Rain

After an endless spell of hot and dry weather: finally, rain - all day today and probably tomorrow. We are saying "Aaahhh," the plants are saying "aaahhh." The chickens are a little confused.

We have all the windows open, letting the cool air flow through the house, and I have just gone for a walk around the garden in nothing but a t-shirt and shorts, feeling the rain on my skin and the damp grass under my bare feet. Heaven.

Rainy day

Another rainy day. With so much experience, I'm starting to be familiar with the different degrees of rain. There's the drizzle that's so light and fine you can persuade yourself it doesn't really count. Then there's the official sort of rain that requires a ball cap to keep your head dry. And there's the kind of rain we had today: rain that calls for boots to tuck your pants into so the hems don't turn into a muddy mess, and a hood to keep the water from running down the back of your neck.

All this rain is making me impatient. There's lots to do outside, but much of it has to be deferred because it's bad for the soil to work it when it's so wet. And other jobs change from pleasantly dirty to a miserable I'm-carrying-around-so-much-mud-on-my-clothes-I-can't-walk kind of dirty. There are still lots of renovations to do inside the house, but with spring so close we can taste it, neither of us feels like embarking on another big indoor project.

So I puttered in the green house today. I spritzed the leek and onion seedlings. I installed my new max/min thermometer. I made another batch of soil block mix and started more seedlings. I amused myself by slicing up empty yogurt containers into markers to label my trays with. I fussed with the arrangement of the heating mats, and stacked empty trays three ways. I may not have been very productive, but I was content to putter away in the warm, humid air, listening to the sound of the rain hitting the plastic of the green house and being reminded that when we camped when I was growing up, rainy days in the canvas tent playing games and reading books were my favourite sort of days.

Kim came to join me a little while later, and decided that since the shelves she had put up for me were already full with seedlings, she needed to build some more. Here she is in the workshop, building brackets. She could have gone out and bought some metal ones, but we're getting pretty good at making do with what we have, when we can.

Flooding

This is the bridge over the Cowichan River we have to cross to get to Duncan. Two weeks ago the water was turbulent and white-capped, but in the last week it has become something else: deep and fast and dangerous. Traffic over it is quite slow, as drivers stop to have a look at the flooding (and maybe have second thoughts about crossing).

It has been raining quite heavily today, and more flood warnings have been posted. But, according to the forecast, we might actually see the sun tomorrow afternoon. The ground is so saturated it's amazing that it can absorb any more water. We have paths on our property that are a few inches deep in water, but it's not flooding - it's just the earth saying "Enough already!"

Update from the Ark

It's still raining. It has been raining without a significant break for days and days and days, and we're getting tired of it. We keep looking out the window and then wondering whether it usually rains this much and we've just forgotten, or if this is actually an unusual event. The latter, according to the weather office. So far this month we have had 266 mm of rain, which is more than twice the normal amount.

It's getting to be a problem. The Cowichan River, which is near enough to hear from the verandah, is starting to sound like Niagara Falls, and lately when we drive over it on our way into Duncan it is a white-capped, seething mass of dirty water. Yesterday we saw that the Koksilah River had overcome its banks and flooded a farmer's fields about a 10 minute drive from where we live. Last night on the way to a tutoring session I had to drive through about 6 inches of water on a flooded street. And then today we heard that a state of emergency has been declared in Duncan, 400 homes evacuated with some streets a metre under water, and sand-bagging begun.

We're fine where we are - even though the Cowichan River is just a couple of properties away, there is a big enough elevation difference that we're not in any danger. Our pond is at its maximum volume, but the culvert is still handling the overflow just fine. We have had some problems with leaking skylights over the verandah, but clearing out some of the moss and debris on the roof above them seems to have done the trick. Once again, we're lucky, lucky people with much to be grateful for.

Raining and Pouring

There's rain, and then there's rain. It's the second kind we've been having. Enough rain that our summer-dry pond filled up entirely in 24 hours. Enough rain to make working outside, which we have been doing, a bit of a challenge. Enough rain to make our boots and everything else mucky!

We have been putting fences around our youngest fruit trees, in a closing-the-barn-door-after-the-horse-is-gone attempt to protect them from the deer who have been visiting. Between his scent and his barking, Frankie was giving us some protection. But as we have found out, all it takes is one visit by one deer to really wreck your trees. So, armed with wire fencing, wooden stakes, a sledgehammer and a staple gun, we launched our defensive manoeuvres in the middle of a very rainy afternoon. Pretty quickly our hats were wet, our coats were wet, our pants were soaked and our dog was bedraggled. Our fruit trees were happy, though.

Probably because it has been about a year since Kim and I took possession of the farm, I've been thinking a lot about how different things feel from this time last year. The real test will be next June, which will mark the anniversary of when we left our jobs. But it's still interesting to look back to see what's changed, and what we've accomplished.

I think we have a more realistic idea, now, of the scope of the project we have taken on, and the work involved. When it comes to the garden (orchard, veggies and perennials) I think we've found it manageable - at least as long as all we're trying to do is feed ourselves, rather than growing for a market garden. When it comes to the house renovations, we're both feeling overwhelmed by all that is left to do. I keep reminding myself that we have accomplished a lot. We managed a difficult move in the midst of the snowiest winter for a long, long time. We painted. We learned how to lay slate tile and install baseboard. We managed a kitchen renovation. We have put on three new roofs - pumphouse, garden shed and wood shed - and built new raised beds for the vegetable garden. We had a great growing season, planted new fruit trees, and learned how to can tomatoes. That's pretty good, I think. We should try to remember that when what's left to do keeps us awake at 2:00 a.m.