Storm not over for Ruckersville businesses

One year ago, Ruckersville was reeling in the aftermath of a storm that hurled hailstones the size of golf balls to earth, bringing at least one small business, Blue Ridge Trailers, to a disastrous standstill.
Owner and manager Donna Martin gives credit to her insurance agent, Jerry Breeden of Watson and Durrer, and her insurance company, Peninsula Insurance, for helping her to escape disaster. With the insurance settlement, Martin says she was able to quickly sell her damaged trailers at bottom prices.
But then came another blow: the recession.
“Last summer, we unloaded 65 trailers with cosmetic hail damage in 60 days, so we didn’t realize we were in the throes of a recession and that our market had dissolved until September,“ says Martin. “The phone literally stopped ringing … we looked at each other all last fall wondering what we were going to do.“
Martin’s was not the only business facing another storm, of sorts.
Meadows Farms nursery, also on Route 29, experienced hailstorm damage as well, and is now reeling from the recession.
Last year Meadows Farms manager Angela Graves told the Record that after the storm, she took a look at her stock, sat down, cried, and then sold between 75 and 80 percent of her stock at half price.
Graves has since been promoted and moved on, but her replacement, Ashley Reynolds, says this has not been the best of years.
The rainy season has not helped.
“It rained on most of the big weekends in the spring, but business is picking up now,“ says Reynolds.
Even so, the business will be closing earlier than normal for the season. Rather than closing down for the season at the end of December, Meadows Farms will be closing down August 1. That’s a decision that is “economy-driven,“ says Reynolds.
The storm last year damaged crops as well.
Davis Lamb, part of the family that owns the one remaining dairy farm in Greene County, told the Record the hailstorm was “Mother Nature letting everybody know who is in control.“
Indeed.
On the Lamb farm, Mother Nature raged through 90 acres of corn, 46 acres of oats, and 26 acres of alfalfa.
Lamb said at the time he thought crop insurance would cover only about 20 percent of the damage.
This year, says Lamb, “Rains delayed all plantings. We were slow to get our crops in because rain holds you up on every aspect (of planting. It effects when we use) weed control, and fertilizer.“
Lamb explains that rains such as those experienced this spring can throw all farmers behind. Crops such as soybeans and corn were late getting into the ground, and it’s been hard to get “the first cutting of hay to cure out with dampness and all.“
And the economy isn’t helping:  “Milk prices are as low as they’ve been in years,“ Lamb continues. “The base price of milk is probably 30 percent of what it was … it went from $27 per hundred pounds 18 months ago $10.80 per hundred pounds.
Home gardeners were affected by the hailstorm last year and the rains this year as well.
Marge Grassi sells produce from her half-acre home garden at the local farmers market.
Last year, Grassi told the Record she had lost most of that garden to hail.
And then this year, the rains came.
“The garden almost drowned,“ says Grassi. “(My husband and I) have enough for us, but not enough to share with people at the farmers’ market.“
As for Martin and her trailers: business is improving, but only due to an unforeseen event—Blue Ridge Trailers is selling trailers repossessed from a former competitor.
“(We’re selling) their inventory so customers are able to get a deal,“ says Martin. “That has created a great market for us.
But she says times are still tight.
“As a small business out there (in this current economic climate), it is awful.“