Rain, rain, go away

By BECKY NELSON
Bramblings
“Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day. We just want to go and play…” and work and cheer up. We tried to take a half-day tour of the north country last weekend after a farm conference, but were met with wind-driven rain and low-hanging clouds that blocked our view of the mountains. We were struck, however, with the leaves that were still hanging on. Oak and birch hang onto their leaves a lot longer than maple, but we saw a whole lot of maple still holding their leaves until we got to the base of the White Mountains.

Though the weatherman has repeatedly said that the temperatures have been cooler than average, we have had only a handful of frosty mornings and a smaller handful of hard freezes here. The rain has been incessant, or so it seems, and rivers, streams and larger bodies of water are full to the tops of the banks in many places. Here at the farm, there is nowhere else for the water to go. Fields we were hoping to clean up are soggy, and we cannot prudently use heavy equipment like tractors on them. Wood we were hoping to get in toward the winter for our home and the farm toward the maple season is still sitting in the forest as we cannot in good conscience rut up the roadways to get to it with tractors and wheeled vehicles.

A raincoat has become the uniform of almost every day. It’s discouraging. We are trying to set our sights on cold days, and are hoping that snowfall doesn’t kibosh our plans even further. Within a week or so, we will be picking up our first truckloads of Christmas trees and within the next week will cut our first batch of greens to make wreaths. Christmas season is a busy one here at the farm, and trying to catch up with cleanup during this busy time is almost futile as time is short and energy is spent on other endeavors.

As we passed through the north country, we saw lots and lots of Christmas trees cut and stacked and ready for trailers to pick them up. What I consider a mild fall has lulled me into a sense that there is plenty of time. Looking at the calendar, however, I am in a state of near panic with the list of chores long and the number of days short to accomplish everything. Of course the number of dollars in the account at this sales-slow time of year limits how many folks we can hire to help, so we farmers are looking at a very busy few weeks.

Thank goodness we made a lot of hay, literally and figuratively, early in the summer. Not expecting the monsoons, we were hoping for a great “second cut” of hay to sell and feed our critters, but it was not to be. The grass is still green and lush and sitting, as we haven’t had a decent stretch of weather to dry hay for well over a month. The pattern of rain for two days, dry for a day is driving us crazy. Watching the extended forecast with periods of “mixed precipitation” just makes my heart sink.

We will have to shrug it off and go on with what we can go on with. Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming, so we will need to stop looking back and start looking forward to what we hope is good weather to play catch-up and a coming maple season in just a few months that we hope makes up for a lot of our summer and fall frustrations. Keep looking for that sunny day!