July 2nd, 2019

Oh man has it been hot out the last couple of days! Okay maybe it isn’t so much the heat as it is the humidity. It has been downright sticky outside. Of course, it was bound to happen, just a matter of time really and I know people down south would laugh at us northerners and our concept of hot. Nonetheless, for us, it has become uncomfortable. Joy and I adjust our work patterns as much as possible this time of year. We start early, try to get our harvest wrapped up so when the afternoon hits we are inside the cool pack shed, dunking our hands in cold water or spraying down dirty veggies enveloped in a cold mist of our icy well water. Along with the heat, we have seen the return of our summer thunderstorms. Last night, as we wrapped up our pack day, the most impressive storm bore down on us. The sky to the north slowly turned a dark blue/grey and I could see the layers upon layers of clouds stacking up high into the atmosphere. I thought for sure we were in for a whopper of a storm. I hollered for my daughter, Aurora, to check the weather report. I wanted to know what kind of crazy was heading our way. To my surprise, when it did hit, it hit with a quiet gentle rain, little wind, and hardly any lightning. It was so strange. I’ve lived on this farm long enough to know a big storm when I see one. Our ridge top life means we have always had the most incredible views of storms as they roll in from the West. From our hilltop perch, we watch as massive fronts form and then sweep over us turning day into night, a clear line separates the dry day we were having from the rowdy wet day we are about to have. Often we can look south of us when these storms first hit and see distant ridges and valleys still bathed in sunlight as we descend into darkness. Then the rain hits. Usually it hits hard so all our views disappear. Shrouded in wave after wave of wind driven rain, we retreat to shelter and wait it out. With the rain, comes the sweet relief from the hot day and then mother nature rests and does it again. So goes our summer.

~Farmer Rufus