Looking for the Promise

It feels as if every day is a rainy day right now.  That isn't true and we know it.  We had some very nice days in early to mid-September and we awaited drier fields anxiously so we could get things done.  In fact, we did get a few things done.  Then, it rained some more.  And, a bit more.  Annnnnd... a bit more.  One morning we awoke with the understanding based on the weather forecast as shared by multiple sources that we should have a day without rain and we looked to the East and saw the light of a new dawn.

We looked to the West and saw.......

Clouds and a rainbow

Under normal circumstances, the relatively light rain shower that did, in fact, march right towards our farm, would not have been much more than an inconvenience.  In this case, it felt very much like a betrayal.  Isn't a rainbow supposed to be a promise?  Don't we usually associate the promises of a rainbow with positive things?  Then what was the promise of rain doing on our 'positive promise list?'   After all, we've seen this sight on the farm multiple times now this year:

October 1

Because we run a working farm, we can't just go inside and ignore the rain and water.  That used to be the case when we both worked off-farm jobs.  So, we remember what it was like when the consequences for extreme weather seemed so much less personal in nature (as long as you were not directly impacted by a flood or tornado of course).  Constant rains would be a staple of conversation, where you could roll your eyes and say, "Oh great!  It's raining again" and pretend that it had a 'real' consequence for your life.  But, the reality is that the biggest losses were cancelled baseball games, some dampness in the basement or an outdoor gathering being moved indoors.

But this?  This is a daily slog to get food to the poultry flocks.  It's losing boots in the mud and desperately trying not to fall on your can while you try to get your foot back in the boot.  It's about watching hundreds of tomatoes rot and numerous other crops drown.  It's a situation where we actually have to think carefully about what equipment we should even consider getting out to do work because we don't want to permanently tear up pathways or fields.  Caleb nearly realized this the hard way recently when he took the lawn tractor to help haul water to birds (yes, we do see the irony in that).  He doesn't usually do that job so he wasn't as aware as Tammy and I are as to what paths are safest to take right now.  It was a near thing, but he managed to NOT get stuck.

We know we have been dwelling on the excessive rains in our blog posts and in our email newsletters and we DO apologize for that.  The reality is that this has been an exceedingly difficult year for us at the Genuine Faux Farm.  We continue to fight chemical spray issues and we have continued to see a decline in demand for what we do with our CSA farm share program.  Other sales outlets seem tenuous or fragile to us right now, which leaves us wondering why we should be so upset about crop losses (except we know that the failure to have these crops contributes to the problem).  The rains only seem to be mirroring my own attitude for what we do at the farm right now. 

So, here we are.  Looking for a promise that makes sense to us.  We could just accept a 'promise' that is less than promising or we can look for the opportunities that are hiding behind the persistent rain clouds.  It's at this point in the blog that we should turn this therapy session away from "woe is me" to "I'll take that promise and raise you some determination."  But, I am having a difficult finding it this time around.

In most blog posts that we've written that explore difficulties on the farm, we cycle back to the good.  We show a beautiful picture and say, "look, everything is fine we've got this!"  And, I will say that we have every intention of making it through this and working it out.  But, there is also value in sharing the struggle.  We KNOW there are worse things than what we are experiencing here.  We are fully aware that we are lucky to be who we are and to have the resources we have (friends, family, supportive customers, etc..).  We are grateful for the kindnesses and support we have gotten - so please don't take this posting as a rejection of that  either!

Perhaps the blessing this time around is a chance to look harder for the promise, whatever it ends up being.