Family Update #16 Summer 2021
It has been a busy 4 mouths. Our summer was filled with homestead projects, harvesting, hosting guests, and fixing up the bigger farm house and barn for a move this Fall. After 3 years of a steep learning curve we are getting slightly more comfortable with learning from our failures. This year we actually had a decent crop to harvest, and the animals are multiplying too. Rose our milk cow calved a healthy little one named Martha Moo and our goats added 5 more does to the herd. Sadly, the sheep did not have lambs this year but that was hopefully solved by Rambo our new ram from a friends herd.
In addition to the homestead Dad has been traveling a lot and the three of us and Mom got a chance to go to Arizona for a baby shower and reconnect with old friends. While she was away Dad and the older kids built a surprise playground and picnic table for the littles to keep them entertained while we work in the field.
Homestead Projects
Homestead Visitors
This summer we had lots of guests. Fr. Fessio SJ and the team from Ignatius press visited the homestead and brought some homemade wine. Fr. Charlie spent two weeks in Nashville on retreat and was able to get in some bluegrass picking at our hardware store and clay shooting. We also had a surprise visit from our Nana, and our big sister (technically not a guest).
The Harvest
We’re happy to say that year’s hemp harvest has been a great success. Biggest hemp crop in Davidson county*. For those who don’t know, we grow organic hemp and process our own organic CBD oil. We started harvesting the hemp in September to dry in are climate/control drying barn (a.k.a. the garage). Once its dried which takes 8 to 10 days, it is “bucked” by hand and then tumbled to remove the small leaves. The CBD rich flower bud is then processed in CBD oil. So far we processed about 20 pounds of buds which should yield a few hundred ounces of oil.
(*Less farmers planted this year, but still we’ll take the title).
