Behind the Recipe Farm Update: May 16, 2021

This article is a weekly recap of some of the things happening in our lives, on our new farm, and is a behind-the-recipe look at the day to day of raising a family in Southern Utah. Enjoy!

This week involved a lot of time in the garden.

In the first days and weeks after planting new little seeds and tender plants, especially in my hot area, it’s important to keep everything moist. One afternoon of letting the soil dry out too much and it could kill everything trying to sprout. So I’ve spent a lot of time in the garden moving my hoses up and down the top to water the rows.

I’m normally a pretty confident gardener but I’ve been more worried about this set up recently. I think it’s the newness of it and the fact that I hold expectations and hopes for it. I always do that to an extent, but this year I’ve put more pressure on the garden to produce so that we can sell some of the produce. I’ve been actively letting go of that pressure. I’m just the gardener, God’s in charge of the miracle inside the seed (and me) and that’s something for me to remember.

The bees seem to be doing their thing! I helped Thomas refill their sugar water (you have to feed them while they are getting established because they don’t have any honey to use) and it was exciting. They were so calm but have a really powerful presence, I think it’s the vibration for the buzzing that feels intense inside my heart. I’m so proud of how close I got.

The cows have had us thinking this week. They have ring worm (it’s a fungal infection that looks like scabby warts, similar to athletes foot, it doesn’t actually have any worms to it), which is really normal but contagious so the kids can’t love on the baby like they would like to.

Millie isn’t producing a lot, 6-9 cups each milking this week. It’s a lot of expense and effort for that little amount of milk. I had the baby’s horn buds removed this week which was needed but had her feeling sluggish for the day. And I’m trying to figure out if and when to rebreed Millie, if they need dewormed/deloused (and how, and with what, and can you drink the milk if you give them medicine). We are also figuring out the details of moving them out to pasture (is there too much alfalfa in the grass which can make them bloat, how much space do they need and how often should we move them to a new space if we do rotational grazing, how are we transitioning them from dry alfalfa hay to green grass again considering bloating issues?).

I think I underestimated the needs to two small cows. They’ve needed the most maintenance of anything we’ve ever had. It’s been a learning curve that we are still in the throws of!

Puppies and kids and Husband are doing great. The puppies are looking extra shaggy and I ordered hair cutting tools for them, wish me luck!

The kids finished up school and started summer school. I’m a big fan of rote memorization for some things and that’s what they are working on in summer school. They are doing some reading on their own or with mom, working on memorization of things like times tables, state and capitols, and working on cursive handwriting. Nothing too extreme but things that needed a little extra attention. We redid our cleaning “zones” and I’m turning school, reading, chores, etc into opportunities to earn points for our very fun summer reading program, complete with great prizes like mini boxes of sugar cereal, new pool toys, and coupons for late nights and dates.

This is going to be full of veggies and flowers one day and I’m so looking forward to it!

So many hopes and dreams all in one place. It’s just amazing how meaningful and beautiful all of this work has been. It’s good for my soul, even on the days it feels like it’s more than I understand or can learn. This dream is unfolding into reality, one day at a time.