Farming in the shade

For well over a month now, those around me have been wishing for spring and grumbling (yes, GRUMBLING) about winter. I have been enjoying the slower pace of winter--I actually read a few books, and made a small dent in my magazine pile. I wove a bit (and cut up a lot of blue jeans) and even managed to get sick and need lots of rest at least twice. So it hasn't been me doing the Come Hither, Spring! dance. While I have to admit that the longer days and sunshine and singing birds have been working me over, one of the main things I really don't like about Spring is the in-between stage. The messy, muddy stage. Like when you walk into the back of the sheep barn, and find water. No animals live in the flooded part, but floods tend to get worse if you ignore them. So The Farmer went hunting to see if he could help alleviate the problem. Ah, yes. The ditch was full of snow, which didn't allow any of the standing water to drain off. It was time to start digging. This ...

Sigh... As I posted earlier, we had 2" of heavy rain on top of record-high temperatures on Saturday. This melted all the snow (over 50" in December) and proceeded to flood areas that shouldn't flood, yet again. This is the THIRD 100 year flood in calendar year 2008, and I am quite sure I'm not the only one who is tired of it.  Many people had flooded basements, again. People who don't live anywhere near rivers even had flooded basements--the water simply could not percolate through the semi-frozen ground fast enough. Fields were flooded, again. Fortunately, not much is actively growing at this time. Doesn't this look like a lake? It's a hayfield.  To add insult to injury, a wind storm overnight Saturday left many without power, exacerbating the problem by preventing basement sump pumps (standard equipment in former-swampland western Michigan) from running. All this on top of extremely difficult economic circumstances, and we wonder, "How long?" a...

Back in June, the month of the Great Flood , we were dreaming of this moment: You see, 6" of rain in theory should not be so devastating. But if the ditch is due to be cleaned, and the water can't drain away, it can be a mess. Check out this photo to see what happens when the main drain is clogged:  Our fields sat under water for days. We lost and had to replant about half of our corn and soybean crops. It's not a good crop  year this year, at all. But finally, the ditch is being cleaned out! Oh happy day! Small things amuse small minds, they say... I stood on our driveway bridge and looked down the road at what had not yet been done: And then took a shot up the road at what was already dug out: Maybe next spring our basement won't flood! Here's hoping...