[CSA Update] Welcome to week 4

I can see the blue skies now that the rain has gone - I know I don't have the lyrics right, but today just started off with a song in my head, and it is a great way to start the day. I stopped using alarm clocks years ago - those harsh sirens that forced me out of bed just don't get the energy up like a song does in the morning. Driving over to the farm top yard, I pass by a small strip of my sunflowers. They just waved me in today. There were lots of heavy heads, not quite ready to face the sun. But there was this one dinner plate size sunflower that just stood up to be noticed. For the next several weeks folks will be clogging up the roads to park and walk in for a picture or two, just to enjoy that warmth and energy. Plan to stop and smell the flowers were you are.
The storm that ripped through on Thursday thankfully skipped right past us. My wife and kids were at home at 4 o'clock. They were getting constant updates from the four weather feeds we subscribe to. While I was around the packing table with my brothers, she called me and gave me the latest update and right at the same time we both said, time to move at the same moment. She called the kids out to round up the chickens and close up the barn, no horsing around and got them back into the house. They gathered the lanterns, flashlights, blankets and pillows just in case they needed to go to the basement. I drove out to the fields to call in the farm team. The sky turned from light gray to green in a minute. I watched the rain move in, almost in a circle around the field, missing the guys and me, but it looked like a wall of water. We got on the machines and back to the packing house just as the wind picked up. By 4:10 it was dark and intense out. By 4:20, it was just a drizzle, and it was lightening up again. We lost a few trees and the last surviving branch on a lilac bush that has weathered every storm until now.
There are lots of folks in the North Haven and Branford area that weren't so lucky. Lots of power outages and more storm damage just as they got ahead of the Storm Isiais cleanup. More rain is headed our way and that storm will pass too. You might not know how you will make it through, don't worry about it today because it hasn't happened yet. Be confident that you will get through it whenever it happens.