Storm Damage

Well El Nino is here finally, and it's cold and wet and stormy. Rick had last Monday off, so we went to the farm even though it was pretty cold. While it all looks a bit bleak, there are subtle signs of spring, such as the swelling buds on the cherry tree. I love the textures in this photo.

I noticed this bug, and took a pic so we can try to identify it. I see a lot of this sort of bug around.

We actually got Rick C. to come over. I didn't even bother trying to call him, but Buddy did, and he came over. He was... displeased by the cold weather, and when it started to rain, he left. We are made of sterner stuff of course, so we just took cover in the playhouse, finished our beers, and watched it rain. As a prize for sticking it out, we got to see a lovely rainbow.

Then on Tuesday, Karen came over and we planted some seeds to go in the seed starter box. She planted raddicchio, endive, and fava beans. I planted a little raddicchio and endive from her seeds, but mostly planted more lettuces: baby star, bibb blend, buttercrunch, and arugula.

Then on Wednesday, the storm really hit hard. We had high winds with gusts up to 60 mph and driving rain. At one point, the wind was so strong I got up and went to my "safe point" in the house, away from windows and as far as possible from the big trees. My heart was really thumping. Fortunately, no trees fell on our house. Unfortunately, it was the last straw for the fence posts. Here you can see that the whole back fence came down. What a mess! Nothing inside got broken, but some of the plants got a little squished.

The power went out also, so I was unable to work. The only sensible thing to do in a situation like this is to drink beer! Power was out all over the south side, so Buddy came over to drink also. And Bill got sent home from work due to loss of power, so he came over as well. And it was a good thing! Rick got off work early and struggled through streets with no streetlights to get to Osh and buy poles. The guys helped us stand the fence back up, and we did a temporary fix with the poles.

Obviously, we'll have to wait for nicer weather to fix it for real. But hopefully this will hold it up until then. It sure was a good thing we had Buddy and Bill to help us, and we're quite grateful for their assistance.

*********************************************

Weather Note

El Nino is back, and forecasters are saying we'll be having this wet stormy weather "until spring." It's also getting cold again this week, dropping back into the mid 30s at night. Highs are in the 50s, and it's cloudy, foggy, and wet wet wet. The creeks are full and there is standing water everywhere. "Lake Fetter" is completely blocking the garden gate (which the storm broke anyway).

*********************************************

The verge outside the broken fence is covered in debris from the dead tree that the city refuses to take out, but at least most of that tree is still standing.

Once again, our reward for suffering through the storm was a lovely rainbow.

I haven't been to the farm in a week, but at least I'm starting seeds in the meantime. Here are the seeds I started on 1-14. I have excellent germination rates. They came up by the 19th. This pan is the Rouge Grenobloise.

And this is the blushed butter.

None of the other seeds are up yet of course.