Two words: wet, hot.
Like most farmers in the area, we have been trying to make the most of the little dry windows and the wet days alike. We seeded our first seeds in the ground this week between two rain showers at dusk with the help of the truck headlights, while Evan Shea cheered me on and Eila wondered (sometimes aloud) why we weren’t getting ready for bed. Yesterday, in slightly too wet soil, Jessica, Lalo, and Anna Laura planted potatoes right up until another hard shower halted their progress (see picture…its the one that looks like just dirt). Lalo even seeded several acres of cover crops on Tuesday thanks to a lot of sun and wind that helped dry out the soil.
Despite all the rain, we aren’t behind yet, and the transplants growing in the greenhouse (see pictures) look beautiful. We have also had a chance to work on several big projects: clearing an acre of overgrown cedar saplings to make way for native plantings and a summer area for animals (we did lose the first round of chips to major flooding), bending hundreds of pieces of metal to create low tunnels for winter growing and relocating the apple trees to clear space for the tunnels, and extending the shed so we can park both tractors under cover. And…I handed over the farm tax information to our accountant on Wednesday and I’m almost done with all the records for our annual organic certification inspection. I’ll be a different person when I’m done!