Currently viewing the tag: "rain"
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One of the things I like to do over my morning coffee on rainy days is to look at the 24hr rainfall totals on the National Weather Service website.
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In our backyard we have a black mission fig tree which was probably an ill-advised choice this close to the coast.
It’s about as busy as it can get around here. The ground finally dried out enough to get into most areas of the farm and we’ve been planting like crazy. You’ll notice we are depending a lot on our friends at other local farms these past few weeks. The heavy prolonged rains definitely put us quite a bit behind schedule.
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It looks like we will be getting a winter season after all. Although our rainfall totals are still far below the seasonal average here, things are looking promising. There are storms lined up through next week and it may even be cool enough by Friday to bring snow to the surrounding peaks.
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The two decent sized storms that we have had this rainy season have been enough to bring up the grass on the open portion of our property. A huge high pressure zone remains parked over most of California, deflecting all of the storm systems to the North—there is no forecasted rain in the foreseeable future.
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This “winter” just doesn’t want to go away—another storm is forecast for tomorrow. We are up to nearly 40 inches of rain this season, which is nearly double what we get in a normal year. This is how I imagine it is to farm on the East Coast, where they get rain throughout the spring and summer.
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This first day of spring is being ushered in with yet more rain, making for a wet harvest day. Steve was on the tractor dawn to dusk through the weekend getting ground worked up and compost spread in advance of the storm. He wasn’t the only one. Some nearby farms have had tractors working through the night.
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During a “normal” rainy season, if there is such a thing, the water in our neighboring Harkins Slough can, in places, turn the color of a cup of coffee with half & half mixed in. 
The first week of the New Year is generally the time that we throw ourselves into preparations for the coming season with increased vigor—making seed orders, starting transplants in the greenhouse, and checking things off our long project list. 
Here atop our coastal terrace where our home ranch is located, there is very little between us and the coast to slow storm systems down as they come off the Pacific Ocean. For most of the day last Sunday it felt as if our house was in an enormous car wash—being buffeted by near-40mph gusts and driving rain.
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The unusually late rain storm passing through yesterday and today has brought little more than sprinkles and mist down here in Watsonville. Strawberry growers always get nervous when rain threatens during harvest season. Ripe fruit breaks down quickly when it gets wet, and Botrytis or “grey mold” can set in. Yesterday’s “storm”, however, didn’t bring enough moisture to cause problems, and in fact, may have helped more than it hurt.
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