Quiet

I know that I've been very quiet on the blog lately, no time really. I'm rarely online for one, for another life as a subsistence farmer is very focused on providing food and fuel for our continued survival. This year has been quite the challenge on the food front. Our weather, on average, has been pretty good. However, seeds and plants don't grow based on weather on average, they try to endure the weather at the moment. Our weather has alternated from cold and very wet to scorching hot, averaging to pretty good but not good for most annuals. The result: seeds have rotted in the soil, then what plants came up were parched. We had two plantings of snap peas which never sprouted, third time was the charm. Our snow peas shot right up and are doing great. Squash is behind, but the potatoes are growing like crazy. Our Anasazi sweet corn is doing great, the Ashworth sweet corn sprouted an average of three plants per row. Growing spinach has been a complete joke. The perennials are doing well, annuals are anyone's guess. We've had years of no problems with rabbits and this year they're pests.

So, diversity in plantings and lots of organic matter in the soil, as I've stressed in the past, are crucial to survival.