Disco, Inferno

Disco Ball delivery

"The Winter of Our Disco Tent"

A cold mid-January night - the perfect time to hold a disco party in the greenhouse!
First, we had to find a disco ball. I ended up ordering one on line (complete with motor for spinning and lights.) It arrived a couple days later and when opened the box, it threw sparkles everywhere!

We created dozens of ice luminaries in balloons (balloominaries!) to line the driveway and path to the greenhouse.

Our farm assistant, Ruth, found us some color-changing stage lighting that enhanced the discotheque experience. Our friends, Laurel, Darin and Pat co-hosted the party, so they took over the food and music. Darin created an awesome dance track! We also had an open stage set, including a parody "Stayin Alive in Minnesota" song and Darin's  soliloquy from Shakespeare's Richard III reading, "Now is the winter of our discontent". 

We invited guests to contribute their spent trees for a Burning of the Christmas Trees.

What a beautiful night--and so much fun! 

My camera was not working that night, so a huge thanks to Ruth for supplying most of these photos and the video clips.

Stayin' Alive in Minnesota (lyrics by R. Nelson)

Well you can tell by the way I blow this snow

It's a great big drift and it's got to go.

Hands are cold, and my woman's warm. We get to together

In a big snowstorm.

And if our pipes start to freeze

We will burn our Christmas trees.

We will try to understand

The windchill factor's effect on man

 

Maybe you’re a skater and you have a radiator

You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

When the ice is breakin' and everybody shakin'

And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.

 

Well now the temp is low and the moon is high

If I wear my parka I might get by.

Cleats of steel on my sorrel boots

I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.

You know it's all right. It's OK.

But I'd rather be in San Jose.

We will try to understand

The windchill factor's effect on man

 

Maybe you’re a skater and you have a radiator

You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

When the ice is breakin' and everybody shakin'

And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.

 

I built this snowman. Somebody help me

Somebody help me with the head

I built this snowman, somebody help me with the head

Stayin' alive.

 

Well you can tell by the way I blow this snow

It's a great big drift and it's got to go.

Hands are cold, and my woman's warm. We get to together

In a big snowstorm.

And if our pipes start to freeze

We will burn our Christmas trees.

We will try to understand

The windchill factor's effect on man

 

The Most Spectacular Barn Bathrooom Window Ever!

Last fall at the Cow Puja,  I mentioned to Darin of Rochester Stained Glass that someday I would love to commission a stained glass art piece to go in the tall skinny window next to the bathroom door  in our barn, I was envisioning a tall sunflower, with bees buzzing around and a chicken at the bottom. He said, "I can see it!" and he set to work on a design.

Today, Darin and Laurel delivered the finished glass window and installed it in the bathroom!

The top....

going down...

further down...

through the buzzing bees...

to the hen on the ground.

Viewed from inside, the colors are even more saturated and the jeweled seeds in the sunflower sparkle.

After the window was safely installed we had a little celebratory toast.

Thank you Darin and Laurel - this window is going to be such a wonderful surprise to anyone who uses this restroom and will bring delight to everyone! I am glad you convinced us that our barn bathroom was deserving of such incredible art.

Just, wow.

Hothouse Day, Literally

How the heck did we get blessed with so many awesome friends, such as these folks who offered to help work on the greenhouse today? Did I mention that it was  over 90 degrees and tropically humid today while we worked in a space that increases the effect of  heat and sunshine?  Here we are this morning, just getting started - with 15  panels to install (7 of which were installed in April but blew out in a huge windstorm.)

Six hours later, we were  sliding in the final panel!

Interior view of sliding in the last panel. It takes a minimum of six people to safely slide in a panel, including two to hold the ladders steady.

Dave working at the peak, at the very top of the  14-foot ladder.

Ira intrepidly working at the top of the extension ladder tied to the frame of the greenhouse.

Rog atop the scaffolding, viewed through the inside of the greenhouse.

This gives you an idea of how high up we were working.

Admiring our work, after installing the final panel.

Thanks, Randy, for spending your birthday doing sweaty, hard, physical labor!

Cake break.

A toast to Randy the birthday guy, Ira the WWOOFer, and our wonderful greenhouse crew.

Assemblage of ladders.

Significant progress also made on my farmers tan today.

Thanks, kind, hardworking friends!

Wet, Wet, Wet

Judging by my 5-gallon bucket, today we got over 4 inches of rain. (And it is still raining tonight.) Our little pond, downhill from the pasture, is burgeoning out of its banks and has risen over a foot. See that little marsh marigold in the center of the photo?  It was high and dry along the edge yesterday.
Our  water issues are not even a drop in the bucket compared to what poor Texas and Oklahoma are going through, but I will still complain just a little.

The poultry are soggy and seem a bit cranky (except for the ducks.)

We have been working like crazy to complete the commercial kitchen.  Because of all the construction our grass is gone and the entire area in front of the barn is a mucky mess (even though much of it has already been tracked inside.)  So dismaying when we are trying to get everything beautiful for PetalFest in two days!
We got sopping wet  dealing with gutter and downspout issues on the barn during the  heaviest rain. Our clothes were plastered to us - so we peeled them off and took a shower. Funny that showering seemed the appropriate response to being soaking wet.
Todays’s deluge created a river through the garden and washed away much of the lovely mulching work the WWOOFers completed in the tomatoes yesterday. We still haven't been able to plant a large portion of the garden because it is too wet. The potatoes - see left of the  tomato fences - look great, though.

The peonies are on the verge of popping open. I am happy they weren’t open before this rain or they would have been totally flattened.

Irises seem delicate, but they still look pretty good despite the downpour.

My friend Virginia stopped over yesterday afternoon to  help spruce up the gardens before PetalFest.  Last weekend, a dozen more friends spent a morning gardening, painting trim and sealing tiles. We are so  blessed by generous, helpful friends!

 I was too embarrassed by the weeds to take a before photo, but thanks to our wonderful WWOOFers’ weeding, Virginia’s planting and Jerry’s painting, the farm store now looks beautiful and inviting for PetalFest guests.

Aquaponics technician Ruth and I  plumbed the fish gazebo with irrigation driplines this week and hung eight towers above the drain-and-fill growing beds. They are filled with nasturtiums, strawberries and marigolds and make a magical green wall that also conveniently screens the view of the compost bins.

We have our fingers crossed for a sunny, dry weekend so our first PetalFest will be a success!  A plethora of wonderful  musicians, artisans, gardeners and food are lined up for Sunday, May 31. Please join us if you are in the vicinity!

Clear and Concrete Progress!

We have been working so intensively all over the farm--planting the garden,  reseeding grass destroyed by all the construction, preparing the fish gazebo for the aquaponics set-up,  establishing the new pond...but for now I will update you on the greenhouse and kitchen.
Saturday was a glorious day and we had a wonderful group of friends helping us on the greenhouse.

Rog invented a bent ladder-like support structure to enable us to install the peak - but we didn’t get far enough along to actually use it Saturday.

Kelly (our new WWOOFer) and Elizabeth power-washed the panels

and rattled them to help water drain out of the channels.

Jerry and Beth slid the connector pieces on

and  sprayed the groove with WD-40 so the panels would slide together more easily.

We figured out  that it was easiest to  install the upper panels by threading  each panel into the bottom of the adjacent panel and sliding it up, while  applying constant pressure so it didn't pop out sideways.

Pushing from the bottom and sides; pulling from the top.

Randy, muscles and nerves of steel, at the top.

Rog and Dave attaching the last upper panel on the south side!

Surely the north upper side will go easily now that we have our system down. And then we just have the  peak...and the ends...and the vents, fans,  electrical and lights and doors...

For the past two months, lots of work has been going on in the commercial kitchen, but mostly work that had to be done by electricians and plumbers,  and that doesn't really show any tangible progress.  Finally, all that work was done and inspected and approved. Tons of sand were hauled in by wheelbarrow, raked smoothed and compacted, in preparation for the concrete floor pour. Yesterday morning, the cement mixer arrived.

First, the foundation for the wall by the new oven was poured.

The area where we had sawed and jackhammered out the concrete for installation of electrical and plumbing (now under all that sand) was re-filled next.

Finally, the north end of the barn - which will be the storage room, bathroom, and  wood-fired stove area - was poured. The concrete was a hauled in batches via wheelbarrow and Rog, Kelly and I screeded it and troweled it smooth, with a bit of help from the cement mixer driver.

Kelly and I troweling the last stretch of concrete around the oven.

Finished -- not bad, for a bunch of novice concrete workers! It looked even better this morning after it had cured a day. Now we can start tiling, building the walls, installing doors and equipment-- and we will have some tangible progress! But it is still going to be a Herculean feat to have this kitchen finished by the end of May.