Who knew weather was such a big freakin' deal?

I used to think talking about the weather was the last resort of people who couldn't think of anything else to talk about. That was before I decided to be a farmer.

You know, in spite of everything, I like to think we didn't just move out here with absolutely no idea what we were doing. I took an 8-week class on small acreage farming, we've read tons of books, we've done a reasonable amount of backyard vegetable gardening, we've talked to growers at the farmers market. But I've been finding that the resources I've found speak most to our experience this spring are some books I read when I was about 10: the Little House on the Prairie books. Specifically, their focus on, and evocative descriptions of, the vagaries of weather.

Dust Storm, May 3.

Snow, May 6.

Not pictured: 80 (!) mph wind gusts, hail, rain of frogs.

What I mean to say is, weather. It's crazy! And has kept us cooped up inside since about April 28. As best we can tell, most of our crops are okay -- I tried to hat some parsley starts in the middle of a downpour and they mostly blew away, so we lost 6 or 7 of eight parsley plants. And we haven't planted a thing since April 26. The weather report for the next 10 days looks good though, so -- just like Pa Ingalls -- we're going to make hay while the sun shines.