Well it’s nothing like the drought that was in Midwest this past year, more of just an Indian Summer you could say. We had 83 days of absolutely no measurable precipitation here in the Willamette Valley!! So in 83 days, we worked ground like crazy, waited for rain, we picked up filberts, waiting for rain, we harvested squash, wait some more for rain, we cleaned up equipment, twiddled our thumbs…still no rain!! So then the day the much needed rain is coming, here is what ensues at Kirsch Family Farms, World Headquarters…
Friday morning, rain in the forecast for the first time in 83 days. I head to the shop for our usual morning meeting to see what is in store for the day. Dad is there along with our other two full time guys. Coffee is brewing, things seem fairly normal, fairly low stress and then it starts…ok lets get some grass planted today before it rains. Let’s get some spraying done before it rains. Shoot then there’s that last bit of ground work to do before it rains (all in all it’s a day and half’s worth of work, but it’s not supposed to rain until noon, let’s get it done!)
We’re running around like chickens with our heads cut off, going all different directions, giving orders, getting orders, grabbing chemical, who is going where? What are you doing? Why are you doing that? I was going to do that! Ahhh!!! Finally amidst all the chaos I looked at dad and said, “Holy cow what have we been doing the past 83 days if 4 hours before it rains all the sudden we’re this busy?!” he looked at me and responded with, “You know Brenda, I just don’t know” And we both laughed.
The rain didn’t come that Friday at noon to give us only 4 hours of work, it hit right around 9am instead, an never let up. Turns out that we needed rain about 3 weeks earlier, not 3 hours earlier. As farmers we can get a bit particular about when we would like rain, how much we would like, and how long we would like for it fall. That day we got a lot more rain than they thought we would, it was great for some, terrible for others, but that’s just farming I suppose. Always reminds me of a saying I heard when I was a little kid, “If you’re going to pray for rain, you better be able to put up with a little mud.” I think it should also add, “And you better be specific about when you would like said mud!” We are still trying to get all those things done that we started that Friday in the rain; so Indian Summer aside…rain has hit Oregon’s Willamette Valley…time to throw on the muck boots and settle in for fall!
NuttyGrass 