Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Farm Updates


Have you ever heard those silly little rumors about how it always rains in Seattle? For the first 16 years that I have lived here I always laughed when people talked about those silly little rumors. I never felt that “it always rained” and thought that maybe those rumors were started just to keep people away.


Until now! This is the year that all of those rumors are definitely true! In a 26 day period from mid-May to mid-June (May-September is considered the “dry season”) it rained 24 days. We had our latest EVER first 75 degree day which I think MAYBE happened on June 12th. I actually didn't hear the official word on that one, so maybe it didn't happen. I just asked James to look into that for me and NO...we have not hit 75 degrees yet. The record we broke was June 9th and here it is June 15th and no 75 degrees yet.

On top of that we are several inches ahead of normal rain fall since October 1st. At the airport (the official stats) we've had 38.87 inches of rain since October first, normal? 32.89!!! Here on St. Brigid Farm we've been keeping track of our rain gauge for school and I just added the numbers up. We've had 47.7 inches of rain since September 1st. Ours is a month longer but I can tell you that in September we only got about an inch and a half of rain. Wow!


I don't mean to complain but this has been one doozy of a year for me with regards to weather. It has been miserable. I'm cold! It's June 15th and only 48 degrees outside at 10AM.. I'm tempted to start a fire! The tomatoes are molding. I think I'll have to start over with them. I'm also going to replant the cucumber because when it first came up the slugs attacked it and now there are only a few left.

These beets coming up just look so pretty against the dark soil.

The strawberries are doing alright but I realized today that the slugs are getting the one or two that have ripened. The blueberries look so pretty and the echinacea is growing well. The days that the sun has come out has really boosted their growth.




In animal news we have moved the ducks from their little space in the garden to down by the pond where they get to roam free all day and sometimes all night long. They often don't want to come in at night. But I just hope their stupidity won't come back to bite them in the butt. (Pun intended)

One of the benefits of their roaming free and getting to eat TONS of greens and tons of slugs is the incredible color of their eggs! I just cracked one open yesterday and about fell over!! The picture says it all. The duck egg is the top one, chicken egg below.




BTW...the reason I'm not blogging much anymore is because I don't have internet at home any longer. I can check email on my phone, which keeps me connected, but I do nothing else at home. We go to the library for other internet needs and my time is limited. This was our choice and I was a little nervous at first but have decided that I really do like it a lot!!


I hope your summer is going well and from what I've heard everybody else is actually having a summer. Enjoy!