SOAKED

In the last 24 hours we have had hours of heavy rain accompanied by the roar of black thunder so loud and continuous that it became a white noise.

Lightning painted the sky in an installation of streaks again and again and again for the whole night. We have had tornado watches, flood warnings and deeply silent farm animals all in the space of one not too sleepy night.

At last, after a watchful night, we are close to dawn, and the rain has abated to a gentler flow, allowing the sounds of insects and early morning birds to begin.

Before I go off to work I will lock the cows up on the concrete pad. The meat chickens have a good cover but we will still need to be mindful of deep puddles as they are pulled through the grass

The day before yesterday the farmers spread a great amount of organic chicken manure onto our fields and tilled it in. ( it was unbelievably stinky). Very soon now they will plant the red clover cover crop then the Turkey Red wheat straight into that. Hopefully the rain will abate long enough for this to happen before winter starts to awake and cast her eye about.

How many times so far this season have I started a blog post with the words – soaked.

I am thinking we will be getting a lot of snow this winter. Already I am working on bringing Aunty Del’s milk production down so we can dry her up by Christmas. Milking through this winter won’t work for a number of reasons. The pump is on it’s last legs and I will not have time to carry it through the snow. And co-worker has already announced that he will not milk in the winter. So I have devised a plan.

Time to get to work.

What are you doing with your weekend?

Celi

37 responses to “SOAKED”

  1. It’s on and off rain here; each time I woke up through the night it was alternating between clear skies and rain. Tomorrow a young couple will be here for a second look at the property. If I don’t sell the place by the end of October I’ll be here for the winter. If so then I’ll be putting a hardwood floor in the front room (stuff I’ve milled myself) and reworking the downstairs laundry room to put a shower in. And of course keeping the bakery open each weekend 🙂

  2. Working intermittently, walking, looking around, hoping to sit with some women friends a bit for conversations that have nothing to do with Work. That’s the weekend plan. But it usually gets taken over by working, laying in provisions, cleaning house and, of course, cooking and cleaning again. Ha! Those first two cloud pictures are breathtaking. The second one reminds me of the color’s in a Harvey Dunn painting…but with the paint still wet. x

  3. This time of year is garden harvest time–lots of canning and freezing. Today we will pick apples from the tree and then I will do a whole bunch of sauce and maybe a pie or two. Depending on how things shake out, I may pickle hot peppers tomorrow.

  4. Those clouds! We are having rain all day here. Which is ok because I have to stay home to help(keep them focused) my daughter and her friend work on a school project on biodiversity. They are doing their project on bees. Apparently they are making a papier-mâché bee hive with bees buzzing around it to accompany their written project. I got a feeling I and going to be cleaning up a lot!

  5. Our temps are dropping and our mountains are already getting snow at the pass elevations. Rare for September. Off to work myself, then in a few months I will switch from weekends to weekdays after 2 years of being a weekend worker!

  6. Very similar weather here yesterday – there’s a respite this afternoon, before the deluge returns tonight!
    I’m sure your poor dogs are hiding from the thunder.

  7. Deeply silent farm animals is always ominous. I am glad you are through the worst of the bad weather safely and soundly.

  8. Gosh Celi, your skies are incredible! The cloud formations you have shown us over the years…, so amazing! Not much rain down here, and temps through the rest of the month and into October in the high 80s and low to mid-90s. Quite warm! But this will give our fall garden more time to grow. We’ll be putting up pears and apples from our trees for the first time in 8 years, so that’s pretty darn exciting! 🙂 Fruit tree growing is tough here in the Ozark Mountains, that’s for sure! Growing anything in rock is difficult, then add insects, late frosts that freeze the blooms and fruit right off, and then the critters that just love fruit if the fruit does develop! I’m curious about your drying off of Aunty Del plan. I sure do understand your coworkers feelings about not wanting to milk during the winter! 🙂

  9. I admire your photos and especially the weather shots. You must be in a region that witnesses the formation of fronts. Your pictures demonstrate that so dramatically. We are getting into fall weather. Some days of rain and then sunshine. All the crops seem shorter, we’ve had a dry summer. I’m going to a Nuit Blanche in Winnipeg tonight and tomorrow crawling around on trains with my grandson and his parents. It is getting chilly at night here As soon as the sun dips down the cool fingers come out to tickle. Brr. That’s why I’m getting ready to run south. I hope you don’t get washed away. Stay safe.

  10. Typical Pacific Northwest weather here- abit of down pouring rain followed by brilliant sunny hours. Not cold enough to really turn the leaves to fall colors, but almost there! I love how you make such smart plans! Have a less soggy day!

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