Colorado Springtime: ICE RAIN

Let’s get one thing straight: I’m spoiled, having grown up in California. There, springtime means flowers, sunshine, cute little rainclouds, maybe some fog. Here, it’s… well it’s exciting.

My first night at Zephyros Farm, I set up my tent as usual, and went to bed early like a good farmworker. It was quiet and breezy as I drifted off to sleep… but sometime in the middle of the night it started raining.

Hey, rain, no problem! It’s good for the plants, and my tent was up to the challenge. I woke up long enough to notice the rain, and then went straight back to sleep. Until about 5am, which is when the rain that had collected on my tent turned to ice and started rolling down the rainfly.

See? That’s ice, bro

It sounded like bugs, maybe— something sliding down my tent? Something on my tent? Freaked me out for a second. And yet, due to my advanced survival skills (which told me to stay in my sleeping bag and go back to sleep), I managed to live through the night.

In the morning, everything was still frozen. The sun came out and it melted quickly, but not before I got some photos of the icy grass.

Since I got to Paonia, we’ve had a lightning storm, a couple days of hard rain, strange roving showers, beautiful sunsets, high winds, the aforementioned dust storm, and days so hot you’d swear you were in California. It’s all exciting, and it’s all beautiful… and this grass, like Paonian farmers, keeps on growing no matter the weather.

Still, Paonia is a community that relies heavily on its fruit orchards. Zephyros just keeps a small orchard, but the farms that produce mostly peaches? They stand to lose a lot when hard freezes hit. Most things look like they survived this one, and clearly the worst of winter is past— but you never know, out here, what’s coming next. So cross your fingers for those peaches.

 
(PS – Yes, Mom & Dad, I was warm enough in my sleeping bag.)