Pre-storm preparations

Late on Friday night and early again on Saturday morning, the Eagle Street Rooftop Farmers prepared for the oncoming rain and stormy weather.  The ripen and close-to-ripe tomatoes and peppers were harvested, any loose buckets, boards and posts were brought downstairs, and the apiaries were weighted down with multiple cinder blocks.  In case of flooding, the nursery flats were carried up to the farm and weighted down between the rows of taller pepper and tomato plants.  The chickens were brought from their upstairs coop to the farm market room.  The coop is too solid to move (and weighted down, as well), but for the chicken’s well-ventilated coop, there’s always the threat of sustained sideways-blown rain. Dozens of tweets and phone calls came through all morning offering help.  The final step, after the drains were cleared and everything was sealed off?  Saying goodbye to this season’s sunflowers and cosmos, whose tender blooms may not make it through the wind.