Thursday, April 12, 2007

Heartbreak

The freezing temperatures over Easter weekend wreaked havoc around here. I think our blueberry crop is a complete loss. All the blossoms turned brown overnight. Our apples may be a wash too. I stopped pitying myself when I realized that my livelihood didn't rely on the success or failure of our little crop. Growers throughout the region are facing total devastation of their apple, peach and strawberry crops. Crop insurance will not cover much; and I hate to think of all the workers who will be without work at harvest time.

It wasn't just the plants around here that were breaking my heart. The little guinea keet didn't make it. I'm not sure what went wrong. It just never really thrived. There are still eight eggs under a very broody Australorp hen in the coop, so maybe we will get lucky with a few eggs. Marie, who had been patiently sitting on ten eggs of her own, mysteriously left them when the cold snap hit. So, no turkeys this year either. We've had a bummer of a time here at Little Creek Farm.

One bright spot occured Easter morning. Charlie came back from the chicken house with a perfect, fluffy, little black chick. She's very cute and her story a little miracle. Her story deserves an entry all by itself. So tune in tomorrow. As a teaser I'll tell you that we've named her Lazarus.

3 comments:

  1. Oh Maggie... I'm so sorry.

    Trapped in my New England-centric world I had no idea about the fruit crop in the South. What a shame.

    Not a good spring at all.

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  2. Oh Maggie...that's terrible. They didn't have much on the news around here about how the cold affected things.

    It's only now that I'm running into friends and reading posts like yours that I'm figuring out what this is going to possibly mean. Ouch.

    I'm so so sorry...poor guinea keet.

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  3. Maggie: I am a bit worried myself: by what this means at the store and for feeding ourselves and our animals in general. They said most of the corn crops here in georgia were destroyed. 90% of the apples supposedly too. Pecans didn't fair well either--our own are a wash. It does seem as if MAYBE we might get a few apples and blueberries ourselves---but not enough to make that much of a difference.
    Bummer isn't it.
    Monica

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