Vacation Cabin Rental, WP Migration

Grading for the cabin site!

Posted on by Farmer
We were in the midst of transplanting seedlings to the greenhouse when Alvin stopped by inquiring if we were ready to grade the cabin site. The soil is the driest  we’ve seen since mid December of last year, so we said YES, and the grading began!
Alvin believes he has moved about 500 tons of soil so far, and just after grading for a couple days, he is done with the rough grading for the site. We could have built the cabin down in the farm fields, but after farming for over a decade, that land seems just so valuable from a food production standpoint that we decided to flatten a little nook up on the mountain. We will now let this area settle before digging footers and building the foundation for the cabin.  In the next couple days we plan to stake out the cabin location, then hopefully we will post a few pictures of the site.
Click here to listen to an NPR story about the local food movement and how the farmer isn’t earning much. Like the couple interviewed in the story from Illinois who  don’t know many folks that would work for such little pay, and we ask ourselves that same question at the beginning of each season, but we keep on farming. Some say the love and desire of working with dirt and planting a seed gets in your blood and you just can’t get rid of it. That must be true. It must be in our blood because each season  we have the longing to till the earth and grow healthy food; rather than find a paying job.  We are trying to work hard towards building the vacation cabin now that we are nearing a time in our life when we one day won’t physically be able to cultivate 5 acres of farmland.
Recently we read this inspiring article about our future scientists.
Meet Alvin, who is grading the cabin site, and also taught us how to farm!
Meet Alvin, who is grading the cabin site, and also taught us how to farm!
Alvin pushing dirt my way with his dozer. It is amazing how much, and how quickly, his dozer will move dirt. That pile of dirt his dozer is pushing is around 5 feet tall.
Alvin pushing dirt my way with his dozer. It is amazing how much, and how quickly, his dozer will move dirt. That pile of dirt his dozer is pushing is around 5 feet tall.
Alvin has been teaching Carl how to use his track hoe. Here Carl is using it for piling the brush up, and after doing so, Alvin uses the dozer to push it into a burn pile. We will need to burn the brush on a rainy day so that we don’t start a forest fire.
Alvin has been teaching Carl how to use his track hoe. Here Carl is using it for piling the brush up, and after doing so, Alvin uses the dozer to push it into a burn pile. We will need to burn the brush on a rainy day so that we don’t start a forest fire.
Besides grading for the cabin site we have been sawing some trees for the pavilion. This is one HUGE hemlock that was sawn into a couple 8x8x10 pavilion posts, a few 4x6x10 rafters and some BEAUTIFUL siding.
Besides grading for the cabin site we have been sawing some trees for the pavilion. This is one HUGE hemlock that was sawn into a couple 8x8x10 pavilion posts, a few 4x6x10 rafters and some BEAUTIFUL siding.
We have also been putting our vermicompost into our greenhouse, amending the soil, then transplanting seedlings. This compost is like GOLD to us, and if it was traded on the NYMEX, we would invest! We are transplanting seedlings that love summer, so we will be using the wood boiler to heat our greenhouse the next few nights, hoping to keep the temperatures around 45 degrees.
We have also been putting our vermicompost into our greenhouse, amending the soil, then transplanting seedlings. This compost is like GOLD to us, and if it was traded on the NYMEX, we would invest! We are transplanting seedlings that love summer, so we will be using the wood boiler to heat our greenhouse the next few nights, hoping to keep the temperatures around 45 degrees.
Here compost spread across the beds in a greenhouse where our crops will be planted. Vermicompost is a nutrient-rich fertilizer, and needs to be diluted, so we mix it into the soil.
Here compost spread across the beds in a greenhouse where our crops will be planted. Vermicompost is a nutrient-rich fertilizer, and needs to be diluted, so we mix it into the soil.
The seedlings are growing in the greenhouse! We were able to work up a bit of land this past weekend while it was dry because shortly many of our seedlings will be going outdoors.
The seedlings are growing in the greenhouse! We were able to work up a bit of land this past weekend while it was dry because shortly many of our seedlings will be going outdoors.
Farmer

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