Our First Hurricane

Well, that was certainly exciting. We got to experience a rare weather event here on the island, an event rare enough that even few Islanders have experienced it before. Apparently, Fiona was the most intense storm PEI has seen in a long, long time. By the grace of God, we came through it very well, especially compared to some other places on the island.

We spent three days getting ready; we moved all the chickens and bunnies into the barn, closed off the pig pen to the outside, gave them all lots of food and water to last them at least a full day. We moved every loose item we could find indoors, using an old, rusted freezer and a bunch of logs to keep the back door of the garage closed against the 192-km/hr wind gusts that hit us Friday night and Saturday morning. We harvested as much as we could from the garden, including tomatoes, squash, celery, and more. The potatoes weren't a concern; they're underground anyway. The corn, sadly, is no more; the winds flattened the entire crop, so that's two years in a row that we get no corn from the garden. Better luck next year.

So, Friday night was a hunkering-down time. The animals were checked once more, and as I was coming in for the last time I saw a rainbow off to the northeast, where the storm was coming from. I felt an incredible peace at the sight; that was God, assuring us that He's got this in hand, and we would be safe. I went in to grab my phone to take a picture, but by the time I got back outside, the sun had dipped below the horizon just enough, and the rainbow was gone.

So, the doors were locked and the praying began. The winds picked up here around nine o'clock, and by midnight it was like nothing we've ever experienced before. The rain pounded on the back of the house, but I checked the basement several times, as well as the attic, and there were no leaks, thankfully. We stayed nice and dry. The power went out around one or two in the morning; I was asleep then; Honeybunny had woken up and was downstairs. She came up as the house was shaking from the force of the winds, and woke us all up and said we should all be down in the living room for safety.

It wasn't comfortable, but it was for the best. We all stayed there and tried to sleep; some more successfully than others. By the time morning came, the winds were still pounding, but the dim daylight made things seem much better.

That's when we saw what the storm had done to our farm. The trees in the front were practically denuded of their lighter branches (and some bigger ones); the yard, which we had just cleaned up the day before, was full of sticks again. The worst was the barn; the doors, which we had finally repaired and closed in anticipation of the storm, were broken; one of them was hanging with just a single panel remaining, the others having snapped off. There was a piece of translucent plastic on the roof to let light in that had torn and partly broken off as well. A few trees in the back came down, and as I mentioned, the corn was flattened.

Amazingly, though, that was all the damage we suffered. The barn door is the biggest headache; we need that fixed before winter sets in. But other than that, there wasn't much else to worry about. I rebuilt the outdoor coop today for the meat birds, who are ready to go to slaughter this week, and the boys did some tree-cutting behind the barn to clean up the few trees that came down.

One thing that did come through nicely was our pumpkin patch. The leaves didn't do so well, but the pumpkins themselves? Beautiful. Here's Tanner with the first pumpkin picked from the garden.

  

In behind him, you'll see a tree at the front of the house. That tree has come down; it was leaning over the house and threatening the second floor, so we took it down today as well. Still, all in all we came through this ordeal very, very fortunate.

And, as a bonus, the power (and internet) are back on earlier than expected, so I get to post this blog tonight. Yay!

That's it for now; the tomato plants came through the storm very well, so we're still going to get to harvest more of those before the season is over. And, as I mentioned, the pumpkins are turning orange and beautiful. I can't wait to see how many we end up with by Halloween.

And the Beet Goes On

Another busy weekend of pulling stuff out of the ground. More tomatoes were plucked and turned into sauce, more potatoes came out, and the onions, both red and white, are drying on the porch. And the big one is the beets. I don't even like beets that much, but it was a very satisfying feeling to pull these out of the ground.

That's a full tub of beets out of an eight-foot patch of garden space. We don't eat a lot of beets, so these will last us quite a while.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the process, Honeybunny has been doing an incredible amount of prepping and storing vegetables. We've got bags and bags of frozen carrots, beans, and other assorted goodies down in the freezers. Not all of it came from our garden; we're getting stuff from a nearby greenhouse as well. They provide us with the produce, she preps it and stores it, and we keep half for ourselves while bringing the rest back to the greenhouse people. We've gotten cucumbers, basil, more carrots, and a bunch of other veggies as well. We'll be eating decently for quite a while now.

I really need to get back to writing about writing, but the farm is taking up a lot of time right now; even on days off, it's work, work, work. And strangely enough, it's very, very satisfying.

Harvest Season Begins

I swear, I do stuff besides working on the farm. Honest.

But, as I've said before, there is something truly incredible about reaching into the ground and pulling out something that you planted months ago as a tiny seed. We've harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, garlic, lettuce, onions, potatoes...and it just keeps going.

Today, I went for a full harvest of one particular crop: carrots. Behold my handiwork:

The box ended up being a little over half full. Not bad for a first-timer. Honey Bunny is diligently washing them and getting them ready to store; they'll last us a few months, hopefully, or less if we start focusing more on eating what we grow instead of buying it all.

I planted the seeds close together in the spring; that's how I got that many in a small, eight-foot bed. They were cramped, and it showed; some grew around each other, making it difficult to pull them out. And some of them were just massive. Two inches or more across at the top in one case. And they are all very, very tasty.

So, it's a short post today, but it's a good feeling. Food on the table is always a good thing. And my Honey Bunny can do amazing things with food. I can't wait to see what she can do with stuff this good.