all are starting to sprout—except the winter savory. I have never been able to get it to sprout. I will give them another week or two before I give up and order from a local organic nursery.
I was still out of heavy work commission on Tuesday. My arms were doing better—but not well. After three years with a bummed thumb I have learned the importance of resting an injury. Therefore, poor Mom and Steve had to do my heavy work and I was not able to join the egg packaging party. Steve had to bottle the kefir, and Mom had to bottle the yogurt. I did manage to make and bottle some Relief Salve by myself though—it was in small quantities.
One of the most interesting challenges of last week was that our dryer broke last Sunday night. If the only laundry we had to keep up with was our clothes, it wouldn’t be such a big deal—but it is a different story when you have about forty towels to wash and dry every day from milking the cows and washing the milking equipment. We didn’t worry about it on Monday, because we thought the technician could come and fix it—but he couldn’t make it until Tuesday afternoon. Then we didn’t worry about the laundry on Tuesday, because we thought it would be fixed that afternoon—but the timer knob was the problem and he had to order a new one. He said that he would be back on Wednesday. We had a problem though—we were out of cow towels. So we did a few loads of cow laundry and called my sister who lives next door to ask, “Can we use your dryer?” It was about 8:00 that night when we headed over to use her dryer, and about 9:00 when we came back home. We had a good visit though. Wednesday rolled around and the technician had called to let us know that the part would not be in before Thursday, so I figured that I would wash some of my clothes and hang them up in my bathroom. I also had a small load of cow towels that I planned to hang on the clothesline—but it started to rain before I got them there. So I hung them on pant hangers and hung them on the cabinet doorknobs all over the kitchen. My dresses were drying nicely until the weight got the best of them and the shower rod came crashing down. So I hung them on all the bedroom door frames down the hallway until they could finish drying. Thursday rolled around, and the day ticked by—but we never heard from the technician. Finally at 4:00 we called him and learned that the part had not come in yet. We were once again out of cow towels so I put a load in the wash, and when it was done I put another load in the wash. I had spent my day in the kitchen pickling red onions, and then about the time I started to cook dinner, Mom came inside from working on the garden tunnel wall—and she started canning some peach chutney. The laundry managed to finish washing just as dinner was done, and Mom was still canning her chutney. So I planned to take the laundry over to my sister’s right after dinner, but a phone call delayed us a little longer. It was 8:30 by the time we finally made it to my sisters and this time we just dropped it off and came home to finish the dishes after a day of pickling, making yogurt, making chutney and fixing dinner—the kitchen was a MESS! Then we went back an hour later to pick up our dried cow towels. Come Friday Papa was out of clothes, so I washed them and hung them on the clothesline. You may ask what took me so long to make use of the clothesline. Well, for one we kept thinking that the dryer would be fixed “today, tomorrow, etc.” The other reason is that Mom has not been able to mow the lawn in months, and the grass around the clothesline is taller than my knees—so I was trying to not have to swim through grass to get to the clothesline, but Friday morning I had no choice. Before we headed out to milk I was able to have Papa’s t-shirts and pants hanging on the clothesline drying in the sunshine and breeze. Thankfully our clothesline cranks up and down so I was able to raise it high enough so that the clothes didn’t hang in the grass. It was close to noon when I heard a knock on the door and when I opened it I was happy to see the technician. An hour later we had a working dryer—and since he had to take it completely apart I was able to give it a good vacuuming out of all the dust. Nothing like a broken appliance to help you do a little “Fall” cleaning. I spent the next two days catching up on laundry.
Mom and I spent Saturday in the pantry cleaning and rearranging. I want the new dehydrator in the pantry—but it was so cluttered and the two ice chests that we use for making yogurt took up too much floor space that there was no room for the dehydrator. We have it in the Poultry Kitchen, but I have found it very hard to keep up with what I am dehydrating when it is a couple buildings away. So we swapped the two ice chests for one bigger ice chest, and now we have some extra floor space. We also cleaned up the shelves and reorganized the canned goods and kitchen staples—putting as much as we could in glass jars. It looks a lot better, but there is still more to do.
Save the Dates—we are having a Fall Farm Tour Saturday, October 19, (11:00 to 1:00) and then we are having a Fall Farm to Table Dinner Saturday, November 2 (4:00 to 8:00). Hope you can make it out to the farm for both or one. Check out our events here.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare