I LOVE CLIPBOARDS
Working at the Mill in the mornings is like a wee holiday. I have clipboards – I make my plan for the day and then I do it. I stack all the filled bags of freshly stone-ground flour in my Pantry. I make up boxes and fill them with bags of delicious ingredients then post them to people who care about good food. I work on making sure more people know about our locally grown grain turned into freshly milled flours. Then someone pays me money. And no one bites me or snows on my head. 
But still I work as fast as I can so I can get back to the farm!
Yesterday afternoon I was using the tractor to scrape the concrete pad clean. My two big cows must surely be getting closer to calving and I want their concrete pad clean.
My view from the seat of the tractor,
Look at all that lovely compost. In a year it will be perfect. And in the meantime the compost pile is a mountain. Instead of hauling it through the fields like I have done in previous years, which is really destructive of my pasture, I have asked Our John to put a big long gate in the old ruined fence running alongside the concrete pad. Once that is done I can get the manure straight out the side. He needs to modify a gate first but once that is in we can remove the mountain of winter manure very easily. The calves love compost mountains – they can always find somewhere sheltered to sleep and it is always warm!
All these plans have been waiting until he retires. Now he is busier than ever.
After cleaning the yards I weeded four asparagus bays. If we can stay on top of the weeds we will have a good season in the asparagus. Only a few spears breaking free so far but it was snowing only a few days ago! So I should not expect too much yet. With any luck at all we should be harvesting within a few weeks. 
So warm yesterday though. And today will be even better.
Molly is feeling so much healthier now. She always takes a while to recover from birthing all those babies. I know she is feeling better because she is meets me at her gate at mealtimes. ( She has kefir in her feed twice a day. Molly and I are both eating lots of probiotics). She no longer makes messes in her sleeping room and is wandering further afield. Her piglets are up and about, lying in the sun and playing in puddles like good babies.
Today will be a good day for pigs. Some sun, some clouds and the wind coming out of the South.
This afternoon after work I will finish my asparagus weeding rotation ( half an hour a day) then I will start in on the Kitchen’s Garden. The weed eater is all charged up and ready to go for trimming after that.
There is lots of rain in the forecast so every fine day needs to be a gardening day.
But first it is 6am, I have bread on its second rise and the Airbnb needs setting up. No rest for the wicked!
Talk soon
Miss C
26 Comments on “I LOVE CLIPBOARDS”
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My mother always said, “No rest for the wicked” and then she’d pause and say, “but I think it’s no rest for the weary today because we’ve been working hard!” We love this life. It’s busy, but so rewarding.
Yes, so much nicer to say it that way, isn’t it? I’ve always thought it sounded so mean calling everyone wicked (especially when they’re working hard!)
I always thought the saying was “no rest for the WEARY!” That would make more sense in your case, because you certainly aren’t wicked!! 😉
In the country around here, it’s “No rest for the wicked, and the righteous don’t need none.” I love idiomatic expressions!
Celi does the mill have limitations on how far afield they can send their milled products? Are the flours packed and vacuum sealed in plastic? Glad you are warming up at last. Laura
I will find out for you. They are definitely sealed.
I wish I had all that compost. My garden hasn’t been doing well the last couple of years. I put all my kitchen compost in the garden and that helps a little. I had a great carrot crop last year.
Sandra, isn’t it funny to yearn for compost? I do too! Every time Celi writes about her huge compost pile, or I see it as in the gorgeous picture above, I see visions of compost piles dancing in my head and imagine it all in our raised beds! Too funny! 🙂
Ah, we could all have Celi’s compost heap if we worked as hard, kept healthy cows and pigs, fed them so beautifully and were so careful to guard every aspect of our set up. You get the compost you deserve, I guess! And the bread, and the asparagus…
And if we had the joy of having a farm and the land to keep them on…
(And everyone’s ‘manure’ can’t necessarily be turned to compost; )
My sturdy paper bag of Bloody Butcher polenta/grits arrived priority mail Monday, after I had just ordered it on Friday! And included a lovely handwritten note from you, Celi. Thank you so much. My friend in Boston to whom I sent a larger bag of Bloody Butcher & a bag of yellow too for her birthday received hers as well on Monday & she was tickled & eager to use. So delightful to have such a special source of these treasures. I hope for all your far-flung readers you can ship worldwide. I’m glad your mornings there are fun for you, clipboards & all. I carry a clipboard of paper around to make quick sketches, maybe for paintings sometime (à la Bonnard). Our museum threw out some perfectly good clipboards once & guess who carried them home? I do love clipboards too!
Love the smell of the Feed Mill. Love making lists and the idea of having a clipboard to keep them organised, C. Also totally admire your scheduling a 1/2 hour weeding the asparagus. So much better for the back to only take a reasonable bite each day!: )
Here’s a book you might enjoy! https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/14/heida-asgeirsdottir-icelandic-shepherd-new-biography
Oh she sounds fascinating!
I will find it! Thank you!
What’s the website of the mill…or did I miss that?!
https://www.themillatjaniesfarm.com/our-flours/calumet-organic-whole-wheat-bread-flour-100-whole-grain-unsifted . Here is the calumet flour I baked with this morning
Compost piles have many uses… Last year when I studied production horticulture we constructed a huge compost pile in the paddock adjacent to the vege gardens, each morning there would be indents where the resident wallabies had made their warm bed for tbe night.
More animals loving compost piles.
No rest for the wicked indeed 😉
Your working resembling a ‘wee holiday’ so resonates with me and makes me remember, Being a penniless immigrant girl I worked every day of every holiday for eleven years during my high school and university years as an Elizabeth Arden consultant at one of our major department stores. Friends going overseas or on beach holidays seemed to feel sorry for me . . . well, amongst the perfumed bright lights and glamorous surroundings of dear David Jones I believe I would have been thrilled to be there even without pay 🙂 ! No pragmatic usefulness as with your work . . . but something I looked forwards to each and every time . . . oh, love the animals finding ‘cosy’ pads to sleep . . .
Sounds like a perfect job for a teenager.
Your talk of calves and compost piles gave me a memory. Down the road from my first house was a large horse farm. The mare and foal pasture was along the road and every day when I passed my the large manure pile was dotted with adorable little foals. Made me smile.
Ha!! Yes! Warm and out of the wind!
Love the tractor shot with the fences in the background.. Also the fence/gate talk. Brings to mind the only time I got to drive a tractor, years and years ago with my grade school friend at his grandfather’s farm not too far from yours. I was so pleased with myself that my legs froze and I forgot his instructions about how a clutch works and drove right into and halfway through a fence. That’s not a good way to make a gate.
Oops! I can see why that is a clear memory!!