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Hi Everyone,

Sometimes when I look back over my scribbled notes for the week I become shocked when I am reminded of something that happened on Monday that seems like it happened a month ago. My first note for last Monday reads: “Pa jury.” I completely forgot that last Monday started out quite early. The plan was to get up at 6:00—our normal time, but instead of having Bible Study and setting up for milking while Papa fixed breakfast, we were supposed to just get dressed and head to the kitchen and everyone fix breakfast so that we could be eating by 7:00 so that Papa could leave on time for the courthouse. It was dark outside when Mama knocked on my door and wondered why I was still in bed sleeping at 7:00—for I was the one that had suggested we all fix breakfast first thing. I rolled over and looked at my clock and informed Mama that it wasn’t even 6:00 yet. Mama was shocked, but told me that breakfast was on the table anyway. Papa had forgotten to reset his alarm clock from Sunday’s 5:00 wake up call, to Monday’s 6:00 wake up call. Therefore, Mama and Papa got up at 5:00 and got dressed for the day and made breakfast—all while wondering where in the world I was. Sleeping of course, for my 6:00 alarm clock had not gone off yet. To make matters worse, it was the day after time change—so they had gotten up at old time 4:00. Talk about being tired! The clock mess up did come in handy though—for after breakfast and dishes we all had time to read our Bibles after all. Papa left for town a little before 8:00. Mama had to go get some alfalfa pellets before we could milk, and I set up the milking equipment and took Ana (the nurse cow) down to the panel pens to feed her two calves. Papa got home before we finished milking—because he is over 70 he could ask to be excused. When milking was over I answered emails so that I could put together the bread orders by noon. Then Mama and I worked at cleaning up from the Pizza Dinner. We had dishes and glasses to put away, tablecloths to wash off and fold up and put away. Then there were sinks and tubs to wash, and we were happy to have it all done in less than 48 hours after the dinner—sometimes it can take quite a few days.

After lunch Papa headed back to town to run some errands and I juiced a case of oranges that we had procrastinated greatly on. Steve and Mama cleaned out the brooder house to get it all scrubbed clean for the beginning of chick season. Starting last Tuesday we will be picking up 70 chicks every other Tuesday until October. I am very happy with the hatchery we are using, for we meet the lady and pickup freshly hatched chicks from her, instead of the chicks spending 4 days in the mail and we lose half of them due to stress. For two years our chicks have been smaller than we like, our death rate has been high due to prolonged travelling and heat and cold while travelling. We got our first batch from this hatchery back in January, and we only lost 5 out of 72—which is really good. We processed those chickens on Friday and they ranged in weight from 4 pounds to almost 9 pounds. We were well pleased! We have always been known for our “Big chickens” but the last few years (ever since the government started killing off chickens because of some so called “bird flu”) we have had two, three and four pound chickens. It is nice to have good quality chicks again.

Later that evening after Steve had gone home and Papa was helping Mama put the brooder house back together, Papa told me to go down to the barn and climb up the tongue of the hay wagon and look over the side and look to the right. So I did—very skeptically. I wasn’t sure what I would find. Was it an opossum? What if it was a skunk? Maybe it was a snake! I have to say that I climbed that tongue and looked over the edge very cautiously. To my surprise I saw a pile of chicken eggs. We have a chicken that runs lose all over the farm, but she likes to hang out in the barn, the milking parlor, the garage and some days she even goes in the milk house to visit Steve while he washes the milking equipment. I went and grabbed an egg bucket—and my camera and I filmed a little YouTube short of finding the eggs, counting them, and trying to do an interview with Miss Henny Pen of whom I do believe is the one laying the eggs in the hay wagon. Once I gathered those eggs I brought them in the house for us—as a rule of thumb we never sell eggs from strange places (we eat them, so if they are bad it won’t exactly matter). The next day Papa cracked all nine of the eggs for our breakfast and they were perfect eggs—the brightest orange eggs I have ever seen. Miss Henny Pen must have a very rich diet of spring weeds. You can watch my little video here.

I always feel like I am late in planting the spring garden because everyone else has already started theirs—but I never want to take any chances. Some years we get a late frost and that is why I choose to delay my plantings until late March. I finally have all my seeds—except for maybe enough zinnia seeds. The beginning of the week I started making a list of everything that I want and need to plant. Then come Thursday I grabbed a handful of seed packets and headed to the greenhouse. I planted some tomatoes, basils (cinnamon and Genovese), lettuce, peppers (cayenne, pepperoncini, and bell), and some Roselle hibiscus (Jamaican Sorrel). Saturday evening I grabbed four pieces of paper and labeled each after a different garden bed—Market Garden #1, Market Garden #2, East Garden, and West Garden. Then I folded each one into eight sections (to mimic the eight rows in each garden), and I marked down what was already planted, what would be harvested soon, and what I would plant where. Sometimes I feel like I am playing musical chairs, for I put a plant in one bed, but then later realize it will not work there and I have to move it to another bed. I don’t want to plant some veggies in the same place that I did last year—but that can get hard when the place that I should plant them already has something growing in it. I think that I have it all figured out, but time will tell.

Wednesday night when I went out to separate the calves I could only find one instead of three. I looked all over the pasture (which is pretty easy for there are no trees) and I looked on all four sides of the hay racks—but they were nowhere to be seen. I headed back up toward the house and I found them gallivanting in the yard. I have no idea how they got out, but putting them back wasn’t too easy. Thankfully Mama just happened to come outside and I was able to get her to help me. We were not able to get them back in with the herd, but we were able to shoo them down into the tall weeds and in through the back “door” of the panel pens where they spend the night. Actually, I believe that it was much easier that way—for if we had got them back in with the herd I do not believe I would have been able to separate them out again.

               While I spent most of the Thursday in the greenhouse, I also got a chance to fertilize the fig, orange and lime trees. Then I planted a rose in the ground in the courtyard. Last year I dug a hole and put the whole pot (rose and all) into the hole because I needed it out of the greenhouse but wasn’t sure where to plant it. It almost died, but it is now thriving, so before it got root bound into the ground pot and all, I decided that I had better just go ahead and plant it. It is a climbing rose, and the idea is to have it grown down the courtyard fence (of which we have not decided what kind we really want), or grow up a trellis (of which we are not sure what kind we want)—which explains why it has taken so long to plant the poor rose in the ground. It was a little after 4:00 when two tree trimmer men showed up to prune our lemon trees. The Ponderosa lemon in the garden had grown so big that you had to stoop way over to walk the pathway around it, and we had to get on top of the gazebo roof to harvest some of the lemons last year. When the man was done pruning it was about half the size it had been. Then he came up to the house to prune the Meyers lemon tree because it had so much dead due to the freezing temps a few years ago (and this year).

Saturday found us being sociable. Our friend Emily was having a big get together at her house all day, so once we had milked the cows, bottled the kefir, harvested the orders (and a bouquet of flowers for Emily made of—snapdragons, parsley, daffodils, and narcissus), packed the orders and got Papa on his way to Gainesville—we headed over to visit for a few hours. To my delight my dear friend Lydia (Emily’s sister) was there and we got to have a really nice visit. It has been a long time since we have gotten together, so it was nice to catch up.

If you want to come and see what farm life is all about, I invite you to join us here on the farm this coming Friday for our Spring Farm Tour from 11:00 to 1:00. We will tour the gardens, and take a hayride around the farm. I encourage you to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy it in our little farm dining area. I hope to see you then—in the meantime, I had best get to sleep because there is so much to do to get ready for the farm tour and the spring garden.

Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare