Last week the skies opened gently for four days and we didn’t have to irrigate at all.  Until today.  We received a modest dose of gentle hail (not a contradiction in terms, in fact).  However, the soil moisture is rapidly leaving us from last week’s rains.  The summer heat is setting in, already.  The next couple of weeks are forecasted to hold mid 70- mid 80s.  So, we’ll be hard at it as far as irrigation is concerned.

We have a most excellent irrigation system.  It can deliver a lot of water at once.  We have a lot of water as well.  It comes from our amazing irrigation district, and it comes abundantly, and it comes everyday for six months, starting last week.  We, however, have a cog missing in the wheel.  And that cog is the most important.  It is the pump that takes the water from our irrigation district-fed pond, and moves it through our system.  We are paralyzed without that pump.

Right now we have a very janky system that delivers a tiny amount of water to the two acres we have planted right now.  So, you could imagine that we were very enthusiastic about four days of rain last week.

We should get the pump installed on Thursday.

We have 35 CSA members right now.

I’m learning it’s wise to heed the weather forecast.  Here I am today, planting more broccoli and cabbage, it’s sunny as can be and my eyes cast down into the bed, oblivious to the changing sky.  The forecast called for showers.   The sun was shining through the clouds. Showers…ha! Under a banner of sun I decided to head to the greenhouse to prepare the ground for planting beans.  Ten minutes later it’s hailing and I’m running around yelling: “no, God,… Read the rest of this article »

Somedays I feel as though, maybe, Mother Nature is telling me to stay inside.  Like today.  Preparing a bed for the second planting of brassicas, happily turning from the wind, and then it starts hailing. Okay, I say, I can head into the greenhouse. I’m learning the interplay between control and digression, respect and responsibility to the job.  I can only wait so long to plant things, because the people need to eat.  Yet, what can you do when a sunshower turns into a hailstorm.  Not… Read the rest of this article »