Today we witnessed a dragonfly frenzy. There had to have been twenty or thirty of them flying and dive bombing all over the farm. Since they are major mosquito eaters, the more the merrier for me. It was a quite amazing sight.

We're starting to lay out the next phase of beds. Cold frames to the north of the north bed, extending the north bed and the lettuce bed. Maybe putting in some raised beds along the fence by the tracks, since the soil there is kind of rocky, probably from when they built the raised rail bed.

We had a major monsoon this afternoon, high winds, pelting rain. When I went out to check the farm, it had actually blown over the potatoes and the beans. I was able to get the beans back upright and didn't think it was really a problem for the potatoes since they are underground.

It looks like it caused some sort of chicken freak out also. Two of the chicken were caught outside when I went to put them to bed. Somehow the door had dropped on them. And then when I checked inside to make sure everyone was in, the piece of carpet on the upper level that shelters the food from dropping poop was on the ground covered in dirt. The wind was really hard, so maybe there was some uplift. Luckily everyone looked to be OK, all shmooshed up on top of the nest boxes as usual.

I turned the compost today and the center of the pile was pretty hot, which I'm proud of. It means I'm mixing the greens and browns well enough and keeping it moist. There was some clumping, perhaps too many leaves, but that should work itself out in the mixing. I need to get a tarp over it to keep the moisture in and keep the pile cooking. I also need to make a sifter to fit the wheelbarrow.