Thinking of Winter Already

The eggs are coming faster than we can eat them, so it's time to start freezing.  Five beaten eggs is one cup, a perfect amount for breakfast and easy to figure out for recipes.  Last winter we didn't have enough eggs in the freezer, so this year we want a lot more waiting for us when the sun goes away in November.

The pasture is coming on and Christina's milk shows it.  She's still giving upwards of five gallons a day and the cream content is going up.  Yesterday's cream was almost one third.  And just to be clear, the skimmed stuff underneath isn't that watery stuff I've associated with skimmed milk.  It's thick and full flavored.  These three gallons are waiting to become cheddar cheese today.

With so much cream, we are making butter everyday.  After churning, we refrigerate it in two cup containers and then cut each chunk in half.  They go into the freezer in one cup blocks.  These might be used next week for brownies, or they may wait for the fall when Christina is dry.  Regardless, we'll have plenty of butter.

It continues to be cold and rainy but the forecast is for some sun.  I'm a big woosy about working outside in the cold.  I can't seem to get up the motivation to do anything.  But the sunshine draws me right out...  the front garden needs tilled and we still have lots of spring planting to be done.

There is a gift this life offers that I am slow to accept.  So much of my American life has been an ADHD experience — lots of busy-ness, noise, and always thinking about the next thing.  This life offers full immersion into the present moment and the peace that goes with that.  But I am slow to give up my to-do lists and their demands. This is a lesson that will take God a long time to teach me.

Beautiful

Is there anything more beautiful than a fresh bloom on a healthy strawberry plant?  Well yes, a ripe red strawberry would be more beautiful, but it's too early.

We are finally seeing some indications that seeds have been planted.  The peas are coming up quickly.  We need to get the trellis up.  I spotted tiny little radishes, lettuces, turnips, beets, and just today I saw little onions.  The only thing that remains in hiding is the carrots. 

Yesterday we got the potatoes planted.  All of us headed out looking like a field crew, dug deep trenches and laid the little potato pieces in.  We covered them half way.  As they start to grow, we'll continue covering them.  I've read that's the best way to keep those potatoes down underground instead of pushing themselves up to the surface and turning green. 

Our seedlings in the basement continue to grow well.  The celery and celeriac are 8-10 inches tall and look healthy.  The tomatoes and peppers are starting to shoot up.  They should be healthy and strong when it's time put them in the garden in another four weeks.

Planting

The potatoes did not get planted yesterday on Good Friday.  I had forgotten to cut them into planting pieces.  The directions say to cut into two inch sizes with 1-2 eyes per piece.  Then they need to dry until a firm callous has formed, keeping out the mold.  Today they don't seem fully dry, which lets me be lazy until Monday.

Our new apple trees had been neglected long enough, though.  These are heirloom organic apple trees.  We knew we wanted heirloom and organic, but the old heirloom varieties aren't very familiar to me.  It's hard to tell much about an apple from a description.  This one, Spitzenburg, is one that ripens late, stores well in a root cellar, and is said to improve while in storage, peeking about Christmas time.  It's also rumored to be Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple.  That all sounds good. 

We got four trees and got them in the ground yesterday after soaking in a bucket of water all morning.  Now we only need some free-stone peaches and I think our orchard will be complete.  In a few years we're hoping to be overrun with fruit.

Waking Up

We enjoyed our first rhubarb harvest.  These were organic plants we put in last spring and watched them creep through the season.  This spring they came up big and healthy.  We'll only harvest a few times and then let them have the rest of the season to grow strong.  Our first harvest yielded six cups of rhubarb for the freezer.

I read that rhubarb leaves are good mulch.  It makes sense.  They are so big.  So after cutting the leaves off, we put them around the rhubarb plants to hold the weeds down.

In the category of things-that-only-happen-with-children-in-the-house, we have a butt mark in the flat of onions.  This flat is one too many to fit under the grow lights, so we have it by the back window.  We have been pleased that our three-year-old hasn't dug in the dirt, but the other day he was standing next to it, lost his balance, and in went the butt.  It looks like most of the onions survived the trauma.

Last year our ten-year-old twins made a bird feeder at girl scouts.  We hung it right outside the back window and then watched a bird pair take it over as a nesting site.  They are back this year.  It is a good nesting location: sheltered, safe from squirrels, and food right there.

The land is waking up.

Promises

Spring is the season of promises.  These blooms are promises of fruit this summer.   The new plants growing in the garden are promises of food next winter.  The sun rising in the south and the lengthening days are promises of gentle days to come.

God makes promises in Scripture and we are reminded that God keeps promises.  God promised to care for us, love us, provide us with all we need, and to save us from those things that make life meaningless.  God keeps promises.  I hope these blooms are also promises from God.

Our seed potatoes arrived from Seed Savers Exchange.  We are growing a russet, yukon gold, and a blue potato.  I heard somewhere that potatoes should be planted on Good Friday.  That doesn't make a lot of sense since Good Friday can move around by up to a month, but since Good Friday is soon (and not today) it works for me.

My daughters are doing their first 4-H project — poultry.  They are learning all the parts of the chicken and all the types of combs (those red things on the tops of their heads).  All this learning called for a photo-visit to the chicken pen.  Our rooster, Bennie, is modeling his nice single comb here for the camera.

New Plans

We have declared victory!  The CMT test (for mastitis) was full negative. <happy dance> That's right. We beat it.  That's right. We beat it!

Aahhh.   Then we talked with the lab they said that nothing is growing.  They'll let it go for a week, but so far nothing is growing.  It's nice to know that Christina is healthy and our milk is good.

Our septic system is failing and we are required to hook up to main sewer.  It's an expensive project, but it had to be done sooner or later.  We were expecting the contractor to come tomorrow or the next day, but they arrived early ready to work.  The kids love watching the backhoe, but it did mess up our homeschooling schedule.

While they are working we can't run any water down the drain or flush the toilet.   Today we are dedicating ourselves to a field trip day — visits to the library, historical museum, zoo, playground, and out to lunch.

This sewer is like many surprises God throws into life.  I get to choose to put energy into resisting it or energy into enjoying it.  Maybe by the time I die it won't be such a challenge to choose.  Today I choose to enjoy it!

Seeing the Finish Line

After two fulls days of milking every 2-3 hours, the test this morning was soooo close to negative.  I had to look a while to find any mucous.  We are so happy!  This is a big change from yesterday.  We'll do one more day of milking that quarter every three hours, anticipating that tomorrow she will be completely clean and we can declare victory.

For those who are worried that our steers don't get enough attention, our daughter took these extra daytime visits as opportunities for hugging.  It's adorable to see her hug on the cows, but the way they lean their heads over and hug back is pretty cute too. 

Some of our garden soil masquerades as rock.  This clay soil stays in chunks.  Some friends said that if we add gypsum it will break apart, but it will take a year.  Can we do that with garden plants in?

Helping Healing

Well Dang.  We finally tested Christina after doing the antibiotics, expecting everything to be clear, and it was in three quarters, but one quarter is worse.  Since we already treated with antibiotic, any further antibiotic treatment will be more complicated, so we started with the old fashioned method — lots and lots of milking.  Beginning yesterday, we are milking that quarter every 2-3 hours during the day.  It's a pretty quick milking but it's beginning to wear us out.  Christina loves it — extra candy (the molasses-cover grain she gets when we milk), but it's hard on us.  We tested again this morning and we're seeing improvement, but this could be a while.  In the meantime, we'll take a sample of the milk to the lab.  Since we don't have a sterile tube, we sterilized a canning jar to collect the milk.

Those seeds we planted a week have not turned into beautiful little green dots.  The garden still looks like an expanse of brown dirt interupted by the little seedings we planted.  I figured maybe they're not getting enough water, so we put a sprinkler out.  After all that waiting for it to stop raining, now I'm ready for it to start!

It's really past time to be starting warm weather seedlings like tomatoes and peppers, but better late than never.  We have four different types of tomatoes, two sweet peppers and three hot peppers, and a bunch of herbs and flowers, along with another flat of onions.  The celery was ready for repotting but now it takes up more space.  My little growing area is too full, but I was able to mash it all in there.

Last night as I went to sleep, I asked for God's healing power on Christina's udder...

Tentative Re-engagement

Yesterday I successfully made fromage blanc, so bolstered by that success, I'm attempting a colby and cream cheese.  It's been almost two weeks since I made cheese.  I can't believe it's been so long.

Today is a full cooking day.  Along with the cheese, wheat is ground and bread is rising.  We made a chocolate glaze for some cupcakes my daughter made yesterday.  In preparation for sabbath tomorrow, we need to grind some more wheat.  And then there is dinner to figure out.  I think the girls should make pizza.

Today is also the occasion for our bi-monthly grocery shopping.  We'll go to the Boise Co-op for some essentials along with some herbs to make our own chap stick.  That'll be a new adventure.

Failure

When people hear about the way we live, I get told, "you're so amazing."  I smile, knowing it's nice, but inwardly shaking my head.  People say that when they've seen only my successes.  They don't see my failures.  Today I had a big one.

I started two quarts of cream for cream cheese.  The first step is to warm it up to 86ºF and let it ripen (culture grow) for twelve hours.  I got everything in the pot, turned the stove on, and walked away.  When the smell called us back, it had turned into a black mess.

I have been leading a retreat on God's unfailing love, regardless of our failures or mistakes, but when I discovered this pot, I was immediately filled with a sense of failure and discouragement that spilled out into every part of my life.  How could I have forgotten it?  I ruined the cream and almost ruined the pot.  I failed just like I have failed at so many things.  I feel like I should curl up and stay away to protect the world from myself.  We need to make mozzarella today, but I asked my husband to do it because I don't trust myself. 

Running away after mistakes is a common human condition, one that I am very familiar with.  Peter failed way bigger than just forgetting stuff on the stove, and he was completely redeemed.  Mary Magdalene was filled with despair at the crucifixion but she was later filled with great joy.  But neither of them had to quickly snap out of it.  God gave them time.  Thank God for time.

Gentle Growing

I'm giving a parish retreat with two other gifted speakers so daily preparations have eaten up my blog time.  But I have had a chance to do a few things. 

Our clothespin bag was literally falling apart.  I cut off the old fabric and used it to draft a pattern.  I made another bag, sewing the metal form right into it.  This hardy canvas should hold up for many years.

After a season of drying clothes indoors, I'm so ready for some outside drying.  When clothes dry in the sun it eliminates all off odor.  The diapers especially have developed a little off odor and after only one session in the sun, everything smells fresh and nice.  Ah, the blessings of sun disinfecting.

Right after we finished up the garden, the weather turned cool and wet.  I'm so happy that our seeds are getting watered in and that life has been easy on the transplants.  Our little cabbages and lettuces are sitting up straight and already starting to grow. 

I love the garden at this stage. Not a weed in sight, the furrows so straight and all the plants so well behaved. It won't last long, so I enjoy it while it lasts.

Tonight our parish mission concludes with the way of the cross from Jesus' perspective.  My heart is so firmly enveloped by this land and this family, but it sure is good to share faith with other servants of God.

The Garden Is In

After a very full day, the cold weather vegetables are in.  I spent the morning tilling the soil again.  The manure isn't ready to use as compost, so we proceeded without it.  Hopefully the ground will still be fertile.  We might add some horse manure from the neighbor before we plant warm weather stuff like corn and beans.  Last year we used horse manure and the garden was prolific.

After the soil was mixed and soft, my husband cut the furrows.  These little ditches every thirty inches line up the gates on the irrigation pipe with the furrows in the pasture.  It is hard work with the added challenge of going straight while cutting over long expanses.  One of our daughters stood at the end in the correct spot to give him something to aim for.  When it was all said and done, they looked great.

Then planting began.  We planted turnips, lettuce, peas, radishes, carrots, and beets from seed.  We transplanted the cabbages and lettuce that I've been growing in the basement.  We have some more lettuce and broccoli seedings that will be hardened off in a few days and ready for transplant.

We also transplated a bunch of strawberries.  Last year I put in about 200 bare root strawberry plants but almost all died.  I think about six made it.  Then we bought a few lives plants and put those in.  The place we put them in the front garden was too soggy for them.  Today we dug them all up and moved them into a row in the back, where we think they'll be happier.  Those few plants put out a bunch of runners.  By the time we were done transplating, we had about 75 strawberry plants in neat rows.  God willing, they will all survive and produce like mad!

It was a long day.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect at about 70ºF; we were in shorts and tanks.  Tonight it's forecast to rain and now we look forward to all those seeds getting watered in.  With moist weather, they will germinate quickly.

Tonight we go to bed tired and aching, but with the contentment of knowing the growing season has begun and good food is in our future.