Global Climate. The other day the Kid came home from school all hot and bothered because his school friend couldn’t understand the difference between climate and weather. He said if his friend can’t understand the basic level between those two then there is no helping his friend for global warming.

And global warming is a real deal. Since living here I have been telling anyone who will listen that the scientist need to be recording the wind records for global weather change. Now Boxes in Fields is experiencing global wet. Every towel, be it hand/beach/bathroom, clean/dirty/or made into rags was used to collect rain. Rain coming in doors, rain leaking around windows, rain running out between the Rainstream panels.

Having not rained all April except for a few misty showers, the rain came in sheets. No thunder, no lightening, no wind, no drama. Just lots of rain. Poor little plants took a beating but the water tanks are lipping full. Can’t remember if those words have ever been spoken before. In fact they are so full, the pump had to be turned off. Crazy.

Mid May brought more rain. Buckets and buckets of rain. This pass through was more eventful according to the radar. Boxes in Fields was traveling for work so we missed all the rain but we did catch the rainbow. Well in this case a double rainbow.

Again the plants took a beating. Tomatoes are busting at the seams and earthworms are washing up looking for dry land. Taking refuge in the Kid’s soggy palms, these tiny worms were relocated to the gardens.

Boxes in Fields has always had flooding issues. Building a 30×40 concrete pad has only extrapolated this problem. Now the water stands between the Kids’ Box and the Shop Box backing up into the driveway. To reduce standing water, the Planner dug a whole, stuck in a repurposed molasses bucket, dropped in the water pump, and ran the garden hose out the back down the neighbors fence.

Just a few days later the rains came again. It rained and rained and rained. The pallet board walk way from the grass patch to the concrete steps of the Work Box floated away. Took a video but when reviewing it it wasn’t as amazing as it was in person. In video it was like watching honey drip out of a tree.

Once the rain stopped the damage was assessed. There was standing water all across the back from the Work Box to the Tractor Box. There was standing water from the Work Box to the top of the driveway. Water at the bottom of the step was to the bottom of the doggo and the catto refused to swim. To alleviate soggy feet on all accounts, a new walkway laid down and anchored with a bucket of water.

Once everyone was back inside from their water adventures naps were had by all. It only took just short of five months but the doggo and the catto exist on the same plane.

By the very next day, the Planner and his pump idea worked wonderfully. Almost all of the water had been pumped down allowing the ground to quickly dry in the full summer sun.

Rain is nice. Especially all of this rain as the majority of the storms were non violent. Plants didn’t need to be watered and the tanks were so full we were allowed to take long showers. Long. Hot. Showers. Rain, rain, and rain and with more rain comes standing water making it difficult to move around. Rainboots are needed, the doggo is constantly dragging mud into the trailer then leaves dry mud clumps on the floor at night, and salty mud sticks to all things metal causing more rust.

Just as the ground was drying out the weather forecast went crazy on us. A potential for a tropical storm was headed straight to us. Great, more rain. Luckily this turned at the last minute.

As with all water in coastal communities, standing water breads mosquitoes. Lots and lots of mosquitoes. Two days after the last of the rain the first batched hatched. By the evening they were hatched and hunting in droves. Droves. By three days they were thick enough to drink.

By day four we lived in bug spray and went to bed inside the Rainstream by the glow of a bug light. Zap. Zap. Zap.

Sadly the rain killed the garden. Plants just could not handle that amount of rain even in the highly drainable soil found in the garden beds. San Marzano tomatoes were rotting on the vine, bush bean flowers kept falling off, and the chard/spinach rotted at the root.

In the end, Boxes in Fields has had XXX inches of rain. That is more rain than we get in a normal year. Who knows what the rest of the year hold.