If you are in one of our affected neighborhoods, I can hold off your delivery for a week and send you extra next week. PLEASE, let me know one way or another - I realise your delivery may not be top of mind right now.
Please note that if you have lost a significant amount of food due to power outages, I may be able to help out with extras, will have to see how things work out.
Details being posted on "This weeks harvest page" and updated as the week progresses.
Also, Dick will be selling beef this fall so you may contact "Littledown Farm" after Wednesday.
http://www.littledownfarm.ca/
Hello Everyone:
Friday afternoon as experienced from my end of town...
Note for context...we have been house and farm sitting for my landlord. The farm has five beef cattle that need supervision - checking their water supply and ensuring the physical and electric fences are secure. The cattle have access to a couple of fields adjacent to my growing field and their house where we are based...
It's too windy at the prep station to use the scale accurately, so I take the onions and the squashes back to Dick's house and set up in the garage. At one point I hear a snap and look out - a tree has just come down in the neighbors yard. I should check on the farm when I am done...
As planned, I stopped my work late in the afternoon to drive over to the auto shop to pick up the Subaru after an oil change. I pass the farm lane way on my way down the road and all looks ok - some of the the row covers are flapping loosely.
I pick up the car, leave the little car in the lot, and request that my receipt is emailed to me...later, I was able to reconstruct my whereabouts with the time stamp from this communication (I was on farm time; ie, sometime late afternoon).
On the way home (4:30 pm), I kept looking north and thinking that the hazy, diffuse clouds look potentially tornadic. I click on the radio and almost immediately receive the alert ready signal, indicating a tornado warning. 'Warning', I thought. Meaning possibly imminent. 'Gotta double check the yard to make sure everything is fastened down'. There are farm clothes on the line. Not sure where this bank of clouds are heading but I know everything can change quickly with weather like this.
It is sunny where I am, and other than a fire crew tending to a tree leaning upon some wires on Shea Road, all seems normal - there are two more tornado alerts.
I stop at a neighbors to discuss looking after their chickens for a couple of days. We comment on the clouds to the north and the west; he suggests that the weather would turn bad here around 7 PM.
Ok, I think, I'll go check on the row covers and decide if I should tighten them or to take them off for the night. If I tighten them too much, the covers will rip off. Not cold tonight, so maybe best to take them down.
This is the scene that greets me as I arrive at the gate.The tree originally stood inside the cattle fence, so now it is laying across it. Not to mention the gate, which is smashed and laying flat.
This means trouble - the fence containing the cattle is down and they have access to the road.
They will be coming to this pasture soon to drink from their water cistern, have to move and think quickly. Clouds in the west getting nearer...
I got back into car and returned to the house to take the back entrance through the cattle field. A large bank of clouds are rolling in from the west...I turn on the radio and hear the breaking news of power outages, four homes damaged possible tornado...
Focused on the job at hand, I drive through the cattle field and park, blocking the entrance to the compromised pasture.
I step out just as the breeze starts to pick up. The smell of rain is in the air.
First, I grab an old unused gate to block their entrance to the pasture. Then I start adjusting the electric fence - two barriers, electric and physical - are standard on this farm.
I bend down to pick up one last electric fence stake. A violent gust of wind followed by a smash. I reel, clutching my head...what happened? The gate is lying on the ground. Fluke accident. Minor cut. The first drops begin to fall. Almost finished...
Gritting my teeth and thinking of the need to get an ice-pack on my head, I fasten the gate to a tree with some spare wire, re-string the electric wire, hustle to the electric fence charger, and get it turned back on. The rain is pouring now and I soak the car seat driving back to the house.
As soon as I am inside and de-booted, on with the radio, only to find that my little drama is nothing compared to what is going on elsewhere in town. Takes my mind off the headache. Get supper started in case our power goes out later. Raining much harder now, wondering if Julia is stuck in traffic (as it turned out, she was walking from the bus stop to the auto shop parking lot at this point to pick up the other car. Completely oblivious to the events of the past hour or so).
Saturday...
Assessing the work ahead Saturday morning, this view from inside the gate.
Close call, the tree could have taken out the power line to the farm.
First, check the tree branches up in the air relative to the electric lines and figure out how cutting the branches will affect how the rest of the tree will shift about as it's weight changes.
Then look for branches up in the air that are loose enough to fall when the cutting starts.
Neighbors are so useful at a time like this...A second pair of hands arrives. In farm country,, we tend to look out for one another.
As we work, another truck pulls up.
Another family drama unfolding completely unrelated to the storm...a missing black lab is being sought.
The gate is finally freed. Not as bad as it could have been, but rendered inoperable.
Dick will have some welding work to do as many of the cross pieces are snapped from their welding points and the hinges are broken.
Moments later, the fence flops against my helps truck and leaves some scratches...is anything going to be left unscathed?
Progress being made. Damage to the fence is becoming more apparent - the fence posts here are snapped off at ground level.The downed tree supplies plenty of material for bracing.
For reference, a photo of last nights work.
Not pretty, but effective. Ability to improvise is a must for any would be farmer.
Minutes after opening the gate, the cattle start to arrive, no doubt a little thirsty.Job done, back to the routine...