It started raining 42 days ago. It hasn't let up since then. We've seen over 30 inches of rain in that time frame. For comparison, our area usually gets about 45 inches of rain in one year.
It might just let up now. This week looks to be dry, and I pray it stays that way for a while. But nature felt the need for one last hurrah, and dumped another 5+ inches of rain on the farm Friday and into Saturday. If you saw me looking white as a sheet early Saturday morning at the market, well, that's why. For the record, I did manage to find my sense of humor again by mid-morning.
Surveying the farm on Sunday, and looker closer at many of our crops today, that last 5 inches was the final straw for some.
I thought I'd take you all on a little virtual tour of the farm, after our biblical 40 days and 40 nights of rain.
Rubber boots are required to even get out the back door...
It's just a few beans, but we haven't been able to plant much of anything else either for the past seven weeks. Keeping a steady supply of a variety of produce available every week requires having to plant almost every week. We're going to continue to feel the effects of this all summer long.
By the way, we're not the sort of farm that qualifies for any kind of crop insurance.
This wet weather hit at the worst possible time. Our peak season is June and July. We expect to earn close to 50% of our income for the year in just those two months. I'd tally up our crop losses to date at well over $10K, and that number will continue to grow as the summer wears on.
We need to start planting fall crops now. And we desperately need an excellent fall crop this year. Most of the fields set aside for fall crops look more like an unshaved golf course than a plantable farm field.
Please don't tell me this is better than a drought. Drought will make a farmer worry. Excessive rain will ruin you. I can always irrigate, but I can't pump water out of a swamp. I've seen some bone dry summers. I'll take a dry season over this mess, any time.