Hi all. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I don’t want more rain right now, but that’s what I’m going to be getting.

AROUND THE FARM
The rain and wet is making life difficult. Current forecasts for the rest of this week show another 2-plus inches of rain due. The rain has and will continue to cause problems, some of which I’ll detail in the section below.

Other than the rain and its associated mess, things are going pretty well. There is, as always, loads of work to be done to maintain the farm property itself, but that comes secondary to the main task of running the business.

IN THE FIELD
Rain, rain, and more rain. While I didn’t get into specifics last week about the damage done by the week of rain, I finally finished the survey of damage from the almost 12 inches of rain we got. Here’s a brief, and still incomplete list of the losses:

Lettuce – approx 2400 plants over 3 plantings lost
Zucchini – approx 30% of plants lost or severely damaged
Potatoes – part of 1 section washed away
Pumpkins – part of 2 sections washed away, and approx 10% of plants lost
Peaches – major damage to 2 of the 4 trees
Tomatoes – plants okay, but damage to fruit
Cabbage – approx 200 minis from next planting lost

These are the main losses, with other crops suffering less damage. Additionally, the weeds have been going crazy with all the rain, and it is now all but impossible to keep up with them.

Still, I should have some of most all the crops that are currently being picked. There will, however, be shortages and occasional missing varieties. Potatoes require dry to harvest, so while I was able to dig some this past week, it looks from the forecast that I won’t be able to dig any more than I’ve currently got until some time next week.

FROM THE COOP
This past week in the coop was a sad one. On Monday, I lost 2 chickens. One suffered the same egg-laying problem as two of the others and was put down to prevent additional suffering. The other chicken just up and died – cause unknown.

Beyond that, the chickens are generally doing well, though they would also really like for the rain to stop. Every time I go by they let me know how upset they are that they have a wet pen. They are also getting a bit testy with each other, and recently there have been some nasty fights between the hens, which I am assuming is due to them spending much more time bunched up inside and having a bit of cabin fever. I’m working on a way to get them some more space to move in to, and also cover part of the pen to keep it drier for them.

OTHER GENERAL INFO
The weather is taking its toll. The rain and wet makes most field activities take considerably longer than usual. Unfortunately, this means that while I had hoped to be able to make more Strawberry-Rhubarb preserves this past week, I was too busy still trying to get field work done. Not sure when I’ll get to it right now, but as soon as I can, it’ll get made.

That’s it for now. Hope to see you all at the farm soon. Have a great week.