June second?

Talk about some extreme weather patterns... For starters, two straight weeks of rain, then a week and a half of hot, humid summer-like days in the mid-eighties followed by twelve straight hours last night of gusting winds... Blowing in today's daytime highs in the mid-sixties and tonight's predicted low way back into the thirties. Thirties! (Thirty-eight, to be precise... As in, six degrees above freezing. Don't tell the cucumbers or summer squash.)

And so the season begins!

Rain's great for carrot, bean and beet germination, as well as the perennial hedgerows; the heat has awoken some beautiful potato plants their thick-stemmed, sleeping beauty glory, and it has somehow conned me into thinking that it's already time to transplant out cukes, picklers, 3 types of summer squash, zinnias and sunflowers... We're off and running!

New solutions beget new challenges, as is to be expected. One of this year's questions is how to provide ventilation for the hoophouse without compromising its structural integrity on Wind Hill. Thanks to Thomas, we rigged up some panels from the dealership that have been sitting in storage for a while, and came up with a tiny 12V fan to get the air circulation going in the house. It's amazing the differences in plant health the tiny changes can make.
As always, friends' help and inspiration is instrumental: Thanks to Becky, Liz, Maggie, and Jane, as well as the valiant, tandem-bike-wielding Middlebury crew of David, Makayla, and Joo Ei! And what would a farm spring be without some baby chicks around? After a longer layover than expected, thirty chicks arrived at 5am last Wednesday at the Manchester Center PO. They mangaged to perk right up after the trip from Albany, and it's a bright spot to add thirty little peeping fluffballs to the mix. Twenty more are heading in next Wednesday (don't tell Burt.) Summer is here (don't tell school, which ends in two weeks!)
Finally, and joyfully, thanks to Rachel who will be helping out on the farm a bit this year. More details to come soon after she finishes her wombat-softball birthday cake!!

I hope this finds everyone well. Happy June!