Good Luck Negotiating with Mother
It is 14:59 - nope, correction, it is 15:59. I did not adjust my MacBook's clock to the Atlantic time zone. The wind is blowing down from the west-northwest. Veil after veil of rain, pushed along by the wind, are hitting the side of the 120 year-old wood-shingled home and past the window I am looking out of.
The fields are wet.
If I was in Montreal I would be happy. My manicured lawn and tiny vegetable garden would have received the water they need. But I am not in a suburb of a large city. I am a fifteen minute drive from New Ross, Nova Scotia in an area that has, for all of its existence, been dependent on the weather and nature for its economic survival - not just for its pleasure. This is an area whose economic basis is farming.
A great friend of mine has decided to establish himself here.
Since I have been here, he and I have been wondering whether the weather would hold up long enough to allow us to prepare his four acres for planting. To ensure that it is effective the product we need to apply on his land requires that it be dry, and that it remains dry, for six hours.
Yesterday was a beautiful warm day and we were able to get all of the raspberry field and the majority of the apple field done. We worked all afternoon and then, again, after dinner until we could no longer see well enough. Today we awoke to a threatening weather forecast of rain in the afternoon. Needing to accomplish the work we headed out early and completed the apples and all the blueberries...BUT.
The decision to spray today was a gamble. The rain could have started at noon just as well as at 6 p.m. Turns out we have not had the required six hours of dry weather after application. We got, maybe, two. Hopefully the last four hours of our work this morning will not have been in vain.
In a city we don't really care. Sure it is an annoyance if it rains on your planned family picnic. In New Ross rain takes on a different importance. It needs to come at the right time. And what may be the right time for one grower may not be what is right for the guy next door who is either at a different stage of preparation or growing a different crop.
In some businesses you can negotiate with your suppliers of product and services. In farming, your most important supplier, Mother Nature, is blind to your business needs. Farming is a race against time that is dependent on a major stakeholder over which you have no negotiation power. She don't give a crap because she is not threatened.
I spent the morning in a race against nature....and lost.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
The fields are wet.
If I was in Montreal I would be happy. My manicured lawn and tiny vegetable garden would have received the water they need. But I am not in a suburb of a large city. I am a fifteen minute drive from New Ross, Nova Scotia in an area that has, for all of its existence, been dependent on the weather and nature for its economic survival - not just for its pleasure. This is an area whose economic basis is farming.
A great friend of mine has decided to establish himself here.
Since I have been here, he and I have been wondering whether the weather would hold up long enough to allow us to prepare his four acres for planting. To ensure that it is effective the product we need to apply on his land requires that it be dry, and that it remains dry, for six hours.
Yesterday was a beautiful warm day and we were able to get all of the raspberry field and the majority of the apple field done. We worked all afternoon and then, again, after dinner until we could no longer see well enough. Today we awoke to a threatening weather forecast of rain in the afternoon. Needing to accomplish the work we headed out early and completed the apples and all the blueberries...BUT.
The decision to spray today was a gamble. The rain could have started at noon just as well as at 6 p.m. Turns out we have not had the required six hours of dry weather after application. We got, maybe, two. Hopefully the last four hours of our work this morning will not have been in vain.
In a city we don't really care. Sure it is an annoyance if it rains on your planned family picnic. In New Ross rain takes on a different importance. It needs to come at the right time. And what may be the right time for one grower may not be what is right for the guy next door who is either at a different stage of preparation or growing a different crop.
In some businesses you can negotiate with your suppliers of product and services. In farming, your most important supplier, Mother Nature, is blind to your business needs. Farming is a race against time that is dependent on a major stakeholder over which you have no negotiation power. She don't give a crap because she is not threatened.
I spent the morning in a race against nature....and lost.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
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