Feb-June-ary

We're still waiting for summer. The rain continues, breaking records for rainfall this late in the year. Rick calls this month "Feb-June-ary" because it's more like Feb. than June. Last Wed. June 1st, it was less than 60 degrees at midday.

We've also had lots and lots of rain still. This is the new sunny. Seriously, with it "only" this cloudy, we were all excited.

Yes, it's June 1 and we're in hats and coats, huddling in the bar for shelter. Sigh. The guys look out the "rainbow door" to see if there's a rainbow.

There is!

Thursday was much nicer, although the temps all week hovered in the 50s for both highs and lows. Rick can actually huddle outside the bar in his hat and coat.

Ann and Ed stop by.

Rick C folds himself up and does a bunch of weeding. He can get closer to the ground than anyone else in this crowd!

Catherine heads out with a handful of fresh chives to put on the new potatoes that Rick C. dug up from their yard. The potatoes were showing signs of blight, so they pulled them all. It's gonna be a rough year because of all rain. That just kicks up dirt onto the leaves, and provides the best possible conditions for all sorts of blights and fungus.

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What We're Eating
Favas! Lots and lots of fava beans from Dean. I made more pita bread and we add arugula, mustard greens and chard, fresh onion, preserved lemon, and feta cheese. Omg it's good. Look at that enormous bowlful!

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Friday I worked late, and Saturday was nasty and rainy. Yesterday started out rainy, but when Rick and I finished brunch at the pub, it was sunny. We figured we better take advantage because surely this sunny moment couldn't last. We went direct from the pub, with only the growler to sustain us. But it stayed nice all day! It even got up to 74 degrees. Having worn a long-sleeve top, I was immediately too hot. I frolicked around topless when it was just me and Rick there, and later I wore a lovely towel toga.

We attacked the compost, digging out the last of our newmade stuff, and then turning the new pile into the old space. We got enough moved that Rick could fix up another panel of metal bars to protect the grapes from the composting, and to make space for the three piles we need. I didn't get any shots of this because I didn't have all my gear with me. Ok so now we had a wheelbarrow full of compost, and we needed someplace to put it. So we weeded both bean rows and the pepper row, and side dressed those rows liberally with compost.

Then I decided to finish out the tomatillo patch and get those planted. It's all weeded and mulched around. We just need to add an irrigation node.

Now it's Monday, and it's raining again. But the forecast calls for the rest of the week to be sunny, so we'll just have to wait it out. I've got apples on my apple tree.

And the beans seem to like the rain, especially the black-eyed peas and lima beans. This probably seems just like the South to them.

In other news apparently my Spidey powers are growing. There was... an incident.

One day at the farm, I failed miserably at mindfulness training. I was chatting with Buddy, and not really paying attention as I grabbed and rinsed my beer glass before filling it up with delicious Southern Hemisphere Harvest. I drank almost the whole glass, but when the level had dropped enough, I could see that there was a huge disgusting hairy spider webbed securely into the bottom of the cup. Ugh! So of course, we all immediately assumed I was now Spider-Woman. Or in my case, Spider-Crone!