Growing stuff shouldn't be this easy. Good moisture, no predator bugs, weeds are under control, the seeds germinated well and the rows are full, the horrendous mosquito season never has materialized (at least at the farm), there hasn't been any hail, it hasn't been too windy, the nights have been relatively warm and the days mostly sunny. To top it all off, we were more careful hand seeding this year and there has been only manageable thinning to do. I would like to think that this trend will continue and the monsoon will begin soon with a nice gentle shower every other afternoon, no killing frosts till October, droves of folks at the farm each weekend consuming our bumper crop, etc., etc.........and we make a reasonable return on our invested time and money (and good fortune).

It is a great summer to be farming in the mountains and I would like to leave it at that...............but the skepticism that pervades the thoughts of people who rely on the whims of mother nature for their livelihood cannot quite be erradicated from my thoughts and I find myself worrying about whether or not to remove the row covers-- leaving them on can keep the Ladybugs and other good bugs from protecting the plants and keeping them off can subject the whole crop to the pillage of the ever-looming hail storm. At this elevation I know we can get a real freeze just about any time and it was just a year ago about this time that a herd of butterflies passed through one day and laid eggs all over our lettuce which led to hungry caterpillars of course. And what about the rain-- it hasn't really rained now for several days and there's no law that says the monsoon has to develop or that July and August have to be wet months. And then there's potato blight, rust on the carrots and all those maladies which lurk in the soil waiting for an opportunity to rear their ugly heads.

All is good right now-- I just hope it's not too good.