Autumn Arrives

On September 22^nd we began our journey into autumn.  Almost on cue the weather also turned.  Last weekend we had upper 70’s and sun.  On Monday my rain gauge was empty.

It’s been steadily filling all week. 

 

The pigs loved the digging in dirt.  Now they’ll enjoy the mud.  And we moved their food under cover.

Within the last rain filled four days and 2+ inches sprinkled onto this big beautiful tomato plant, it’s turned black with blight. Typical of this part of the country. Cover tomatoes or deal with blight.

It’s dark in the middle of the day. Dark with clouds. Lights come on and we work inside unless we work with the animals.  Quick and fast feedings and back in the house.

But there is light at the end of this tunnel of a week.

“Don't let Friday get you down about the weekend. Higher pressure will move in tonight giving us partly to mostly sunny skies both Saturday and Sunday. Highs will even climb to the low 70s..” KomoNews Weather

Winter Wonderland

We woke to falling snow and it is still very lightly coming down. We got 4 inches or so so far. Lots of places around us got way more than that. I know further south in Olympia they got over 10 inches I think, just today. North of us were hit hard earlier in the week. Snohomish where my SIL is, they had 7 inches as of Monday night. We are thankful to be home and enjoying this beautiful scene God has created for us.

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 12^th. 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 9^th and here it is June 15^th and no 75 degrees yet.

On top of that we are several inches ahead of normal rain fall since October 1^st. 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 1^st. 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 15^th 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!

Weather Update

We have not been above freezing all week. The nights have been down in the teens, daytime in the 20's. They say we should get above freezing today, we'll see.
This is highly unusual weather for these parts. I still like it!
It has made me extremely "home"sick for MN, wanting SNOW to go with the cold. It's just wrong to get this cold and not get any snow.
We do have a SLIGHT chance of snow this weekend when we transition back to the warmer, wetter weather. But it never stays and that is because we are warming up when the clouds move in. I do hope they are wrong and we get hammered. :)
We have had to bring all the water buckets to the house to fill because my outside water source is frozen solid. That's been the hardest part.
But I still love it!

Life on the farm these days!

The sun is back!! It is glorious, beautiful and emotionally uplifting! I have missed the sun more than words can say. Since the beginning of October we've had approximately 18 inches of rain here on the farm!!! We've been keeping track in our rain gauge for school. We drew a big huge chart that hangs on the wall, it was created and started on September 1st. But I know that in September we only received an inch or 2 of rain, our chart says 18.9inches of rain since September 1st. This means we've had anywhere from 17-18 inches of rain since October 1st! You might say, "You live in Seattle, that's normal!" But let me tell you, it is not! At the airport, the official measurements of anything weather, they've officially measured 14.5 inches of rain since Oct. 1st....the normal? 9.69 inches!!!!!

So, suffice it to say, I've missed the beautiful sun and I'm completely and utterly tired of the rain and clouds!

For 3 days in a row we've woken to the 20's! I love it! Why? Because that tells me it is clear! It is clear and the sun will shine! Yes, it's cold but it's bright!

This is beneficial not only for me but also for the chickens! They no longer are traipsing through ankle deep mud, but they are walking ON the mud (it's frozen). Maybe production will rise again now that the real sun is shining and it is not so gloomy out all day long.

How about those new chickens? They are now 13 weeks old! I am busily getting their nests ready because they'll start producing in about a month! I cannot wait! Today we'll finish hanging the rest of the new roosts and finish the last 8 foot section of fencing so that can go outside. Hopefully I'll get the last piece of wall up in the barn as well to extend their coop a little bit. I still have 95 birds in there but should be down to 80 by the time they start laying.
I'm selling some off.

Sorry it is so long between posts, but life is just crazy busy these days. Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Rain...finally!

Some may think it odd that I'm from the Western WA and my blog post is titled "Rain...Finally!" Well, we think it odd as well. It's been 84 days since we've had any significant rain. In the past 84 days we've had rain once (in mid June) and it was only 1/4 of an inch. I don't think it counts for much. It started raining yesterday and it's rained on and off all night but I went out to the rain gauge to find we've gotten only about 1/4 of an inch! They say it's suppose to rain on and off all day and we might get another 1/4 of an inch for a total of 1/2!!! But we have another chance of rain on Thursday. So maybe between this today and Thursday my garden will be well watered. I can only hope and pray!
Otherwise the sprinkler goes back on.

We've had records set now for the hottest week ever in WA (records of 102 I think at Seatac Airport) and for the driest summer EVER...84 days and only 1/4 " of rain...will the dry spell continue?

The farm in the heat of summer!

Seattle has record highs forecast all week. It's pretty amazing actually. This story explains why.
I refuse, though, to complain. I just need to remind myself of the cold rain, the mud that one needs to trudge through day in and day out when working on a farm in PNW in March. No, I'll take this heat any day!!! Here is how the farm is LOVING it or how some are staying cool.

My favorite thing to grow in the garden, green beans!! This year we have LOTS of plants. They are about a month ahead of last year and I am thrilled!! If you look closely you can see the tiny beans forming. The plants are covered in them and with this heat I anticipate we'll be picking beans by the weekend or very shortly thereafter.

I took this picture looking straight ahead at the corn! Corn loves heat! They are taller than I am now! A year ago on July 12th they were only maybe 6 inches high or so and we didn't get any. We hope for bountiful blessings this year. James counted 50 stalks. We probably could quadruple that for our family of 6 but we don't have room.

Summer squash in full bloom with a few ready to pick. I have 2 of these plants called "super pik" and I hope we'll get to pick a lot!

Zucchini loves heat at well and is going to town. I just love these squash plants. All the varieties. They are so majestic looking!

Here are 2 of my volunteer tomato plants. Full of blooms and loving the heat. I pretty much gave up on tomatoes for preserving so I only have a few plants just for fun and eating at the summer dinner table but I tell you what, these are the best plants I've produced yet. I have 8 plants of various kinds in pots and several volunteers in the garden that I've let go. They all look awesome!

Here we have the animals trying to stay cool. The barnyard where the goats are is continually under shade so they just dig some dirt away to cool earth and lay there.
The chickens, below, hide in this one little corner until relief comes. As the sun moves across the sky their shade gets bigger.

And last but not least, the human animals on the farm cool off in this manner.

I just hope and pray that this blessing of sun and heat sticks around for another month. Oh yeah, don't get all uptight you PNWers who hate. I could stand for 20 degrees cooler than today's 101.2 registered at the nearest weather station to our house (about 2 miles up the road).
I just don't want another blog post like this one in late August of last year titled "Mud, garden and eggs". No, I'm not ready for the heat of the summer to be over and I surely am not looking forward to fall and all the rain that comes with it.