If anyone ever thinks that farming is not a lot of work – think again. I am SO ready for a vacation, but at the same time I leave for a little bit and constantly think of things that need to get done.
With the produce coming in, we need to pick every other day at least….. and that isn’t always happening so we are now getting some zucchini baseball bats. But it’s alright for us at the moment. After 2 years, we are learning our limits and I believe we have reached them.
We won’t be breeding the hogs this year…. we don’t need or want any more animals over the winter. It’s just too much work and we need a break. We have our last 2 batches of broiler chickens out in pens now. We were planning on at least 1-2 more batches, but it is taking too much out of me at the moment. Some things need to be streamlined and it takes work to do that.
The problem we are really running into is that last year we really didn’t take any break – we continued throughout the winter and now of course when it is the start of our busiest season, we are burned out on a lot of things. I swear I don’t want to see another green bean already – but I haven’t put any aside for our family for the winter yet. And tomatoes aren’t here yet! Once those start – whew – I get to make spaghetti sauce and salsa pretty much all week long. On top of the pickles (which by the way are awesome if I do say so myself – and I was worried)….and relishes….. I need more hours.
This week was Joe’s birthday – so we did take that day off. And it did throw us off a little bit, but we seem to pick up right back where we were and continue. Today (Friday the 13th) we were both a little grumpy at each other but got over it after about 45 minutes…
More pleasant stuff – so you all don’t think that all I do is complain….. today I took the kids to a homeschool conference at the Dulles Expo Center. That was fun….expensive….. but fun. Joe has said that I can homeschool the kids this year “as long as I promise not to screw them up”…… I expected that response, especially from someone who 13 years asked me to marry him by putting a ring on my finger and telling me “don’t act stupid”, but I love him anyways. So the homeschooling thing will be an adventure for all of us and I’m excited and scared at the same time.
I am excited about the tomatoes coming in – I ran out of my homemade spaghetti sauce about a month ago and it’s killing me…. but I DO NOT use prego or ragu - gosh forbid as Joe is Italian and I think it would be a cause for divorce in his mind if I ever tried to do something like that 
But using canned tomatoes is never the same as fresh or even my personal canned sauce. It makes you feel good to serve your family something that you made.
Another positive thing is in a week the 4-H fair is going to be at the fair grounds! That’s exciting – I can’t wait for Jacob to show the sheep and his hogs look awesome! I’m always proud of him when he shows and we put up the ribbons in his areas next to his animals. Next week we will be doing posters for his animals. Unfortunately due to the Avian Flu being found in Shenandoah county VA, there will be no poultry at the fair. Complete bummer as Jacob had 2 roosters to show, but we’ll make some posters about his birds. Alexis will make some posters also. She is participating in the Sykes Hall exhibit part where she will bake some cookies and also show a veggie she chooses from the garden. Personally, I’m baking bread for the Skyes Hall exhibit – never know I might get my own ribbon So we will be busy that week but looking forward to it…
Well time to head off and watch a movie….. and rest up for tomorrow’s market day.
