Dealing With Wind

Bring on the tradewinds.....I love 'em. But these past few days it's tradewinds on steroids! Blustery strong winds 24 hours a day. I find myself waking up every hour all night long due to gusts and things being blown into the metal roof. And during the day, I deal with the result of these winds. Downed branches and twigs....

Luckily, no downed trees of significance. Just small ones that need to be cleared off fences and buildings, out of garden areas, off the driveway. 

Anything that's not fastened down I can find just about anywhere and everywhere. Buckets. Feed bags. Plastic pots. The wind took a stack of roofing panels and strew them about. Trashcans ended up along fence lines. I thought I had everything pretty well tethered down, but the wind proved me wrong. 

The livestock weathers the wind fine. But the plants can't tuck themselves away into a protected area. Banana trees get shredded, but actually recover quite rapidly. 

The short vined sweet potatoes do ok, but the vigorous long vined ones suffer. Their vines get ripped up, swirled about and actually knotted. In the process many leaves get torn off. 

Above, this was a lush looking sweet potato patch 4 days ago. Ah, no longer the case. 

Blustery winds have a tendency to dry out the soil and dehydrate plants, leaving them droopy. This taro plant shows the effect, but will recover. It's leaves are being jerked this way and that. 

Heavy winds used to cause assorted damage on this farm, but over time I've learned to prepare for it. Trellises are reinforced to withstand wind. The roofs on various buildings are securely fastened. Shed doors are kept latched closed. Tarps are well attached. It took a lot of lessons, but I finally learned. Not even a ladder can be left propped up beside the barn. It will surely be blown over. 

The one thing I've learned to watch is the solar panels. Not just for damage, but for debris. In wind like we're now having, the panels get coated in ohia leaves, flowers, and twigs. Each day I take 5 minutes to hose them off. 

Above .... Left is the debris accumulated overnight. Right, I just rinsed them off. I'm rinsing them each morning right now. I'll be glad when this wind tames down to just gentle trades. You'd think that this wind would keep the panel blown clean, but it's not the case.