A ‘monster’ storm indeed

(CSA Newsletter: Fall Week 5)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

Friday morning last week we opened The Oregonian’s Metro section and read a frighteningly strong-worded article about an upcoming storm. ‘Wow,’ we thought, followed by hopeful doubts that the ‘hurricane force winds’ wouldn’t come to fruition.

Nonetheless, we spent Friday cleaning up around the farm: nesting bins and tucking them into secure positions, dumping remaining veggie starts onto the compost pile, and bringing in our adirondack chairs.

We also began harvesting for the CSA several days early: we dug the potatoes and leeks on Saturday, and the carrots on Sunday. Why so early? For one thing, as the ground becomes saturated with rain, digging root vegetables becomes more and more difficult — mud clings to the roots tenaciously, and simply moving around in muddy beds is slow going. But we also worried about the power going out during the storm, which for us rural residents also means no water (well pumps are generally powered by electricity) … which means no washing abilities. Potatoes, leeks, and carrots — not surprisingly — come out of the ground very dirty, so we wanted to make sure we could clean them off. And, finally, we didn’t relish the idea of harvesting some of our slowest items during the height of a windstorm, as was predicted for our usual harvest day, Monday.

Today, Monday morning, we’re grateful for our early planning. The storm hit our farm Saturday night and is still raging. We’ve discovered this year that our site has little to no protection from prevailing winds. That open exposure is part of why our plants receive delicious sunlight all day long in the summer, but in the fall it means that our little farm and house get hammered by wind.

Saturday night, when the winds began, we first learned that our roll-up garage doors (on the storage room below our living quarters) bang around in heavy winds. So, after lying awake for an hour listening to the noise, we crawled out of bed and went down to investigate. Fortunately, stuffing cardboard around the edges stops the noise problem.

On Sunday, the storm intensified here at the farm, and we learned that at least one previous problem spot in our southern siding is still a bit leaky. We also learned that our strong little house shakes in forceful wind gusts such as we received here all day long. (Both Casey and I have never seen gusts as strong except at the coast where he grew up.)

The gusts continued picking up strength after dark, testing the integrity of our makeshift hot house. We spent the evening looking at greenhouse catalogs and discussing whether we should in fact upgrade to a more permanent hot house this winter.

And, at around 11:30 pm Saturday night we learned that we wouldn’t have a choice in the matter, as our hot house did in fact fall apart under the repeated heavy gusts. We watched the poly come loose and fly off and felt strange relief that the seemingly inevitable had finally happened. We had been using the hot house for storage this winter, and fortunately the contents are mostly ok in the rain. We had one pallet of squash left in there, which may be unfortunately wasted, depending on how it fares through the rest of the storm. We’ll see …

Despite our ‘relief’ at the hot house’s collapse, we both laid awake much of Sunday night. The wind was howling around the house, and our cats were both acting freaked by the noise and shaking. They woke us up as usual in the early morning to go out but balked at the stiff breeze coming through the cracked door. Casey and I encouraged them to go out, since the previous night they had been out for hours and been fine. I prodded them out with my foot, closed the door and then looked out the window to see if they’d just return right away — which they did. Unfortunately our cat Mokum jumped up on the balcony railing, as he always does, to meow at the door. When I opened the door to let him in, I watched as a gust of wind blew him off the railing and dropped him on the ground fourteen feet below.

I screamed.

Then I looked over the side and saw his small white shape running. Casey responded to my scream and ran down the stairs to find Mokum, who was huddling under the stairs apparently unhurt. We checked him all over for broken bones or other signs of injury, but he appears to be fine still this morning, thankfully. In fact, as I write this on Monday morning, he and his brother are curled up asleep on our bed, as though the storm isn’t still raging outside. Sometimes I envy those cats.

Yes, the storm is still raging, as I’m sure you all know. And the paper this morning predicts increasing winds before it finally quiets down this evening. We’re looking forward to sleeping well (hopefully) for the first time in two nights. But for now I’m rushing to finish the newsletter in case the power does go out later today. And we’re grateful that we don’t have to go outside to finish harvesting until tomorrow morning. Casey is cleaning garlic by the fire, and all is well for now on the farm — just a bit more dramatic than usual.

And hopefully it doesn’t get more dramatic this week. With the melting snow pack and heavy rainfall, we’re looking at the possibility of flooding here on the island. So far, the Willamette River is still just below ‘action stage,’ but we’re keeping our ears and eyes open.

Much excitement. Ironically, we’re going out of town later this week to attend a workshop in Bellingham with Elliot Coleman (author of The New Organic Grower and Four Season Harvest) on extending the season. While I’m sure we’ll learn a ton from the workshop, the last few days feel like a crash course in four season harvesting. We have deep appreciation for our full-body rain gear and rubber boots.

We hope that everyone else is surviving this year’s ‘big storm.’ I imagine that many of you have also had some dramatic moments — hopefully less heart wrenching than watching a beloved pet fly through the air in the middle of the night.

I also hope that by the time you come to pick up your veggies Tuesday evening that our valley has calmed down. The forecast for the rest of the week is mostly dry and calm, for which we are most grateful. Enjoy that hoped for calm, and enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers,

Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics

P.S. Thanks to everyone who came out to help sort food at the food bank last Sat.! For anyone who would like to donate food, we will have a donation bin at the pick-up site for the remaining weeks in the fall season (through Dec. 18), so feel free to bring canned or dry food with you on Tuesdays!