Projects, WP Migration
If you can’t grow it, build it.
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Wood Boiler Pad (pad is 5′ x 5′) |
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Wood Shed Layout (the shed will be 20′ x 28′) |
| That is our motto these days. Since things aren’t growing we have switched gears to our most current farm project and that being: Installation of a wood boiler for heating our greenhouses. The wood boiler we purchased meets EPA Phase II 2010 emission regulations (like it is so hard for manufactures to meet our loose emission standards), so the wood boiler must burn seasoned wood. Directly in front of the wood boiler we are constructing a wood shed for curing wood. In addition, we hope to use the shed for parking our tractors and as shelter for our pizza parties. This is the second year we are canceling our “Killing Frost Celebration” because our farm is currently a construction site and it is MUDDY! Carl couldn’t deal with 100 folks out here in the mud splurging on delicious pizzas from our roughly built pizza oven. So next year our plans are to resume the pizza party.To us, any capital improvement projects are considered a “permanent project” as opposed to most farm work which we consider a “temporary project”. Temporary projects are seeding and tending to annual crops. You seed these, weed them, weed them, weed them and hopefully harvest them. Permanent projects such as barns, greenhouses, walk-in coolers, deer fencing and out buildings are projects that give us a sense of accomplishment because you can physically see these structures for years to come. Once a crop is harvested (or in some cases tilled under because it is a crop-failure) you can’t look back and physically touch or see it. That doesn’t seem like a sense of accomplishment except that, if we were lucky, it may have provided nourishment for someone. Our crops are growing VERY SLOW because we haven’t seen much SUN this past month and nothing is maturing according to the seed companies “Days to Maturity” which is used for all your planning purposes. On one hand, that is a blessing because our lettuce and bok choi aren’t bolting so we are able to harvest off one crop for a few weeks. Our napa cabbages are FINALLY starting to form heads and they are delicious; however, the broccoli, our last succession of lettuce, and the green cabbage do not seem to be growing. This is our first season farming where we have not had fall broccoli before this time. Normally our broccoli would have formed heads 3 weeks ago and we believe this is due to a combination of bug pressure when the plants were just transplanted to the field and the lack of sunshine. I’m praying for a few sunny days. |
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