April 12th, 2019

As I sit in my office typing, the world outside rages.  A heavy, wet blanket of snow and ice coats everything. Once again we find ourselves thrown  into a wintery wonderland, except it isn’t so wonderful. It’s down right brutal!  It is especially difficult to deal with when we are faced with a constant, energy sucking wind.  For the last three days, we have had constant 20 plus mile an hour gusts rocking our house, beating on our greenhouses, and snapping heavy tree branches.  I honestly have never felt our farmhouse move like it did yesterday when the wind was at full strength.  It’s hard to even convince myself to get out of bed.  “What for?” the little voice in my head asks.  I’m not one for dwelling on the stuff that bums me out though, so I drag myself out of bed. Once I have a cup of coffee in me, I find the motivation I need to make it through the day deep down inside me.  The silver lining to this kind of weather is it forces me to spend time in the office.  This is a good thing because it is so easy for me to shuck those responsibilities in exchange for more time outside.  When the sun is shining and the weather is sweet like it was at the beginning of the week,  I can’t wait to get outside. Well honestly most days I can’t wait, but in the spring it is especially difficult to stay indoors.  This is one of the main reasons I think farming aligns with me so well.  I have a hard time sitting down and staying inside.  When the wind is whipping, you can throw  the insatiable need to get out into mother nature right out the window.  I’m like a whole different person. Honestly, I’d rather just go down into my dingy basement where I can’t see or sometimes even hear the nasty weather.  Otherwise, I escape to the office, which is where I find myself for the third straight day.  As I said earlier though, this can be a good thing. My unruly desk is now tidy and the backlog of data entry, paperwork filing and bill paying is behind me. I can, for a few days at least, know with full confidence that I have taken care of business.  Once the wind dies down this evening, Joy and I will once again venture out, assess the damage and move on with the season.  At least this year we didn’t spend a day outside trying to set up miniature hoops over plants we put in one of our outdoor gardens while a similar storm raged around us.  Now that was an act of futility.  One year older and perhaps a bit smarter………maybe.

~Farmer Rufus