It happened again on Tuesday.
After a “long weekend” the work week was starting. And, as often happens for my job with PAN, I often have Zoom meetings and sometimes phone calls to open up the week. These contacts with others are typically friendly, rather than oppositional, so the typical exchanges of words of greeting occur. Of course, that means most people succumb to the ritual of asking:
“How are you doing?”
Even though my primary job is now in communications, I still want to grow and raise food and the heart of a farmer still beats inside this chest. That’s why my answer goes off on a tangent - almost making it seem as if I were totally ignoring this kindly meant, but terribly generic, question:
“Well, it just keeps raining. I just can’t get out there to prepare the fields so I can plant. And we had a couple of storms that required some clean up. It was a relief that the hail from yesterday went south of us though and we were no where near the nasty tornadoes. So, I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.”
After that answer, some folks seem to be confused. Others wonder if I am being obtuse. But, most know me well enough to understand something very important about me:
The weather plays an important role in how I am doing. Once you recognize that, you actually can see that I gave a pretty telling answer to the question. It’s probably far more detailed than most people’s “I’m doing okay, how about you?”
Anyone who knows a grower fairly well is going to recognize the connection of the weather to the person who is hoping to put five hundred broccoli plants into the ground and finally transplant those heirloom tomatoes they’ve been nursing in three inch pots.
Every growing season literally has a biological clock attached to it. It ticks on relentlessly, not really caring if the rest of the conditions for planting, cultivating or harvesting have been met. And, it is quite alarming how quickly the clock moves from “too early” to “do it now” to “never mind, you’re too late.”
This clock most certainly does NOT care if you are personally ready for the next step. Nor does it care if you don’t feel well, or you have meetings scheduled that you can’t get out of. It definitely shrugs its shoulders at your levels of motivation for getting things done in the sliver of time available to you where the conditions for doing the farm work are right. It does not care if you also have daily chores and personal chores and Farm Supervisors (cats) that require scritches under their respective chins.
And so, those of us who do the small-scale, diversified farming thing - whether it is a full-time or part-time gig - find that our feelings of well-being are tightly interwoven with how the weather has been treating us and the farm we hope to successfully steward.
Our part of Iowa has been in drought conditions for a couple of years now. So, of course, it is good to get some rainfall. As of the last report, our area has been upgraded to Moderate Drought conditions. When the year started we were in Severe Drought, which is two classifications worse, as far as drought is concerned.
April on the farm was warmer and drier than usual, which was a continuation of this past year’s winter months. Conversations with fellow growers were becoming increasingly dire. Even our own level of concern was beginning to reach the surface. This last might make more sense if I were to tell you that our farm does better when things are on the drier side and it struggles when things are wetter. This is a matter of a combination of things that include soil types and the “water table.”
The third issue that comes into play has to do with the resources we can bring to bear on short notice in order to take advantage of very short time slots where conditions are right to do certain work. Most of our resource list consists of Farmers Rob and Tammy. If they aren’t available, it isn’t going to happen. Wetter seasons shrink the available time slots to do work. It’s just a simple math problem.
And that’s why it is so easy for our emotions to rise and fall with levels in the rain gauge. If we don’t manage to synchronize our lives with Mother Nature’s plans, we are most likely looking to be disappointed. But, it is so hard to keep up when Mother Nature goes all the way from “nope, no rain for you at all” to “let’s put you all on continuous spin and rinse cycles.” I am fairly certain the good people in southwest Iowa are VERY weary of the spin cycles that have manifested themselves as tornadoes and severe storms.
I am also of the opinion that Iowans would like to go back to a time when the word “derecho” wasn’t a word that sat so prominently in our vocabulary. Did you realize we got to experience another one last Friday?
Hurray?
For those who don’t know. A storm qualifies as a derecho if wind damage extends at least 400 miles and has a swath at least 60 miles wide. Wind reports need to include several, well-separated 75 mile per hour gusts. This last derecho blew through Nebraska and Iowa and finally came to an end 600 miles later in Illinois.
The area around our farm has been more of the “rinse cycle” issue as opposed to the spin cycle. Waterloo is a pretty good comparison for us and the rain for the month of May has been well above normal this year. As of May 22 (per the graphic shown earlier in this post), Waterloo was 5.36 inches above the normal 3.15" inches expected up to that point in May. Since that time, we’ve seen another two inches of rain at the Genuine Faux Farm.
It’s like the faucet is always on or always off. What happened to “everything in moderation?”
So. Let’s get back to the question that started this blog.
How am I doing?
I am fine.
But my weather sensibilities are offended.
That heart of a farmer and your connection to the land is what makes you a valuable resource for PAN! Thanks, Rob.
PS You may find this upcoming Zoom interesting. Please delete if it violates a policy! https://mailchi.mp/prairiestateconservation.org/register-for-our-next-conservation-connector-17972222?e=9c66800845