Clueless No More - 3 Years Later

It's Thursday, the day on the blog when I often look for a "Throwback" post.  Sometimes, I pick a blog from years ago that can just be re-offered with minimal changes.  Most of the time, I make some moderately important changes, if only to make the post more current.  Then, there are times like this - where I find a blog and it provides an interesting perspective and I add to it.

This one comes from October 2, 2019 - yet another year where we were dealing with too much rain, especially in the Fall.  I found this ironic because... well.  We announced we were done with the CSA after that Fall and we started to scale down at the Genuine Faux Farm.  Since then, we've had three seasons that would have been pretty close to ideal growing seasons for us if we had continued.

Don't get me wrong.  There were still issues, like late frosts in the Spring (2021) and strong storms (also 2021).  Ok... maybe 2021 would not have been an ideal growing season.  So, never mind.

Still, let's transport everyone back to October of 2019 for a bit.  The ash trees had leafed out for their last season, but you could see the Emerald Ash Borers were taking their toll.  The frame of the barn was still standing (that would be taken care of in 2021).  And.. things were wet.

Look!  Really!  It was wet out there.

We know most of you don't get it.  But, we still love you anyway.  And for those that do get it.  We love you too.

I've had a couple of conversations recently with other growers so I could actually talk with someone who really understood what I mean by "it's really wet out there."  It's certainly not your fault if you don't quite understand what I mean.  But, perhaps it IS my fault for not helping you to understand what we mean when we tell you it is really wet and it has gotten difficult for us to do the things we need to do as farmers.

Let me tell you what it means when we say it is REALLY WET on the farm.

1. It Means You Can't Use Most of Your Tools Effectively
What you see in the picture below is one of the paths we maintain so we can drive our tractor, or the lawn tractor, or pull carts to and from various parts of our farm. 

We actually maintain clover/grass paths so we have a place that isn't muddy to travel after some rain.  But, what happens when things are so wet you can't drive on those paths?

Well, you can try to drive on them.  And, there are times that you have to.  Until you get stuck.  Thus far, we haven't pushed our luck too much this year.  But, still, it does mean that I have the option of hoping not to get stuck OR I walk out with a couple of harvest crates.  Fill them.  Then walk back with full harvest crates.  Repeat.  Until you are out of time.

And - as a sidenote from 2022, these paths did not stay this nice.  We DID have to drive and walk on them.  That means, things got increasingly muddy - and hazardous.  I finally got a hole filled this year that was created in 2019 in this area as we tracked back and forth.

But, don't worry so much about how much time it takes to harvest.  Why?

2. It Means You Lose Significant Parts of Your Harvest

Well, because your harvest is melting away in front of your eyes, that's why!  If you'll recall, we couldn't plant on time and we were running four weeks or more late on much of our planting (because it was cold and wet).  The field tomatoes, for example, were just getting into peak.  But, too much water and you lose the plants, fruit and all.

Sure, you can try to pull the green tomatoes out ahead of the rains.. or during the rains... or...  But, it's not easy pulling in tomatoes when it is this muddy.

With the old weather patterns that typically resulted in drier Fall months, you could expect that you wouldn't have to fight fungus problems with your cauliflower.  Well, never mind.  These heads can look great one day and not so good the next.  Not helping, Mother Nature!

Here, this picture is actually kinda pretty.

So, here I am in 2022, looking at these pictures - and I remind myself once again of some of the reasons we decided we needed to change what we were doing.  This pattern of too wet had held true for far too many of our years since we started in 2004.  It's just ironic that we would see much less of this problem once we took ourselves "out of the game."  And, no, it's not because we don't notice it anymore.  We're still involved in growing things enough to be fully aware of what is going on with the weather.

It's enough to make one think Mother Nature is having a good chuckle at our expense.

3. Chores Become... well... More of a Chore

We pasture raise our poultry because we think this is a better way to maintain the health of the birds and the health of the flock.  Unless it gets really wet out there.  Then, well, it's still better for them as long as they have some shelter to go to if they wish it.

But, it still makes the effort of raising poultry and working with them that much more difficult.    The picture above is actually before today's rain.  It's much wetter out there now.  And, the more the birds travel on the pasture, the muddier and more beat up the pasture becomes.  And, the indoor areas?  Well, they go out, they bring mud and wet back with them.  So, we need to clean up the rooms a bit more often.  And the eggs.... we clean them anyway, but it takes more time to clean them when it is wet and muddy outside.

We have to fight to find 'higher ground' to put feeders and... ironically enough.. waterers.  We have to dump the slurry of wet feed and rainwater out of feeders that collected rain and try to find ways to get birds their food where it is drier.  We have to wear our muck boots and try not to slip and visit the surface of the ground... er... the surface of the puddles, in a rapid and undesired way.  And the longer it goes, the uglier it gets.

We find ourselves walking differently to handle the conditions and then we wonder why feet are sorer than usual or back muscles or other muscles are cramping up.  And.. the chores take us three times longer to complete than they usually do.  We find ourselves having to make adjustments and changes to our systems on a daily basis simply to handle the fact that it is REALLY wet out there.

4. You Get Shorter Windows to Do Your Work

This one may be obvious.  If it is too wet to do work four days out of seven, then you have three days, instead of seven to get your week's worth of work done.  That's ok, because we know that is going to happen sometimes when you farm.  But, when it happens over and over and OVER again?  Oy.

4.5 It Means You Need to Walk Around

Oh.  Heck with that.  I'm walking through.

5. Farmers Struggle to Keep Moving

Sep 1 to Oct 1 rainfall in 2019, we're in the 10-15" range

Some farms may not struggle with the wet as much as we do.  Our farm has heavier soil and it is quite flat.  In other words, it takes less to make us struggle a bit with too much rain.  So, we do things to attempt to address the situation.  But, when you do what you can and it still isn't enough, it gets pretty difficult to keep at it.

We'll certainly do our best because that's what we should do.  But, we're not going to be sad to see this season end.

Because it's really wet out here. 

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So, here we are, at the end of September in 2022.  I found myself grumping a little about the dew on the grass getting my feet damp the other day.  After seeing this, I'm going to revise that grump significantly.  It has not been so long that I can't easily remember EXACTLY how difficult things have been during those times when it WAS really, really wet out there.

It also cured me of any thought that the Genuine Faux Farm might try to resurrect itself to its former glory.  I see Mother Nature peering around the corner of the building - just waiting for us to do that very thing.  And, if we did - you KNOW what's going to happen.

Instead of resurrecting the farm to its former self, we'll be content with continuing to evolve and change the farm into its new self.  I think we can live with that.  And maybe Mother Nature will stay behind the corner... waiting for us to forget the past.