So, before I get into this lament/satire about all the rain we have experienced in the past several months, I want to public recognize if I had to choose form having excessive rain or drought conditions like some of you regularly experience throughout the country, I would take the excessive rain every time. This post is needed therapy for me and much cheaper than seeing a counsellor.

When I meet someone new either in a business setting or just casually, the conversation usually crosses the subject of me having a farm. The first question I hear almost every time is, “Oh, a farm. What do you raise on your farm?” I usually respond with a certain exuberance that we raise pastured pigs, broiler chickens in chicken tractors, and egg layer chickens. Lately, however, my response has been a less than exuberant “Mud… we raise mud”.

Needless to say this winter has been a bit moist. And by moist I’m not talking about your grandmother’s “triple layer cake” moist, I’m talking about “close up the ark I think she is starting to float” moist. I have had so much water in my boots and soaked into my pants that I am starting to list to one side like torpedoed cruiser.

When we experience this much rain in the winter when no vegetation is growing, the mud becomes endless and deep. Trips into the woods with the tractor to fetch fire wood or to skid logs for the mill result in the logs, the tractor, and the operator being covered in a thick layer of red clay. On some of the steeper farm roads, a down hill drive with a load behind me results in a lengthy skid down the mountain and quite a few simple (but very audible) prayers.

With several mild winters in a row, we haven’t have the benefit of frozen ground keeping the mud from being so extreme. This winter, we will have the occasional night below freezing but a quick thaw the next day. This seems to heave the mud even more. Attempts to mitigate the mud with gravel or crushed stone resemble a man lighting a pile of money on fire. I believe that some of my gravel is much closer to China now than it is to Red Tool House.

If I were to look at the positive side of this situation (which I am really trying hard to do), I would see the following:

  • My truck hasn’t been dusting in months thus not requiring me to wash it.
  • The high water on the farm brings some of the trash dumped by the previous owners closer to the front of the property where it is easier to collect.
  • The heavy rain makes the pigs look like they are wearing hair gel and just stepped out of some 1950’s diner.
  • The smaller, steeper watersheds in the valley display small but beautiful waterfalls.

Wet pigs look like they are using hair products.

Hopefully, this summer I won’t find myself complaining about all the dust and having to transport water for the pigs because the stream has dried up. Here in West Virginia, I never know what to expect when it comes to weather but I guess that is just part of farming.

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