Wind and More Wind

Today was kind of scary. The wind would just not let up, and gusts were over 45mph at times. I was grateful the trees are not yet leafed out or we would have had many down. As it was, the power went out for a good two hours and we had two fairly big trees snap in half in the front yard. What scared me though was that I smelled smoke somewhere. I think the woods are either on fire or there was a fire somewhere Southwest of my farm. I wonder if it was related to the power outage. I worked most of the day in the high tunnel turning the ground over and planting my sweeet potato slips, calendula, and Cherokee Trail of Tears pole beans. The wind is ripping the West end of my high tunnel end panel and I was trying to seam it back together with some repair tape when I smelled the smoke. I could see smoke in the air, too. I drove from my field to the County line, but I could not locate the source of the smoke. That really bothered me. I came back to to the house and listened to the NOAA radio, but there were no hazard warnings. The wind is expected to diminish (it is now after 11:00 p.m. and I can still hear it) and there is a 50/50 chance of thunderstorms. I know that across northern Minnesota there is extreme fire hazard warnings. Fires in Minnesota could easily spread to Northwest Wisconsin. I am fanatic about keeping a fire safety zone around the house, but I think I will go out early tomorrow and make sure brush and dead leaves are well away.

The temperature today was close to 90F -- unreal for this time of year. And everything is SO dry. Any rain we get soaks immediately into the ground. I made sure the chickens had lots of water. They don't like the wind and they spent the day under the balsams in the woods or on the lee side of shelter out of the wind. I don't like to do it because of the racoons and fishers, but I decided to leave the coop window open a bit tonight to give them some extra air. The bear is back and I am afraid he may try to get at the chicken feed stored inside the coop.

I got two flats of Mandan Bride flour corn and one flat of Rattlesnake pole beans started in the basement. I have Kentucky Wonder and True Red Cranberry pole beans that I have yet to start. The pumpkins, pickling and slicing cucumbers, and winter and summer squashes are just about ready to take to the field. I have loads of bush beans to plant in the field, too. I hope everythings grows and I get enough bees to pollinate everything. Once I get my pump out to the field maybe I can keep everything watered enough to attract bees.

Well, it's getting late and I'm beat. Talk to you soon.