A Whole Day Without Rain

My timing does not always match up with the needs of the farm, with Mother Nature, or even with my own plans.

The first day since I can remember, I awoke to a day that looked like it would be non-threatening fluffy clouds skipping across the blue sky. The sun was peeking and poking through the clouds and warming the mud puddles around here. It would have been a perfect day to finish pruning all the fruit trees and clean the garden up.

However, I had signed up for a day away from the farm. I volunteered to help set up for the yearly fund raiser put on by our local woodland owners group. This fund raiser has 3 goals. 1. To provide a wide variety of native species for planting. 2. To spread the word about our group and encourage new members. 3. To give the money made from fund raiser to Oregon State University as scholarships for students in environment and forestry studies.

Since driving time takes up so much of my designated allowance away from the farm, I signed up to work one whole day instead of two short shifts on two days. I picked the one day that I should have been home. I thought it was a smart move and I have to admit that moving trailer loads of plants as deliveries arrived, was much more pleasant in the sunshine than it would have been in the rain. However, I really missed out on a really good day of puttering around the yard and garden.

I was pleasantly surprised when upon my return from the day away, I had found that my daughter had changed her plans and stayed at the farm to catch up on all the things I had been missing. Several trees had been trimmed, the lawn was mowed, flower beds spruced up and my barn chores were completed. It was a very good day.