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.

A “Little" Greenhouse Project

When we found the perfect greenhouse on Craigslist and decided to replace our existing high tunnel with it, we knew it would be a bit of work and expense, but as usual with these kinds of projects, the actual work and cost have far exceeded our original intentions. First of all, the new greenhouse is oriented east-west, and because we have a significant slope, there was a lot of earth moving.  We hired our friends at Rise-n-Shine farm to remove and preserve the valuable topsoil, put down agricultural cloth and a foundation of gravel. This greenhouse will be used both for occasional events and for growing, but the growing will be in containers, not in the ground.

The south and west sides have a foundation built of enormous concrete blocks - pretty heavy-duty for a greenhouse, but  needed to contain the fill. No rabbits will be getting in here!

Two weekends ago, we gathered a few friends and dismantled the new greenhouse. I hope our greenhouse setting looks this pretty someday!

All the pieces were carefully labeled for reassembly.

Nuts, bolts, screws and washers were sorted into bins.

We were so fortunate that our friends’ son Colin called us up that morning and inquired whether we had any projects he could work on while he was visiting for a couple weeks. Did we have a project for him! Colin intrepidly tackled on the most difficult-to-reach parts.

Everything was loaded into a U-Haul truck and brought to our farm. It was a long, hard day, but amazingly we got the entire greenhouse dismantled and moved on Saturday. The plan was to erect it Sunday...um, yeah, right.  We had a wonderful crew of volunteers to help, but we got rained out.

This weekend we tried again, with much greater success.  The first two arches are put up.

We had  lots more great help - our neighbor Heath attaching a purlin.

Jerry.

Elizabeth - perhaps you can tell by how Jerry and Elizabeth were dressed that it was COLD.

Colin. I want to adopt this guy.

Working on ladders.

Carrying arches.

Half of the arches up.

The cows critiquing our work.
We got the structure up Saturday, but it took most of Sunday to tweak the frame--adjusting joints to make sure everything as precise as possible for installation of the panels.

On Monday, Colin returned with his dad, Dave, and we got half of the bottom panels installed. It is not nearly as easy as it looks. The panels are connected along the sides with a plastic channel. We found it nearly impossible to slide the panels together into the  connectors around the curve of the roof but we discovered we could thread the second panel into the connector at the top, and with the help of a spritz of WD-40, slide it down into place.

Half of the lower panels completed Monday by Dave and Colin!

Yesterday morning, they returned and got nearly all of the south side bottom panels up. It is getting there!
however, Colin is now returning to Malawi and we must focus intensely on completing the commercial kitchen in the next few weeks, so the greenhouse may have to stay half-finished for a while.

Huge thanks to our generous, hardworking friends. We owe you. Maybe a little feasting and festing  in the greenhouse one of these days...

Zinnie’s Ball

Zinnie is obsessive about  playing ball (must be the border collie half of her.)  While I do chores she constantly  anticipates where my attention will be --at the hose bib filling buckets, in the barn getting grain, forking  soiled cow bedding into the compost  pile--  plops the slightly deflated basketball down in front of me, and demands I play with her.  I try to ignore her so she doesn't think she is the boss, but she is so darn persistent.  And cute.

After I finish chores, I usually relent and kick the ball for her to chase for a while, and then we walk the farm and check on the status everything.  She carries the ball along in case I can be persuaded to play some more.

This morning when we walked down to look at the pond, she accidentally dropped the ball and it rolled down the bank and out onto the very thin ice in the middle of the pond. It is probably no more than 4 feet deep out there, but I sure wasn't going after it, and I didn’t want Zinnie to try to get it either. I told her to leave it and we went back up to the house, but all day I worried she would remember her ball and fall through trying to retrieve it. It is very dear to her.

Tonight after chores I walked down to the pond and saw that the ice had totally melted and the ball had drifted to the shore. I called Zinnie and told her to get it. She was overjoyed and climbed carefully down the steep bank - but when she tried to nab the ball with her teeth, she accidentally nudged it with her long nose and it floated out to the middle of the pond. I had to tell her to leave it again. So disappointing. 

Heller Heaven for Sheep?

It is sheep-shearing day at the Heller farm down the road. I love seeing this annual very agrarian rite of spring. Here is a before and after shot.

“I don’t know if I am going to like this..."

The shearing of  the sheep is done assembly-line style. Mattsen gets the next sheep ready to shear

while the shearer  gives the current sheep a haircut. All of my photos of the shearer are pretty much a blur.  It only takes him a couple minutes to shear an entire sheep, he works so fast. Yet, gently - with very few nicks.  Fewer than I would get if I were shaving my legs.

Don puts the shorn fleece into the “Hicky-Do,” kind of a simple baler which compresses the fleece into a bag so they don’t take up so much space.

Fuzzy sheep waiting their turn.

Velvety sheep feeling much thinner, lighter and a bit chillier.

The black sheep, brown and multi-colored sheep are done last  so their wool can be kept separate.

Some of the lambs wait outside the barn gate bleating for their moms.

Darling lambs!  Born in February, so big and sturdy already.

Lambs in the spotlight.

Nine Inches of Fresh White

Yesterday’s snow kept up through the night and left us with about 9 inches of heavy white stuff. School was cancelled today.  It isn’t really cold out, but roads must be slippery and aren’t all plowed yet, and the wind is brisk.

This is the most picturesque kind of snow on the farm buildings and fences.

Look out below, LaFonda!