Farm Lessons

The storms this week are a mixed blessing. As I watch the wind push snow across the field, I am both grateful and worried. Grateful for the snow and moisture. Grateful for the forced break from planting and preparing the field. Grateful for the fact that I haven’t planted everything yet and so most of my seedlings are safe inside my garage (while my car sits in the driveway to be covered in ice). 

I hope we receive lots and lots of moisture this month.

As I have watched this storm and others move through the farm, I have noticed the winds pattern of blowing in from west to east. The west side of the farm is the most exposed. There are no houses or trees to break the wind or soften its touch. I have done the best I can to secure the low tunnels which are right in the wind's path. Their broadside faces west so they take more pressure than I would like. 

I could worry about the wind. I could fret over the potential damage.

But in the last five years of farming, I have learned to let go of the anxiety of a storm. I no longer stay up at night worrying for what I will find in the morning. I have learned that I need my rest so I can best deal with what I find in the morning. There is no point in crying for the wind. I can’t control it. I can prepare for it. I can deal with the consequences of it. But I can not control the wind or the snow or the many other variables of farming that make things hard. So there is no point in being anxious for them. 

I am grateful for this lesson I have learned through farming. It has forced me to let go of my need to control. I have learned to experience the storms in life with an eye looking for how I can do better. How can I better prepare for a storm? How can I create a solid foundation that can weather a storm? Where do I need to position myself to hold the strongest footing while the wind whips around me?

Maybe next year I position low tunnels west to east so only an end wall is facing the wind instead of the broadside. Maybe I put a large hedgerow of woody perennials on the west side that will soften the wind's approach. 

It may take years before I can feel like a storm won’t knock me over. But I’ll keep looking for the weak spots to reinforce. I’ll keep looking for my footholds that will keep me and my flowers in the soil. 

So as the wind blows through my farm this week, bringing much needed snow and rain, I will focus on enjoying forced time back inside and I will write in my farm journal my observations from this Utah spring storm.