Amen to the rain! We have made it through another dry week with some help from a smattering of showers. We once again tried to offset dry conditions by devoting lots of time to watering and focusing on the vegetables, fruits and flowers that we are still able to help grow and thrive, recognizing that a few crops might have experienced a premature end to their season.
A reporter and photographer from The Washington Post came to pay us a visit last week as part of a story they were working on about the drought and how it is affecting local farms. You can find the full article here. We weren’t at all shy that we had been praying for rain and hoping for more balance in the weather patterns.
We did find balance in another way this week: teamwork. Several members of our team collaborated on Wednesday, and again on Friday, to put together a new shelving unit for the warm(er) cooler where we store our tomatoes and cucumbers. I had doubts about whether we could do it together - would our different approaches cause tension and aggravation? Would we fail to get things lined up and leveled and wind up with unbalanced shelves, rendering it a one-person weekend redo?
In the end we knocked this one out of the park. The team was all smiles when we completed our work just before the end of shift on Friday. When we went too fast and got stuck with an unbalanced shelf that wouldn’t budge, we went into fix-it mode: we searched for tools, adjusted our pace, moved more slowly, became more aware of the person opposite us and really worked together to get it done. No one threw up their hands or voices in frustration.
It was a welcome reminder that this team is great at overcoming obstacles, helping each other stay level-headed, and balancing out each others’ abilities.
With gratitude and appreciation,
Allison Schumacher
Farm Manager
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” ~ Helen Keller