Find out what’s new on the farm this week. But first this week’s announcement.
There are no announcements this week.
What will we have this week?
Good question! We’ll have potatoes, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, …
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the following breaking news.
During this time of year I frequently run out of things to talk about. Makes for boring newsletters. Unfortunately that is not the case today. I don’t know about the rest of you but I was awoken this morning by a loud storm coming at us. Everyone who has been through a tornado says it sounds like a freight train. Thankfully as far as I know we weren’t hit by a tornado or a freight train but it did sound about that loud. The wind was so strong the house was literally shaking — and I am using “literally” correctly here. The last time I felt a house shake was during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. This morning’s house shaking wasn’t anywhere near as strong as that time but it did give me flashbacks and a bit of PTSD.
Anyway, once the rain and wind stopped and the sun came out I went around the farm to survey the damage. At first it seemed like the main structures were fine. Many of the tomato cages were down. Our popcorn was all atilt. The tall weeds were flattened. The fall broccoli was looking eastward. All-in-all nothing more than a normal big wind storm.
But as I got closer to the hoop house I noticed there was a gaping hole in the roof on its far side — the side I couldn’t see from my porch. When I went to investigate further I discovered not only was the plastic torn almost the length of the structure but some of the hoops were pulled out of the ground and some of the wooden cross members that hold the plastic on were broken. The pulled out hoops also bent the purlins that attach to the hoops and spread the load across the hoops.
The last time something like this happened, one quarter of the hoop house was lifted but the plastic held and nothing was broken. It took us all day, with the help of the tractor front end loader, to reset the hoops. This year’s hoop house disaster will be a far harder problem to deal with.
First of all the raised hoops are in the middle of the house not at an end. We’ll have to figure out how to lift the middle of the house without pulling the adjacent hoops out of the ground. Second, we have to remove and replace the plastic. We have to remove it before any big winds come along else the wind lifting the plastic could cause more damage. We also have to figure out how to keep the deer out of the uncovered hoop house so maybe, just maybe we’ll have some beans this season.
We most likely won’t replace the plastic until next spring. The two reasons for this is first, why put the plastic through a winter where we could get a huge snowfall resulting in the collapse of the structure. And second, letting in snow/rainwater will lower the soil pH in the hoop house, which is a good thing.
Other than the hoop house, the tomato cages and all the plants lying down, the only other major issue was a large tree broke off about 25 feet off the ground but luckily it didn’t hit any structures (though the bees were probably freaked out a bit since it crashed about 15 feet from their hives.) Surprisingly we did not lose power. I hope this is the extent of the damage but I guess we may discover more as the day/week progresses.
Finally, we plan to have pick-ups today despite this setback. We have most things harvested. We just need to get a few more things and then pack the delivery boxes and set up the pick-up tent. I think this will be a long frustrating day but we’ll get through it like we do every other long, frustrating day.
Oh, and it was really, really hot and humid yesterday. I almost forgot that!
As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, etc.
Joke of the Week
What is wind’s favorite color?
Blew