Giving Thanks!
The word “unprecedented” seems to be on our lips often these days! Experiences we have never had or known before are happening all around us, and the farm is no exception. On Monday last week (25th) we were having a picnic at the pond when a surprise thunder storm hit our farm. At the pond there was little wind but down at the farm the wind hit hard and again ripped the plastic from our tomato house leaving it exposed to the elements (two weeks ago we put all new plastic on this house after the storms of 5/3 stripped it). This time it didn’t just take the plastic off, it tore the metal channels right off the frame. This left the tomato plants exposed to all the rain we were having. Momentarily our hearts sank, but we are committed to giving thanks in everything, so we didn’t let it get us down. We chose to be thankful the winds only affected 1 hoop house. Tuesday we had the first market of the season where our sales were actually a tad above last year - giving thanks for that!
But on Wednesday evening we again faced an unprecedented experience. We have a beautiful 2 acre spring fed pond which supports 8 dwellings, and gives us all the gravity flow irrigation we need for our farm. We consider this pond and the spring that feeds it one of our greatest assets. The pond is the place we have had incredible quiet times, and also a lot of fun. Our kids and interns spend many happy hours their on the zip line, swimming and using the kayaks. They were having some real fun on Wednesday and our overflow broke (We estimate that it is about 70 years old so I imagine the metal had deteriorated and just broke). It’s hard to explain but the punch line is that our pond began to drain and has continued over the last few days. Until the water all drains out we are not able to fix the overflow or to even know where to begin. Within hours our irrigation line was sucking in air instead of water, but again we determined to give thanks.
Things can always be worse, so why not choose to give thanks! John quickly set things up to pump from the front creek which is near our fields. Our faithful pump and irrigation lines were quickly in place and the plants were soaking it that life giving liquid. Yes, it is more time consuming and it will potentially be many weeks or months until we can swim in the pond or use our irrigation system again but peace reigns in our hearts. In our 21 years of farming there are no two seasons alike - this is an unprecedented season. But it is also unprecedented to have 116 summer CSA families (this time last year we had 63)!
As you too face UNPRECEDENTED times I hope you will join us in determining to Give Thanks!
