Hi Everyone,
Once again it is Sunday night and I am asking you to come along for an adventure of fun and excitement---hard work and exhaustion. Last week we had one goal in mind, and that was to get the garden ready to plant the Fall garden on Thursday. First thing Monday morning, Mom headed to town to buy some compost dirt to make some growing beds in the garden. If I could find a way to make a compost sifter that isn't man powered, then we could harvest all the compost out of the compost yard that the chickens have so faithfully made for us. Sifting dirt with a hand held sifter is quite back breaking. Once Mom got home, her and Steve tackled mowing and weed whacking in the garden. Eli and I got the milking done, and then we headed to the garden to finish weeding some beds before we started dumping compost in them. I did make a few compromises with the flowers. I pulled up the zinnias that were in the way of veggies or walking, and left those that were at the end of walkways, and I transplanted the two sunflowers that were growing in the winter radish bed. The poor radishes were already bending over and getting leggy, as they were reaching for the sun. After lunch we were ready to apply the compost. With Steve and Eli's help I moved the wire cables that marked each bed and row, as Mom spread the compost that Steve and Eli were dumping by the wheelbarrow loads. We got about half of the tunnel beds done before the day was over---that is before the workers day was over, we still had to go harvest grapes, separate the calves, fix dinner and do the dishes.
Tuesday Mom managed to get most of the lawn mowed before the belt broke and the lawn mower no longer worked. While she mowed, Steve weed wacked, and he is also working at cleaning up around the edge of the woods, and slowly removing junk piles. Steve thrives on that kind of work---and would rather pull vines out of trees, than spend an hour or two packaging eggs. After milking, Eli and I were heading to the garden when we passed Steve working alongside the woods. We have a pile of old wire that has a big "weed" tree in it, that Mom and Steve both wanted removed, and I thought that it would be a great time to do it. So Eli grabbed the tractor, I grabbed the chain, and Steve and I wrapped the chain all around the tree trunk. Then Eli moved the gear stick, and the bucket lifted and the tree came out of the ground. It took two tries, but we accomplished it. The hard part was getting it down to the large compost spot where everything goes to decay. As Eli drove the tractor backward dragging the tree, it kept getting caught on the fence. Therefore, he had to use the machete to hack off some of the limbs. Steve and I followed in the Gravely carrying the load of extra branches, and picking up all those that fell off of Eli's load. When that was all done, Eli and I headed to the garden to add compost to more beds. We finished adding all the compost after lunch, and Steve went to help Papa pull vines out of trees, while Eli, Mom and I packaged eggs. When they all left about 4:30, Mom and I headed over to harvest some more grapes.
Wednesday morning found us cleaning house, milking cows, and packing the order. Our friends, the Crane's, were here to help with the milking, bottling and packing. When the packing is all done, then they have the joy of going with Eli to gather the eggs. When I was finished with the packing, and getting the receipts all finished, it was time for me to teach piano lessons to my two students. Poor Mom spent her day recovering from some kind of wasp sting. While mowing the backyard on Tuesday, some flying creature flew out of the elephant grasses and attacked her, and flew back into its safe zone. Mom usually swells up pretty big from a sting, for about three weeks. This time though, every joint in her body swelled, and she was in a lot of pain. It took a few days for things to calm back down.
Thursday arrived and I was extremely happy---for once every garden bed was ready for planting. Usually we are still scrambling the day of planting to get all the weeds pulled, the beds marked and the compost laid. Then I begin to fret thinking that we will never get the garden planted by nightfall---although by some miracle we usually do. This time was different. As soon as the milking was done, I grabbed my basket of seeds and we all headed to the garden. Eli and Mom worked on weeding the ever stubborn nut grass---weed it clean today, and in two days it is back. I headed to the tunnel with my seeds, a carboard square foot seed planter guide, a wire and a stick for marking my rows. I planted three types of cabbage, collards, kale, broccoli, and three types of lettuce. It was a very hot day, and Eli was glad when I covered up the last seed, for it was past lunch time. After lunch we finished packaging the weeks eggs. Before we finished the eggs, we had a customer, then my sister showed up with her two young'un's, and then we had another customer. When finished the eggs, and Makenna wanted to see the baby chicks, ducks and turkeys---but to her dismay, they were all growing up. Our ducks are now laying eggs! Later on in the evening, the man that owns the grape vineyard came over to pick up his share of the grapes that we had picked. He talked about vacuum packing them, and I decided to give them a try in our big vacuum sealer machine. He was impressed, and I was too. A big five pound bag of grapes, was reduced to a brick of grapes. They will freeze much better that way. By the time everyone had left for the night, it was 8:30 and although we had steak out for dinner, we swapped it for eggs and toast.
Friday morning Mom headed to town to run some errands, and then she went by a friend's house to get a trailer load of wood chips to cover the potatoes that we had planted, and to put in the walkways of the garden. Eli and I milked the cows and bottled the milk. When Mom got home, she and Eli moved the Thanksgiving turkeys out of the brooder house into a hoop house out on the grass---our back yard for now. The grasses in the fields are about two feet tall right now, and that makes it impossible to move a pen in the tall grass. Therefore, our yard is decorated with seven portable hoop houses that are moved daily around the yard. Four houses are full of the new laying hens, one has turkeys, one has ducks, and one has meat birds. In a few weeks the new laying hens will be moved to the compost yard hen house, where they will grow until they begin to lay eggs. Then they will be moved out to the hen houses in the pastures. The meat chickens will be processed tomorrow, so we will be down to just ducks and turkeys---until the turkeys out grow their pen and are moved out to pasture with the cattle trailer being the place where they sleep at night. Eli and Mom were supposed to clean out the brooder house after they moved the turkeys out, but since we could not locate the 250 chicks that we had ordered, we lost hope thinking that they had been lost in the storm, and would probably arrive dead--if at all. Therefore, after lunch, Eli, Mom and I headed to the garden to put out wood chips. Once again it was a very hot afternoon---lots of breaks and water were necessary. At 4:30 Eli headed home, and we headed to pick grapes. Dad was spending his day mowing the fence lines where we are to have a company come in on Monday and put in water pipes on the whole property. We have sections that we could not use, because we had no water.
Saturday morning at 8:00 the Post Office called---all 250 chicks had safely arrived. I had to milk by myself, while Mom headed to town to pick them up---and go get us some much needed groceries. Papa got half of the brooder house cleaned out before he helped me filter the milk. Then Mom was able to finish the other half. These are the strongest looking chicks that we have ever gotten---now if the mama raccoon and her four little babies doesn't go opening up the chicken door latches, we should do pretty good. After Papa got off to Gainesville for the delivery, Mom worked on more receipts that were lost in the computer crash. We have to pay the taxes by the 20th, and Mom still has a few months to load up, and she is having discrepancies. I took a much needed nap before I made kombucha, put some herbs and oil in the oven to make soothing salve, and fixed dinner.
This morning we were up at 5:00 since Eli could not work---and we had to leave for church by 8:45. The stars are always so pretty at 5:00 in the morning, and it is really neat to watch the dawn brake. For some reason though, the cows seem to use the bathroom on the milk stand so much more early in the morning---and Moises isn't there to catch it.
Well, it is after 10:00, and Mom still has to proof read this, and we are falling asleep. This week will be very busy as we butcher chickens tomorrow, and get ready for company on Thursday who is staying until Saturday. When my dear friend from Atlanta was asked by her husband what she wanted for her birthday---she said, "A trip to the farm!" It seems to be a pretty popular place to spend for your birthday. We have three young men who want to spend a birthday vacation on the farm in December. I cannot blame any of them---the farm is a great place to be!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare
Once again it is Sunday night and I am asking you to come along for an adventure of fun and excitement---hard work and exhaustion. Last week we had one goal in mind, and that was to get the garden ready to plant the Fall garden on Thursday. First thing Monday morning, Mom headed to town to buy some compost dirt to make some growing beds in the garden. If I could find a way to make a compost sifter that isn't man powered, then we could harvest all the compost out of the compost yard that the chickens have so faithfully made for us. Sifting dirt with a hand held sifter is quite back breaking. Once Mom got home, her and Steve tackled mowing and weed whacking in the garden. Eli and I got the milking done, and then we headed to the garden to finish weeding some beds before we started dumping compost in them. I did make a few compromises with the flowers. I pulled up the zinnias that were in the way of veggies or walking, and left those that were at the end of walkways, and I transplanted the two sunflowers that were growing in the winter radish bed. The poor radishes were already bending over and getting leggy, as they were reaching for the sun. After lunch we were ready to apply the compost. With Steve and Eli's help I moved the wire cables that marked each bed and row, as Mom spread the compost that Steve and Eli were dumping by the wheelbarrow loads. We got about half of the tunnel beds done before the day was over---that is before the workers day was over, we still had to go harvest grapes, separate the calves, fix dinner and do the dishes.
Tuesday Mom managed to get most of the lawn mowed before the belt broke and the lawn mower no longer worked. While she mowed, Steve weed wacked, and he is also working at cleaning up around the edge of the woods, and slowly removing junk piles. Steve thrives on that kind of work---and would rather pull vines out of trees, than spend an hour or two packaging eggs. After milking, Eli and I were heading to the garden when we passed Steve working alongside the woods. We have a pile of old wire that has a big "weed" tree in it, that Mom and Steve both wanted removed, and I thought that it would be a great time to do it. So Eli grabbed the tractor, I grabbed the chain, and Steve and I wrapped the chain all around the tree trunk. Then Eli moved the gear stick, and the bucket lifted and the tree came out of the ground. It took two tries, but we accomplished it. The hard part was getting it down to the large compost spot where everything goes to decay. As Eli drove the tractor backward dragging the tree, it kept getting caught on the fence. Therefore, he had to use the machete to hack off some of the limbs. Steve and I followed in the Gravely carrying the load of extra branches, and picking up all those that fell off of Eli's load. When that was all done, Eli and I headed to the garden to add compost to more beds. We finished adding all the compost after lunch, and Steve went to help Papa pull vines out of trees, while Eli, Mom and I packaged eggs. When they all left about 4:30, Mom and I headed over to harvest some more grapes.
Wednesday morning found us cleaning house, milking cows, and packing the order. Our friends, the Crane's, were here to help with the milking, bottling and packing. When the packing is all done, then they have the joy of going with Eli to gather the eggs. When I was finished with the packing, and getting the receipts all finished, it was time for me to teach piano lessons to my two students. Poor Mom spent her day recovering from some kind of wasp sting. While mowing the backyard on Tuesday, some flying creature flew out of the elephant grasses and attacked her, and flew back into its safe zone. Mom usually swells up pretty big from a sting, for about three weeks. This time though, every joint in her body swelled, and she was in a lot of pain. It took a few days for things to calm back down.
Thursday arrived and I was extremely happy---for once every garden bed was ready for planting. Usually we are still scrambling the day of planting to get all the weeds pulled, the beds marked and the compost laid. Then I begin to fret thinking that we will never get the garden planted by nightfall---although by some miracle we usually do. This time was different. As soon as the milking was done, I grabbed my basket of seeds and we all headed to the garden. Eli and Mom worked on weeding the ever stubborn nut grass---weed it clean today, and in two days it is back. I headed to the tunnel with my seeds, a carboard square foot seed planter guide, a wire and a stick for marking my rows. I planted three types of cabbage, collards, kale, broccoli, and three types of lettuce. It was a very hot day, and Eli was glad when I covered up the last seed, for it was past lunch time. After lunch we finished packaging the weeks eggs. Before we finished the eggs, we had a customer, then my sister showed up with her two young'un's, and then we had another customer. When finished the eggs, and Makenna wanted to see the baby chicks, ducks and turkeys---but to her dismay, they were all growing up. Our ducks are now laying eggs! Later on in the evening, the man that owns the grape vineyard came over to pick up his share of the grapes that we had picked. He talked about vacuum packing them, and I decided to give them a try in our big vacuum sealer machine. He was impressed, and I was too. A big five pound bag of grapes, was reduced to a brick of grapes. They will freeze much better that way. By the time everyone had left for the night, it was 8:30 and although we had steak out for dinner, we swapped it for eggs and toast.
Friday morning Mom headed to town to run some errands, and then she went by a friend's house to get a trailer load of wood chips to cover the potatoes that we had planted, and to put in the walkways of the garden. Eli and I milked the cows and bottled the milk. When Mom got home, she and Eli moved the Thanksgiving turkeys out of the brooder house into a hoop house out on the grass---our back yard for now. The grasses in the fields are about two feet tall right now, and that makes it impossible to move a pen in the tall grass. Therefore, our yard is decorated with seven portable hoop houses that are moved daily around the yard. Four houses are full of the new laying hens, one has turkeys, one has ducks, and one has meat birds. In a few weeks the new laying hens will be moved to the compost yard hen house, where they will grow until they begin to lay eggs. Then they will be moved out to the hen houses in the pastures. The meat chickens will be processed tomorrow, so we will be down to just ducks and turkeys---until the turkeys out grow their pen and are moved out to pasture with the cattle trailer being the place where they sleep at night. Eli and Mom were supposed to clean out the brooder house after they moved the turkeys out, but since we could not locate the 250 chicks that we had ordered, we lost hope thinking that they had been lost in the storm, and would probably arrive dead--if at all. Therefore, after lunch, Eli, Mom and I headed to the garden to put out wood chips. Once again it was a very hot afternoon---lots of breaks and water were necessary. At 4:30 Eli headed home, and we headed to pick grapes. Dad was spending his day mowing the fence lines where we are to have a company come in on Monday and put in water pipes on the whole property. We have sections that we could not use, because we had no water.
Saturday morning at 8:00 the Post Office called---all 250 chicks had safely arrived. I had to milk by myself, while Mom headed to town to pick them up---and go get us some much needed groceries. Papa got half of the brooder house cleaned out before he helped me filter the milk. Then Mom was able to finish the other half. These are the strongest looking chicks that we have ever gotten---now if the mama raccoon and her four little babies doesn't go opening up the chicken door latches, we should do pretty good. After Papa got off to Gainesville for the delivery, Mom worked on more receipts that were lost in the computer crash. We have to pay the taxes by the 20th, and Mom still has a few months to load up, and she is having discrepancies. I took a much needed nap before I made kombucha, put some herbs and oil in the oven to make soothing salve, and fixed dinner.
This morning we were up at 5:00 since Eli could not work---and we had to leave for church by 8:45. The stars are always so pretty at 5:00 in the morning, and it is really neat to watch the dawn brake. For some reason though, the cows seem to use the bathroom on the milk stand so much more early in the morning---and Moises isn't there to catch it.
Well, it is after 10:00, and Mom still has to proof read this, and we are falling asleep. This week will be very busy as we butcher chickens tomorrow, and get ready for company on Thursday who is staying until Saturday. When my dear friend from Atlanta was asked by her husband what she wanted for her birthday---she said, "A trip to the farm!" It seems to be a pretty popular place to spend for your birthday. We have three young men who want to spend a birthday vacation on the farm in December. I cannot blame any of them---the farm is a great place to be!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare