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Hi Everyone,

               Last week definitely ended much better than it started. The week began with me in a lot of pain due to a bruised rib and a tight muscle in my shoulder. As the days passed by I could feel the effects of everyone’s prayers, and by Thursday I was pain free. It was so nice to be able to milk the cows without my rib dying in pain every time I bent over to clean up the cow’s udders and my shoulder screaming at me every time I reached for the milking claws or reached up to hang them back up. I refrained from any extra work until Thursday—which meant I didn’t bottle the kefir (Steve did it for me), and I didn’t join the egg party on Tuesday. I did manage to make the yogurt and harvest the garden for the Jacksonville deliveries—but I didn’t do any other garden work. I even had a family that was planning on coming to help in the garden last Monday that I had to cancel—but I am delighted that they are planning on coming tomorrow. There is so much to do in the garden right now—many kinds of seeds to plant, weeds to pull, beds to prep, and seedlings to pot up.

               Papa was my hero Monday, for he went to town to get some groceries so that I could get my kombucha made. Later that afternoon Mama and I headed over to the pecan farm to pick up some cracked pecans. With Mama still on the weak side it gave her something to do sitting down. Wednesday’s Mama and I spend the afternoons relaxing—so we spent that time shelling pecans. When it came time for the evening chores I headed outside to separate the calves, put Ana in with her calves to nurse them, and put the cows in the green grass field to graze all night. Sounds easy—and most nights it is, but sometimes in life our world gets dumped upside down and things don’t exactly go as smoothly as we would like. I had everything set up—the alfalfa pellets and hay set up for Ana and the calves, the gates propped and the wire ready to pull across the lane. Ana and the three calves were in the back of the line, so I let out the cows. I got to the last two cows and Ana came out with them—I thought “no problem”—but I was wrong. Instead of stopping at the panel pens to feed her calves, Ana ran on ahead with the other cows to greener pastures. I tried my best to run ahead of her and get the wires shut before she entered the field—and I did manage to run past her, but I thought that maybe I could just turn her around. That was not possible and it cost me the chance to get to the wires before her. Therefore, she headed on up the hill of the two acre field and began frantically running around grabbing mouthfuls of green grass. I was hot on her tail zig zagging all over the field after her. Ana would have no part of leaving the green grass behind in order to go and nurse her calves—even though they were doing their fair share of bellyaching for their evening milk. I thought that I could trick her and get her to go out the back wires—but I was wrong. Twice I got her to head down the hill, but we didn’t get very far before she turned back around and headed back to the green fields. When she got back up to the green grass another cow, Leah by name, came up and just plowed into Ana. It was as if Leah was telling Ana to quit giving me so much trouble. It was shortly afterward that Ana finally decided to head back down hill to the panel pens to nurse her calves. Then I was able to gather up the three calves that we separate at night, but to my dismay the two steers had already eaten all the alfalfa pellets and most of the green hay. I had to bring out some more alfalfa pellets later when I came back out to put Ana back to the green field. The next day I told Papa that it was time to put the beef steers out with the bulls for they were getting very fat, because they were eating the Jersey calves food.

Thursday morning after milking Mama and I grabbed the tape measures and headed out to the Market Garden area to see where we wanted to put our “new” garden shed. Our feed room shed has to be moved from where it is in order to build the new metal barn that will house our new Milk House, Feed Room, Brooder House, bigger walk-in cooler, and storage room. So once the new Feed Room is finished, then the old feed room shed will be turned into our new Garden Tool Shed. Once we figured out where it would go, then we had to figure out where to move the Brooder house shed to. When the new brooder is finished then the old brooder will become our Wood Working Tool Shed. It was going on 2:00 by the time we figured it all out. We then came in for lunch, and then after lunch Steve and I headed to the garden. The broccoli plants were spent, and aphids were taking over—so Steve cut them down (for broccoli plants grow like little trees) and then he pulled up the roots. I loaded all the plants into the Gravely and I weeded the empty garden rows. Once the plants were gone and the rows were weeded, Steve covered them with compost. We finished a little after 4:30, and it was time for Steve to go home. So I offered to clean up, and I harvested a big bunch of parsley and the first bouquet of ranunculus and snapdragons. This was my first year growing ranunculus and I have to say that I am madly in love with them. It was after  5:00 when I finally made my way inside. I rested for a little while before I cooked dinner. Then it was 8:00 when we finished the dishes and I could finally start getting the leaves of the parsley pulled off the stems. It was going on 10:00 by the time I finished—and I was sure that I had lost my mind harvesting such a large amount of parsley so late in the day.

Ever since November we have needed to make a trip to Georgia (90 minutes from home) to pick up some salt for the animals—and along the way stop by one honey farm (40 minutes from home) to get some beeswax for my salves, and then stop at another honey farm (and hour from home) to get honey. Something always managed to keep us from making the trip—and this week we start demolition on the farm and will be in construction mode for at least the next six weeks. So, Friday Mama and I both realized that it was “now or never” so the trip north was planned. Plus we needed a few other things at Home Depot and a few other stores in town. Mama was too weak to drive, and I do not do good driving long distances, so she wanted Papa to take us—but I had customers scheduled to come by and I had yogurt to make, so I decided to let Mama and Papa make the trip and I stay home to manage the farm. My mind spun with idea of things that I could do while they were gone. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to vacuum the house, clean my bathroom, sew, or work in the garden. There was even some ironing to do and my piano to play. They left around 11:00 and my first chore was to find someone to move the sheds, but before I finished that the doorbell rang. One of Papa’s old work buddies had stopped by to drop off a few surprises and visit with Papa—but instead he had to visit with me. Then I went back to my computer work, but was soon interrupted by customers. I finished taking care of them, and came back to my computer work. It wasn’t too much longer before there was a knock on the door and another customer had arrived. I took care of him and headed back to my computer work. Before long two more customers arrived and I took care of them. Around 1:30 I decided to eat lunch, but that happened in stages too because of a customer, my sister calling to talk, and my Mama calling to ask a question. It was now 2:00 and I really had accomplished little. I was ready to get something done though—even though I really wasn’t sure what yet. I asked the Lord to direct my steps and to give me the strength to do what he would have me to do. First thing I did was to start the process of making my Virus and Relief Salves. So I gathered up the oil and all the herbs and got them combined and ready for the oven—but the cookie sheet that I place the pots on (so they do not leak in the oven) was next door in the walk-in freezer full of frozen strawberries that I had never found time to package and vacuum seal. It looked like the time was now for necessity demanded it. Then I made a bed that I had finally washed after our last company had left (I had washed it the week before, but my rib and shoulder prevented me from making it). Then there was laundry to fold and wash. For months I have had garden seed packets strewn all over my garden desk and the bed in that room—so I figured it was time to clean them up. By then my arms were beginning to grow weak, and my energy began to wane, so I set down to relax and shelled pecans. At 5:00 I headed outside to put Ana in with her calves to nurse, and then I came back inside to shell pecans. Thirty minutes later I headed back outside to let Ana out and put the whole herd out to pasture and to separate the calves and lock up the ducks and Goose. I wasn’t inside very long before Mama called and said they would be home in twenty minutes. It was going on 6:00, so I started dinner and had it done shortly after they got home around 6:30—but some customers showed up before we could sit down and it was after 7:00 before they left and we could finally sit down and eat. It was a long day, and I didn’t get done exactly what I had wanted to do, but I got done some things that desperately needed to be done.

Saturday afternoon Mama and I worked together to put together a new garden tower to hold our Bleeding heart vine in the courtyard. The other support we had was too small and not very sturdy. Then we went over to the Poultry Kitchen to put together a new shelving unit so that we would have the space to store some of the things in the milk house while the old one is torn down and the new one built. We start moving out tomorrow and will be using the Poultry kitchen as base camp for now—thankfully it has a four compartmental sink in it too. Sometime this week the old milk house will come down and all the shed will be moved. It will be an interesting and stressful next few months. When it is all said and done we will breathe a sigh of relief, in the meantime there is just too many logistics to figure out and plan for. We have to have the electrical and plumbing done at the right time, the demo crew to be here this week, the building crew to be here in a few weeks, the AC man to move the cooler units, the power people to move our power pole, and so much more. At least we have our plans finalize!

So until next month, I shall be busy on the farm, in the garden, plus getting ready for our Spring Farm to Table Dinner next Saturday—and I sure do wish you would come and dine with us.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare