David and I left the farm last weekend to explore Southwest Nova Scotia, visit friends, and learn from a new farm. We drove through areas that were flooded, to an area that was burned. The black, burned forests were stark against the bright green regrowth coming up underneath. A testament to two months of drought, then fire, followed by two months of drenching rain. We saw several missing houses with only a basement left, and yellow caution tape surrounding them. We went to Baccaro Point, the southern tip of mainland Nova Scotia. It comes from the Basque word Baccolaos, which means cod-fish. It was thick with fog, and the waves were pounding the shore as the fog horn bellowed its warning to any vessels nearby. A monument next to the lighthouse listed fishermen who lost their lives at sea. People from the area generally don’t have houses facing the sea, because the sea is where they’ve lost loved ones.
We visited a farm near Baccaro Point that the people had to evacuate from for 8 days during the wildfires. It must have been heartbreaking to lose most of their seedlings because they couldn’t be on the farm to water them. Thankfully, their farm didn’t burn. They have a geothermal greenhouse that is designed to be extra windproof and super thermally efficient. We looked at the insulated North wall of the polycarbonate structure, nestled in the forest. We also discussed soil biological activity and how to encourage it in greenhouses and fields. We went home full of ideas to investigate.
Back on the farm, we had lots to do before the predicted rain on Friday. On Thursday evening, Andrew hilled the fall crops, and then cut and tilled a buckwheat cover crop. It had to be ‘terminated’ before going to seed. Conditions were not ideal (still too wet) but he couldn’t wait because predicted rain would mean he’d have to wait several more days before he could get equipment on the land, and risk having the buckwheat go to seed and become a weed. We have more crops to be planted, but it is too wet to form the hills. We’ll have to try to fit that in when the soil is dry enough, before it rains again.
