Bare Mtn Farm

The Best Laid Plans.

Winter is a time of planning, imagining and dreaming.  Plans were made for more flowers, brighter flowers, more variety and earlier flowers.  We made the plans and actually worked really hard in executing the plan.  The hoops houses were planted, and the low tunnels were built.  We seeded and grew and field planted the tunnels.  We were excited that we would have earlier flowers for this season.  But sometimes, the wheels fall off the cart, the plan falls apart and there you are, bummed to the max and tired as hell and asking the question, " What are we doing and why is this SO hard?" 

But after a night of self-pity and crabbiness, you wake up and look around and decide well..... "What did we LEARN?" ..... That there were mistakes but also some things worked out okay.

The mistakes:

The poly tubing for our low tunnels does not work under a snow load.  It works great keeping the rain of the beds for early planting, stands up to the wind also and gives us a chance to have earlier flowers but it will not hold under 9 inches of wet snow.   Some of the tubing has snapped back but most will have to be replaced.  All the tunnels now have to be reworked.

The hoop houses held up which is wonderful but the piles of snow is blocking the venting of the house.  And sure the sun comes out, things warm up and ranunculus are getting hot and sweaty.  So you need to shovel the snow away.

Things that  did worked:

The pvc pipe held up nicely on the iris and tulip tunnel.  They are coming along nicely and are still on plan.

                        Although the daffodils got hammered, the hydrangea is still leafing out.

                            The stock survived and  looks good and the ranunculus are budding up and just starting to bloom.

Although there is standing water and running water and little creeks of water running through the farm, it sounds lovely, like a babbling brook.

You look around a bit more and you see that the snap peas in the veggie garden look good and on track.

So sometimes plans go awry, but in the end you remember you live in a pretty great area which USUALLY isn't too cold or too hot.  You are only a hour or so from the beach and a couple of hours from the mountains.  You remind yourself it is still only March and your season is still out ahead of you.  You look back at the plan and you start working it again.  Thank you to all who sent us their good wishes, you have no idea how much we appreciate the support.  It is really great!