It's a Slow Down

June 22, 2016, who would have thought it would be a major slow down around Clara!  No rain, grass is turning brown and going dormant  which means I am not on the lawn mower every three days doing yard, barn yard and around the garden.  The garden looks mighty pathetic.  The only things growing are onions, peas and green beans.  The peas have a nice bunch of pods but without rain I'm worried they will never mature.  The pea plants are no more than 12-16 inches high and that is very unusual.  Other years we run posts and wire for them to climb 5'or more.  It looks like nature is doing what it does best, compensate for no rain.  The sweet corn  is 4 inches high, a pale green instead of the dark lush green we are use to seeing.  The old farmers always say the corn should be "knee high" by the 4th of July.  Ours surely will not be which makes me think.......freezing and canning is going to be only if we buy veggies.  Unless we get some nice steady warm rain it looks like a long dry couple months.  Another worry, how the water wells will do.  When ya live in the country we know it just doesn't come out of the faucet because it is suppose to. 

For the last few days I have called us the "sky watchers".  When a dark cloud moves in we start hoping it will drop rain but nothing.  Living in a tight valley with hills high and close we normally don't see the storm until it is almost over us.  So we have watched and watched, the clouds come and they go.  I remember reading about the Great Dust Bowl in history class.  It is almost how I feel now.  The ground is showing deep cracks and the dirt is like talcum powder.  The only ones enjoying the dust are my hens.  They are dusting and sleeping in the holes they have dug during the hot afternoons. 

Last Sunday we took the day off for a little fun.  My favorite rides are along Keuka and Seneca Lakes.  Just north of Watkins Glen over looking Seneca Lake is Lakewood Winery.  They offer a great tasting experience.  Since the first time we went the same guy does the tasting.  He is great, funny and full of information.  He also does a great job of selecting what we should sample.  Sunday the Fiddlers Guild was on the winery lawn loaded with great fiddling talent.  From Norway to wine country area the fiddlers were  showing off the God given talent. There was even story telling to let us know how the long ago songs came to be.  A little wine, Sangria, beautiful weather and great music.  We hit it lucky.  They had vendors selling garden products, plants, home canned goods, purses and even a few young girls dressed in their Norwegian costumes braiding wild daisy garlands for the gals to wear in their hair.  It was just a good old fashioned kind of fun.  I needed that!  They husband bought a red grape vine to plant since the one we planted last year is doing so good.  It needed company......

If I think our lawns are turning brown it is nothing to what Wine Country is facing.  The grass was brown and crisp, like walking on Shredded Wheat.  Come on, let's get some rain for this area.  I will say as warm as the days have been the evenings are cool and comfortable for sleeping.  50/50, give and take, good with the bad, it all equals out.  One thing for sure we can't predict the weather and we can't change it. 

Sounds of summer were all about today.  It's hay season and a good one too.  Every farmer I talked to has said the same thing, the fields are thick and high with hay.  That tends for a plentiful amount of bales per acre.  The Hoffmans have been going by with tractor trailer loads of the big round bales all morning. News travels quickly in Clara Valley and we were told the hay was from the Bob Graves farm.  Scott West has been busy cutting and raking our neighbor's field all day. Sounds of summer in the country, can't beat it.  At least for us.

Beautiful friendly gals,  happy to tell you a about their country.

Keuka Lake heading back south on the east side of the lake.

Vineyards at Lakewood Winery.  What a view to set and sample some good wines.

 The fields from here to Wine Country are cut and bales taken care of.  Now will there be a second cutting?  Only time will tell, rain to make it grow and dry days to get it cut and baled.  Like I said, happy we don't depend on farming for a living, worry is daily when your a farmer.