DUSTY DAYS.
Everything is dry. The gardens, the grass, the humor––our once verdant farm is slowly beginning to brown. It hasn't rained in two weeks, which wouldn't be so bad if there was any rain in the forecast but sadly, it's a bunch of over-zealous, smiling suns and near 100 degree temperatures for the next several days. Of course, weather changes and our food should be fine, but it's an eerie feeling...standing in a dusty garden wondering when the next rain will come. We're not quite in a drought yet, but we could be at the first two dry weeks of what? Three? Five? Ten? Who knows. Last year at Bugtussle we went almost forty days without rain, and it was hard, but it could have been worse. It could be worse this year. The radio is already starting to caution farmers about rotating their livestock to preserve grass, warning that things could get pretty dry this summer.It's funny to think back to when I lived in the city and would hardly notice a drought. When I was a teenager I used to love them––droughts meant I could skateboard on the grass. Now, however, as a farmer intimately linked with the whims of mother nature, I feel very differently about droughts and those smiling suns. I feel less in control, less excited about nice, dry weekends unless there were a few rain drops that week. I feel the need to be prepared.Hannah and I feel ready, though. We don't irrigate, but we've done a considerable amount of mulching to preserve the moisture, and we operate on a small enough scale that if worse came to worse, we could always haul buckets of water from the pond to reinvigorate our poor soil and plants. For now, we're just watching the forecast in awe, hoping for a day soon where rain will fall and we can take a few hours off, sip some tea, and relax.- Jesse.