July 5 – Sunday
Cloudy, Then Rainy
Today was supposed to be another day of endless mowing.
Knowing I had a long day ahead of me, I started by topping off the fuel in my brush cutter. With fresh mixed fuel in the tank, I was ready to spend the day battling the ever-growing grass.
My goal was to finish mowing the grass in the Sunfruit orchard.
A light mist was falling in the morning, but the weather forecast said there would only be a little rain around noon. It did not look like anything that would interfere with work, so I headed into the orchard and got started.
For about thirty minutes, everything went according to plan.
Then the rain began to pick up.
It was still light enough to keep working, so I continued mowing.
About ten minutes later, however, the sky seemed to make a different decision.
A heavy downpour suddenly arrived.
Within moments I was completely soaked. I kept working until I reached a convenient stopping point, then decided it was time to quit for the day.
Back at my truck, I checked the weather forecast on my phone.
To my surprise, the forecast had changed completely.
Now it was calling for heavy rain until well into the afternoon.
I checked the rain radar and the projected movement of the storm clouds. No matter how I looked at it, the conclusion was the same: the rain was not going away anytime soon.
There was no point fighting it.
I canceled the day's mowing.
I loaded the wet brush cutter into the bed of my small farm truck and headed home. The rain hammered against the truck bed, and the machine sat there quietly, getting wetter by the minute.
Weather forecasts are not perfect. Every farmer knows that.
Lately, though, it feels as if we've been victims of what I call the "No Rain Tomorrow" scam.
Since around Thursday, the forecast had been repeating the same message:
"It will rain today, but tomorrow will be sunny."
Then tomorrow would arrive, and the forecast would quietly change.
Once again it would say:
"It will be sunny tomorrow."
And then the cycle would repeat.
Of course, I understand that weather forecasting is difficult.
Still, farming is a business where we have to organize our work around those forecasts.
Should I mow grass today?
Should I harvest fruit?
Should I spray, repair equipment, or do some other job?
Many of those decisions depend entirely on the weather.
So when the forecast changes, our plans often change with it.
Then again, maybe that is simply part of farming.
When your job depends on nature, things do not always happen according to your schedule.
In the end, you cannot beat nature.
Perhaps that has always been one of the basic truths of this profession.
I did not get the mowing done today.
On the other hand, the rain gave me time to sit down and write this blog entry.
Looking at it that way, the day was not a total loss.
So I'll call it a good day anyway.
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日本語版はこちら
https://blog.kuma-farm-japan.jp/article/521071238.html?1783220941
