Tag: Weather

A Little Late Summer Ramble

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hi friends!

We had the briefest respite in the heat, and I am riding that high for as long as I can. Although it does look like the cooler (think high 80s low 90s) will become the norm more and more. I’m not quite ready to give up on summer, I am a summertime baby and relish my warm lazy summer days, early sunny mornings, and the smell of fresh cut alfalfa. That all being said, I am learning, in my advanced age (I jest), to look forward to the trappings of each season. I think it helps that the seasons are usually really distinct here. I love the PNW, don’t get me wrong, but we had four seasons there: rain, heavy rain, just sunny enough to get your hopes up, and the two warm weeks where literally everything was under construction.

I am excited to decorate for fall, it is by far the coziest season. And late summer has such good veggies at the farmer’s market. Ideal for soups and sides. We are hopefully going to have some of those delicious veggies for ourselves from the garden pretty soon. I love the pumpkins and the warm afternoons but chilly mornings. When the seasons are distinct and have their own flair, about the time you start needing a change, the weather complies.

Jury’s still out on winter. Unless it’s Christmas morning your girl is not snow friendly. I’m trying… but I don’t do cold very well.

Work has been absolutely nuts, and when you combine that with my elbow (and the absolute glacial pace at which it has decided to heal), my poor girls have gotten lots of cuddles, but not a whole ton else. I feel so bad, I did get to hop on sneakily Saturday before my little cousin’s riding lesson, only at a walk, and only for a few minutes because I am trying to follow most of the rules. It made my heart happy, so it was worth it. Ro doted, though, like a worried mother after, which was adorable, but also a little inconvenient for teaching purposes.

Just one of many photos off my phone where I’m plopped in the grass and the girls have decided I’m boring and wandered away

June is doing so good, by the way, and I’m thinking I’m going to need to brainstorm some puzzles and games to play while we learn. She’s got balance, and she pays really good attention. We work for about 20 minutes, I don’t push it much past when she starts rubbing her eyes and yawning, because that’s a lot of thinking for a Saturday morning and we want to always end on a happy note. At least while they are young, and I can control that. Her favorite games right now are red light, green light and round the world. She asks her Uncle Jeff (my dad) and Nellie to come out and be a team for red light, green light too, which is really good for Nel as well. Last lesson her little sister came out and she and my brother were a team as well. Junebug grinned from ear to ear. It’s a family affair.

Been doing some work on the house. I’ve got some friends coming into town (don’t worry we are being covid safe) and I needed to get the guest space in order. It’s amazing what finally getting a light fixture and moving out some clutter can do to a space. Even just adding bedsheets to the bed can totally make a room feel finished. I’m mostly just finishing up cleaning the clutter, picking up some extra towels, and adding some doodads like extra power strips and scent diffusers. They are coming for the weekend over Labor Day, and I literally cannot wait! I haven’t seen these friends in three years, thanks to moving states unexpectedly and then the plague. It’s going to be so good; we always get up to shenanigans and they’ve never been to this part of the world. I am planning a couple rural exclusive activities like meeting a cow and a couple small town exclusives like going to our semi-famous candy shoppe.

I also started a new book… and finished it in one afternoon. It was really good! I haven’t been much of a reader since Highschool (funny how all that homework can kill reading for fun… hmmm) but have been slowly making use of the amazon prime reading books. It was called Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell and it’s the first in a series. I’m now seriously debating purchasing the next book. I saw some complaints that the descriptions are long-winded and the story predictable, but, especially when I read mystery (my fav genre by far) I’m not looking to be wowed by the most elegant writing skills ever, I’m looking for a cozy book with just enough suspense to make me jump if a shutter slams, and that the bad guy gets justice served in the end. This book ticked all those for me and I highly suggest you give it a go. It’s a little less than 300 pages according to Kindle, so not a huge commitment even if it isn’t your jam. It’s a historical piece incorporating some real-life people with fictional characters, really neat stuff, perfect for back porch reading on a Sunday afternoon.

This image has nothing to do with anything except that Joe is ridiculously cute and I needed you all to see how he sat across from me whilst I did a puzzle this weekend. Heavily vignetted because my house is a disaster of in-progress DIYs. Also, accidental photobomb courtesy of Christopher

Time to go ice this elbow again, patience is not my virtue, so I’ve been typing as though it isn’t a banned activity. I miss the good old days when I bounced. Now when I fall, I apparently splat.

Advice for the day? Padding, always err on the side of padding.

Until we chat again, my friends!

Storm a’Comin’

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

We had quite the storm the other day. It was super fun, but only because it came with a downpour and soaked everything. Some much needed moisture. Unfortunately, we’ve had some crazy humidity since then, which we are not super built for around here, but that’s the price you pay, I guess.

I was home alone for the very beginnings of the storm, and while I love those rare moments when I have the whole place to myself, I swear it’s a whole different ball game when you live on a farm.

(For the record, I love my family, I definitely am not complaining about never having the house to myself, I’m more just saying that sometimes I like to belt out a terrible Janis Joplin impression while making high calorie food choices and watching trash tv, and I try not to subject other humans to that. I’m going to need you to hold your judgements.)

It’s amazing what shenanigans the animals can get into when you’re the only one home, so I definitely make more rounds than usual. Once Ro wrapped part of the fence around her leg while I was home alone. How? Solid question, not a clue in this world. Once the chickens were just out walking about. How’d they escape? Again, only the universe knows. But now I check obsessively on all the animals. I also have others help me settle the farm in for the night early if I know everyone else is getting home late or there’s a storm coming. So, before the storm got close the animals were all safely tucked away, or at least they were in the safest place with the options to go inside. Frankly, my mares are crazy and like standing out in the rain.

I also learned to take my house key, because occasionally the lock on the door falls, and you only have to experience that once to learn that lesson. When you live on a farm, even a small farm like mine, the neighbor’s house is a walk away, so you either hoof it and hope someone is home and will share a phone or sit pitifully on your own porch while the dogs mock you from the window, or you resort to violence and break into your own home. I’ll leave you to decide what you think I chose.

But I was home alone when the first little whispers of the storm started to come in. The clouds started building, the sky darkened and the animals all visibly started to prepare. It’s most eerie when the wild birds settle in and stop their constant chatter.

The wind came first and buffeted the house. I’m very lucky to live in a very solid house, so when you feel the wind lean in you know you’re in for it. We live in a pretty windy area, but there’s a different between a standard blustery day and the meanness of a storm rolling through. You can tell when the wind means to do damage. A lot of storms blow a lot and that’s it, so for the most part it doesn’t concern me unless it’s actively doing damage. The wind last year that took off part of my roof was frustrating, but it doesn’t often blow that hard.

The thunder and lightning were gorgeous, and I really wish I had thought to set up the gopro. I was chatting with a friend on discord and was more excited to show her the storm over gathering content. I’ll get better at that eventually. We had a couple of close-ish strikes that worried me, but I didn’t hear of any new local fires. Thank goodness.

The rain was the unusual part, we don’t always get rain. It came in blankets. I never understood that phrase as a child, because even though I lived in Seattle, which is known for its unmatched drizzly days, it rarely truly storms in the Puget Sound Area. But let me tell you, when we get a stormy rainy day here, it comes down in blankets. Like, worrying to step outside because it’s crazy blankets. Like, knocks out internet, tv, and cell service blankets. Like, have to yell over the noise in the house blankets. Nuts.

The good news is that the aftermath was some wet ground and clean air. It was muggy as anything, super, super humid, but we appreciated the day of clean air. It did not last as long as we would have loved. The nice soft ground was ideal for disking up and turning over though, so the girls get a soft corral and arena again. The pasture grew in overnight because of it, and the garden loved it as well. I’m sure the firefighters in the area appreciated the deluge as well, I just hope it was enough.

Until we chat again, my friends!

In lieu of pictures this week I took a couple video snippets of the tractor running. A change of pace felt appropriate.

It’s Getting Hot In Here

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello Friends!

How are we today? We survived another week, so that’s cause for celebration in my book. It’s been 100+ degrees for a while now, ranging up to about 109 so I can say with certainty that surviving is a massive accomplishment.

I have garden pictures this week! The beans are taking off like crazy, only to be outshone by the pumpkins! I can’t wait to roast some yummy garden fresh green beans and I really, really can’t wait to see if the pumpkins come in completely. I’ve not been able to get pumpkins to grow in this soil, although I did have some luck when I lived in the PNW. If we get enough pumpkins, we are going to let the little ones in the family come pumpkin picking, which will be super fun. So hopefully they come in plentifully.

The weeds are coming in plentifully, that’s for sure. My poor dad is out every morning weeding the lines, they come back so fast it might be a losing battle. The chickens are helping too, they love weeds, but they also love the veggies so we have to be very watchful.

Chickens never stop moving! Phone cam + hyper subject = blurry photos

Ro and Nellie are slowly getting used to working first thing in the morning. It’s definitely not preferred, neither of my girls are morning critters apparently, judging by the amount of yawning coming from the loafing area this morning. They take after their mom, I am not a morning person at all.

The other morning there was a miscommunication and the girls got to be out in the pasture super early in the morning before exercise. Ro came running in when she saw me, and she was actually super excited to work, which was great! But she also came in ridiculously muddy since the pasture irrigation was on. She was so, so, so proud of herself. I just had to laugh and take some pictures. We had a spa day Monday, so the girls were especially clean and nice for that muddy morning run. Can stay clean for too long, you see, it’s a cardinal sin.

Look at this smug pony!

The heat has officially pushed the limits of our air conditioning units these last few weeks. We have what are referred to as “room units” in the front room, living room, and master bedroom, but in general they do a pretty good job at keeping the whole house livable. It’s just not fair to judge them when it’s 108 outside and every room has huge windows. We also have some ceiling fans constantly running (here’s your reminder to switch your ceiling fans so they are spinning the right way for summer, because I forgot) to help move air around. Also, keeping blinds closed where we can and working early in the morning helps. But still, I’m fully over it. I miss my warm but pleasant 80s.

It’s also officially mosquito season, which is officially the worst thing in the history of ever (it’s not, it’s absolutely not, but I’m feeling incredibly dramatic today, so bear with me). The county does spray for them usually, which helps somewhat, but they just hired a new guy and he’s not quite up and running yet. In the meantime I am living in bug spray and trying to figure out how to de-mosquito the barn. Also, I bought these super odd bug traps that I need to put up that I am hoping will help, but I just scrape 5′ tall so I need someone taller or a ladder to put them up.

The bug spray is so drying, my poor skin is suffering. I am not the queen of skincare routines to begin with but it feels like I really need to step up my game this year between the glaring sun, insane heat, and aggressive sprays. I’ll let you know if I find something magical, or not so much. I also have a fantastic farmer’s tan going on, and as it is July I think the chances of my actually getting to wear shorts in public are rapidly plummeting. I know I could theoretically sit out in the sun to even the tan, but I burn and I’m way too busy to just sit and not feel guilty. Unless I have a good book. If you all have book recommendations, I love murder mysteries, so anything Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes is a big ole win for me.

Otherwise, it’s still kinda slow, the heat really slows things down. They did pull the bales out of the alfalfa field across the canal, and did so in a wind storm, as luck would have it. They only lost two bales which is about average I think, if you are rushing to pick up bales in a windstorm. Major bummer though because obviously split bales are hard to sell, if you can find someone who wants them at all. But he didn’t really have a choice because we have had a ton of wind lately, so things can’t just stop and wait forever. In any case, it’s tempting the local wildlife, and some of the local livestock too, so I am curious what they will do with those giant broken bales. Did I mention they are big one ton bales?

Anyways, I think I’ll leave this here. I hope you guys are having a wonderful day and are having a great and safe summer!

Until we chat again my friends!

Parading About

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

Back in action! Thank you so much for your patience with my break, it was much needed and much appreciated.

The pack is slowly healing and learning the new dynamic. They are obviously still bummed but have started to play and goof again. Watson especially is absolutely in my pocket, I’ve been staying home a lot more because of the severe heat, and he’s almost never not in my lap or under my feet.

And as for the rest? Well, the two-legged family members in this house can now share some happy memories with more abandon, and while we still find new things all the time to miss, we’ve been able to be more grateful for what we had and are healing as well.

But on to happier news: the parade happened! We had so much fun!

We found out we were not going to be able to use a trailer very last minute, so we decked out my uncles’ truck in the most sparkly, patriotic, goofy way possible! Our theme was “Together Again Under the Flag” and I think we nailed it. I will say, I know I said we have a rivalry with the local dept store, and that is true, but the head of their float team had been sick for the two weeks leading up to the parade so out of respect we didn’t really engage in shenanigans this year. It’s no fun if it’s not in good humor, ya know?

The truck just before we left! The red shirts were our uniforms, as some of my cousins are sporting here

Also, to the best of my knowledge, they didn’t judge the floats this year, which seemed odd. Although to be fair, everyone had a similar idea, we were all pretty red, white, and blue from parade start to end, so maybe they just couldn’t pick a winner. It was super fun in any case, and we are already planning to go big for Christmas. Fingers crossed we come up with something cool.

We were planning to build the float in total the night before, because they moved the parade an hour earlier this year to avoid the baking noontime sun. This was a great idea in theory because it would mean we didn’t need to hurry, but the heat proved to be a problem anyway. We couldn’t work the night before because it was triple digits, and we were terrified of accidentally melting the décor to the truck. A grey Ford pickup with red, white, and blue sparkles is a statement for sure, but not for an everyday look maybe.

Thanks Dad for capturing this one! My cousin and I had just passed by with the banner in front, and the truck was getting lots of attention! (Blurred for privacy and because I don’t have explicit permission from those businesses)

The heat has been absolutely brutal! We have been hitting triple digits really frequently and are regularly seeing above 110 on the forecast, which is absolutely terrifying. It was super hard to walk the 2.5-mile parade route, but we made it. I carried one side of the banner in front of the truck, and let me tell you, it’s not hyperbole to say I’ve been waddling since. Seriously sore calves. I always think I’m so in shape until parade day. Every year I end up super sore. On the bright side, I straight up wrote that down as my cardio for the day. It counts, I swear. It was also around 100 degrees on the street itself, which absolutely didn’t help. But we were having so much fun it didn’t really matter.

The last few feet my cousin’s little ones wanted to walk the banner! Thank you Uncle Steve for capturing this from the truck!

We threw 102 pounds of saltwater taffy out to the parade watchers. I heard so many variations of “oh they have the good stuff!”. It’s funny, even though it gets ridiculously soft, taffy holds up to the heat pretty well, that is, if you stick it in a cold place for a few minutes, it’s totally fine. Turns out you aren’t so lucky with chocolates and lollipops. Also, the dentist throws toothbrushes every year, and while that’s noble… really?

(Also, wouldn’t throwing candy be something like job security?)

Otherwise though, honestly, I’ve been kinda hiding out a little. It’s just been too hot to get too much done. I need to get some new pictures of the garden to show you guys, because it’s grown so much! We have pumpkins! But I haven’t taken the time to snap some aesthetic photos. Next time, promise!

Speaking of pumpkins, I’ve been trying to learn to crochet little stuffed pumpkins, so stay tuned for some unseasonably fall content as soon as I learn how to make little i-cord stems. I’m super excited!

Until we chat again, my friends!

Hail, Winds, Joe, and Other Forces of Nature

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello!
Farm Update Time! Lots to talk about this week in the weather category. I should warn you, the pictures are not great, as they were afterthoughts while I ran around trying to deal with the weather. You’ve been warned. Also, side note, I was so bummed, I had literally just plugged in my Go-Pro to charge (I’m the worst, always have at least one dead camera battery) so I could potentially time lapse a storm in the future, and about two minutes later the storm, that you will see in a minute, came on through. How cool would that have been? Ugh.

Oh my goodness, you guys! So, Monday, I had some errands to run, and I noticed some seriously dark clouds, but I figured, no big deal, we have weird stormy weather come through all the time around here. Especially in the spring, it can be sunny one minutes and just miserable the next. I figured, worst case scenario, I’d have to chill a moment and let it pass. Nope! No, I walked out of the CPA’s office and it was starting to rain and thunder some, barely made it to my last stop, and decided it was in my best interest to make it home before it got worse. Super glad I did because the rain was coming down so hard my wipers could not keep up while on the highway. It doesn’t really rain here a whole lot, so it really threw everything for a loop. I normally don’t mind driving in the rain, unless it’s really dark or stormy, but this one was super difficult.

The first front rolling through, as shot out my window, don’t mind the glare

After we got home, it rained a little longer and then calmed down. We could see some clouds forming again in the distance, but the very cool thing about my specific piece of property is that I sit between two forks in the valley, so while I get a lot of storms, usually I can watch the most intense parts in the distance, but they avoid my home and either crawl across the valley toward town or break off behind the hills towards our nearest major city. So, I wasn’t worried at all, the horses were in the daytime pasture, the chickens were out clucking around, and I was heading in to get cleaned up for the evening.
Smash cut to walking into my bedroom, I see this absolute crazy cloud moving incredibly fast towards the farm with the craziest lightning. I have never rounded up the horses in the corral and accounted for all the critters as fast as I had that night. I think it also helped that it was freezing, and I was in my pajamas (I’m going to need you to reserve judgement here, sometimes when you live on a farm you gotta do what you gotta do, and that sometimes looks like chasing horses into the corral in polka pajamas and hair in a towel). I barely made it to the porch before the storm hit.
I’ve seen some fun lightning since living here, remind me, some time I’ll post my old picture of the lightning bolt, it’s blurry and I took it purely by chance, but my point is that I’ve seen some cool lightning. This storm was really spectacular. I, of course, remembered to document literally none of it, which is very on brand for me.

That’s hail, not snow, and it actually got a little worse before it stopped
The ice build-up from the hail hitting the window,

It then started hailing, which immediately changes the storm from “fun, somewhat dangerous” to “ah shoot, this is bad”. We don’t get hail all that often, and we certainly don’t get marble sized hail. The foothills and mountains do, but here on the valley floor its not common. It hailed enough to look like snow, and had not melted off the next day, which made my commute a little sketchy. All in all, it got to a point on Monday that I was beginning to have concerns about riding the storm out, which usually is not a big deal, since we’ve got something of a storm routine.
In non-weather-related news, we’ve been trying to get back into working shape around here, and Ro is not sure she’s into it. She has been running into the arena wanting to play, but she’s not been enjoying the less-than-ideal weather and the fact that she needs to behave while working. She has been enjoying all the cookies, brushings, and picture taking sessions that have been happening again, although she thinks she looks her best when she’s about 2 millimeters from the lens.

Ro, being particularly dramatic about the wind, while doing some groundwork

Joe has been particular humdrum about the weather, because he loves to be outside. He’s made quite the nuisance of himself, but he’s also Joe so we really can’t be mad at all. I’ll introduce you properly to all the canine critters in a future post, but for now all you really need to know about Joe is that he is a 90-pound black standard poodle. We forgot to tell him to stop growing so he’s all knees and elbows. So, when he intends to be the center of attention, he absolutely succeeds. Like, I said, I think the pack needs an introductory post to truly capture the dynamic here.

If the blog post is ever late, you can assume this is why. Hi, Joe!

Other than that, not much has been going on, it’s been rainy and windy all week, we were able to pull off the socially distanced wedding of my cousin’s dreams (well, the wedding bit, I doubt anyone dreamed of socially distancing), no pictures of that though because privacy. It was so much fun, and mostly DIY, so pretty economical. But I have been exhausted since, it was a mad dash to set up everything, have the wedding, and then tear everything down.  But it was beautiful, and my cousin was beautiful, and her groom was so nervous and excited he practically floated everywhere. And I’ve been taking my week kind of slow to recover, which means for a fairly boring blog, but a fairly happy soul overall.
I hope you all are having an amazing week, and that you enjoyed the farm update.
Until we chat again, my friends!