Weather Matters

It is 11 am and Hadley has been outside digging like crazy, trying to beat the rain. He has the thankless (but financially profitable - for him) task of double digging my garden beds so I can get my spring garden planted. If it does rain then he will be out of digging work for the next couple of days because it will be too wet to move the soil.

I am praying for rain so I don't have to drag a zillion hoses out to the garden to water the potatoes I planted a couple of days ago. Our irrigation system is still in the "work in progress" stage, so rain would save me a lot of time and would be better for the garden too. On the other hand, rain will prevent me from working on my garden pathways or planting my figs or weeding the blackberry beds. It's always a catch-22. Luckily, the farm life always provides plenty of tasks that need to be done, inside and out, so I am finding that I'm never at a loss for figuring out what to do. Never.

It's funny how tuned in I am to the weather when I am at the farm. Yesterday I mowed like a mad woman, just in anticipation of the rain. We have a small pasture near the pond that has grown out of control. It is mostly weeds now, since it is where the soil from the pond excavation was dumped and then leveled out. I was bent on mowing it because the coyotes have been hiding in the tall weeds at night, howling and calling out to my little chicks each evening around 11 pm. The chickens will be in a chicken tractor when they are put on pasture, but those coyotes won't let that stop them. I thought if I could clean up their cover, then maybe they'd move on. It's wishful thinking, I know, but mowing is always my therapeutic answer to any problem at the farm. When the grass is high, I mow. When it's about to rain, I mow. When I need time alone, I mow.

So I get it now. Weather matters. It affects all of us, for sure, but for farmers it is the barometer of what tasks lies ahead each day. It determines if you lug hoses or turn on your irrigation system. It grows grass which feeds animals. It grows crops and fruit trees. It fill cisterns. It creates mud. It creates more laundry. It pushes you to the workshop to sharpen tools or to the garage to attempt to finally get things in order. Rain gets the housecleaning done, the planting rotations planned and emails checked.

Yes, weather definitely matters. Out here, I am learning to be grateful for all of it.