Dear Farm Journal,

Rufus worked a double shift today at the Driftless Cafe and it was a little chilly out, so I thought I would spend some time making and freezing tomatillo salsa with our extra tomatillos, jalapenos, onions, and garlic. Throughout the afternoon, I tweaked my kitchen playlist and adjusted my salsa recipe (the first batch was pretty spicy). I was bopping along my merry way, feeling pretty good about putting up winter food stocks, catching up on laundry, and getting our house in order until…I got the call. My dad called to caution me about the frost warning that apparently slipped by both Rufus and I. We don’t have regular TV for weather reports and somewhere between us both having off farm jobs, we were NOT on top of this. Oh, also, it was about 30 minutes from the fall of darkness, I had no hoops over the beds, and wasn’t 100% sure where all the row covers were. I quickly ended the conversation with my dad in a partial panic and thought about who I could call for help, since time was of the essence and the wind was whipping ferociously, not ideal for stretching row covers over beds. Papa Rich and Charna came to my aid as well as one of our neighbors. The wind whipped us about pretty thoroughly, but between us all, we got the most important crops covered. After the whirlwind, I returned to the warm farmhouse asking myself, “How did I not know about the frost warning?”, “Isn’t that a pretty important factor that farmers should be paying attention to?”. I was just chillin in the house while my plants were preparing to freeze to death. This officially subtracts from my overall score as a farmer. Get it together. WINTER IS COMING!!!

~Joy