“Suddenly all the sky is hid
As with the shutting of a lid,
One by one great drops are falling
Doubtful and slow,
Down the pane they are crookedly crawling,
And the wind breathes low;
Slowly the circles widen on the river,
Widen and mingle, one and all;
Here and there the slenderer flowers shiver,
Struck by an icy rain-drop’s fall.”
~James Russell Lowell, “Summer Storm,” 1839
It’s been so droughty-dry and unseasonably hot here at the farm. There have been storms but all of them have gone past us, leaving us with light shows in the sky, heavy winds and only the smell of rain.
The grass has turned dry and crunchy under our feet. Great cracks have opened in the ground. The dam has a few scant inches of water left amid the waterlilies struggling to stay viable.
Those dry storms have kept us busy – interrupting our power supply again and again, downing trees, stopping our landline phone and internet from working.
Last night we finally attracted a storm that had everything – wind, hail, lightning, thunder and most importantly rain.
Our internet’s down again. We’ve got broken branches littered everywhere. The ground is a carpet of leaves thrown down by the elements. The air is cool and smells sweetly of earth and moisture. There’s lots of mess to clean up.
Me? I’m blogging in the car, on the way to coffee with Ben and Cafe Dog.
The last of the rain is moving through now, and then it should fine up to a bright hot day before more storms again this afternoon. But we know that this kind of unstable and disruptive weather pattern is here to stay. So we’ve made some big decisions.
We’re just finishing the last of a massive solar installation that will see us self-sufficient for power and with a diesel generator for back up just in case.
We’ve got new internet providers coming to the farm to fit us out for a better system instead of relying on ancient phone lines that stop working with any hint of moisture.
All these storms have forced us to rethink and adapt.
What big changes are you making in your life right now?
It’s time.
Rethink. Adapt. Get ready to do it differently for 2017.
