April (through June) Showers

The past week or so has seemed like an echo of last summer, where rain and dampness were constant companions. It's been raining on and off for more than a week - a day here and there of sunshine, but mostly cool wet days have finished off our spring.
The garden hasn't suffered too badly, yet - the sunny days were warm enough to dry things out before another wet patch, so apart from one rotted bean seedling and one tomato vine with a small patch of powdery mildew, we've been faring OK.
The rain barrels are full to overflowing (600 gal each... if that gives you an idea of how much rain has fallen) which I hadn't expected so I didn't plan for an overflow system. Thankfully they are away from the house, though, so if they overflow it will just mean soggy walking around the raised beds.
The compost pile has soaked up enough rain that it has dropped down by 6" or so. I haven't seen any worms migrating out of the pile, so hopefully the middle isn't waterlogged. I've been trying to add some bulky things (unshredded toilet paper rolls, for example) to give the worms a bit of a safe haven when the rains are particularly heavy.
Another rain blessing is the success of my 'donated' perennials. Most everything that I transplanted has survived, and in some cases thrived - the hostas are glorious and many of the irises bloomed. Even the wild rose that I thought wouldn't make it has shown new growth (I cut the stems down to the ground almost, when I thought it was on its last legs). The raspberry canes (another gift) are trying to decide whether to live or not... but the ongoing rain has helped keep them on the fence at least.
While our soggy weather has had its good and bad points, I have to feel sorry for the farmers out west that are suffering through a drought. The survival of those families depends on the rain and it seems that the past few years have provided too much or too little. Some people will talk about the give and take of Mother Nature, but it certainly appears that the the cycles are shortening - it's only been 7 years since the last drought out west. It must be hard for them to see their neighbours to the east embarking on another year of (too much?) rain.
Here in what's turning out to be 'the rain belt', I've been thinking that the sump pump is one of the greatest inventions of our time.

Ellie & John

I finally had my more-like-a-sister cousin and her 2 kids out to see 'the new house' (a year after it was new to us). Chalk it up to busy work and life schedules... skating lessons, skiing lessons, girl guides/boyscouts and gymnastics or ballet on her end, work and snow plowing and gardening on my end. So, Sunday (me hung over and tired for a million reasons) she brought the kids and the dog out for a visit.
It was more of a joy than I could have anticipated, to show them around and to see the kids REVEL in the 'countryness' of our life ... helping to water the container plants and the newly-planted perennials, chasing each other with watering cans (filled from the rain barrels), taste-testing the herbs. Offered TV, they elected to only watch 20 minutes of "Prank Patrol" and then came up to help me harvest (and clean) the radishes ("too hot!"), some salad and miscellaneous leaves. I divided the 'bounty' in two, and they took their half home to share with their dad.
Then the dog... running with abandon, smelling the smells of the neighbour sheep and horses, the smells of the recently-visiting dogs, the uncity smells of country life (the rabbits that eat my raspberries, the moles that make holes in the garden, the feral cats that roam the county), uncatchable and so dog-like.
It reminded me (and my sister-cousin, no doubt) of what it was like to visit our grandparents as children - pulling peas and beans and raspberries from their kitchen garden, helping to turn the compost pile, internalizing the smell of the 'workshop' (the dirt-floor basement under the summer kitchen).
Watching the kids amuse themselves made me so happy -- to have her kids associate our house with 'the farm', the place of growing edibles and new mysteries, of wildlife and wild living. To know that my other nephew eagerly awaits "Strawverry day" (when they make the 2 hour trip to our neck of the woods to handpick strawberries at Murphy's), to anticipate how his sister (only 6 months old on our last berry picking day) will react to picking then eating fresh strawberries.
I think that, for all that this place means to us, it is a blessing to provide memories to the children in our lives... memories that will stay with them and that they may be able to recreate with their children.