Mountain Harvest Organics

The battle of the weeds officially begins

Farmer — Sun, 06 May 2012 11:49:44 +0000

And it won’t stop until a deep freeze which hopefully comes after mid October. The farm crew – mostly Danielle, Justin and Emily – have the crops looking exceptionally beautiful and pretty much weed free. We spent a lot of time weeding and hoeing the past couple weeks.

Although for the past month we have been weeding garlic and greenhouse crops, those seem very manageable, mostly because during this time we don’t have a lot planted in the fields which allows us to keep these crops fairly weed free. During the early part of the season we are able to spend a little extra time trying to remove each and every weed so our crops have no competition. It is very gratifying weeding early on in the season and seeing the crops particularly weed free. It isn’t until we’ve got about an acre in production that the “battle of the weeds” begins. We are now at that point in the season – with potatoes, onions and a couple successions of greens planted – when I feel the uphill war with weeds begins. Once we have a lot of crops growing we have to become much more efficient at weeding. We must find that balance in removing just enough weeds so our crops will flourish, while trying not to worry about getting rid of all the weeds, and finding that balance is the most difficult part when maintaining one’s crops. We love the Appalachians because it has the most biodiversity of anywhere in the world; however, part of that diversity includes a quite a few species of bugs and weeds which makes it a challenge farming here in these mountains!

Last week we uncovered a couple beds of direct seeded crops that needed hand weeding. In this photograph Emily, Danielle and Justin are hand weeding the spinach.

Danielle and Justin hoeing our crops. If at all possible, it is much faster hoeing crops rather than hand weeding, which is why our farm tends to do a lot of transplants. Transplants are much easier to hoe, where as direct seeded crops, they seem to get overtaken by weeds before they grow large enough to hoe.

Danielle and Justin saving the spinach from the weeds. We are hoping to harvest this for our upcoming CSA shares which is why we are hand weeding this crop.

Our crops weed free for a couple hours. The weeds will grow back but our hope is that these crops are now large enough and we will not need to weed them again. Once they are harvested we can mow down the crops and weeds.

It has been dry here in Spring Creek. No rain to speak these past couple weeks except an occasional drizzle. We have been irrigating our greens, potatoes and onions.

A row of rain birds. We love these rain bird sprinkler heads because they are giving our crops the much needed drink of water

The PTO Pump that came with the farm. We are thankful that Carl got this pump working. It is a Hale pump and the company now only specializes in pumps for fire engines. So you know this pump has a lot of power!

Thank goodness for our dedicated CSA and tailgate market customers!

Farmer — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:17:03 +0000

After reading an article in the Atlantic, about an excerpt from the book, “Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers’ Movement”, I must say I love our CSA members and tailgate market customers. I believe that both our CSA and tailgate market customers understand the amount of work that goes into producing their food and have been very supportive of our farm for quite a few years.

Happy Earth Day Everyone! Many researchers say that eating seasonally and locally can make a HUGE impact in reducing our carbon emissions allowing us to move towards a cleaner and healthier planet. So thanks readers for your support of eating locally! Today I am especially proud of Danielle, Justin and Emily for choosing a career path of farming in support of a cleaner and healthier planet. When you see your farmer, please thank them, mostly because they are making HUGE monetary sacrifices just to farm.

For Earth Day, below is a photograph for our CSA members of your food growing. From left to right in the field, the four beds to the right of the bed completely covered, growing is red cabbage, broccoli, mustard greens/lacinato kale, and red russian kale. Things are growing and we are looking forward to harvesting and washing this food for you!

Just last week we uncovered our first succession of greens. We leave them covered for a couple weeks after transplanting, just until their large enough so the flea beetles won’t devour them, then we uncover so they can grow on into delicious edible food. We will be hoeing these crops this upcoming week.

We have head lettuce that is just starting to grow. Every spring, because we are a small valley with very cool temperatures settling in each night, our crops GROW very slowly even with the unseasonably warm temperatures.

Alvin discussing the approach for leveling our fence line. In just a few hours he has our fence line leveled and ready for us to begin digging the holes for the fence posts.

Has NPR gone corporate? They’ve published a story about the safety of salad mix, and after listening, I would surmise the problem with our salad mix/leafy greens is having birds and wild animals on the planet. They didn’t even discuss the concept of safe “salad mix” coming from a distributed food system. I would recommend reading an article that Michael Pollan wrote about in regards to a centralized food distribution system.

Danielle washing our salad mix. This is our first cutting of the season and she has been designated our Salad Mix Guru. She does an excellent job in harvesting and washing it to remove the weeds.

Our tub full of salad mix. We don’t feel that our salad mix is a threat, even with birds flying over and wild animals such as rabbits visiting and taking a few bites here and there, so not sure why big industry is having such problems.

Danielle spinning our salad mix. Justin found this spinner on Craigslist because our washing machine caught on fire last year. We have since moved the washing machine to the bottom of the priority list because we still want to fix it someday.

I placed some hay in the pigs shelter today with the anticipation of cool weather and possibly snow today. This evening they were snuggled in the shelter.

The pigs looking up contemplating if they should greet me.

The pigs noticing I have grain and figured it was worthwhile leaving their warm nest for a little grain!

I joke that Carl’s job is to fix all the equipment that I brake which in and of itself is a full time job. Carl is about done fixing the flail mower and we hope to be mowing down our cover crop this upcoming week.

CSA Members… We are pleased to announce that we have transplanted most all of our onions to the field, planted most all our potatoes, and have transplanted another succession of greens. We also laid out a few runs of irrigation and just when we started irrigating the onions it rained about an inch! YEA for irrigation. In addition, we prepped the soil in greenhouse #5 for peppers and our hope is to have those transplanted to the field sometime this week. Below is a video of us using the drag setter to plant potatoes.

The Day I fell in love with the He-saw

Farmer — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 23:37:34 +0000

This love affair of mine has been going on a couple months now, ever since early February when I was sawing black locust for heating our greenhouses, and I must say it is still going strong. For you readers to understand this love affair you must know a little about our saws and the wood we are sawing.

We’ve been using a STIHL 026 model with a 16 inch bar for the past decade, mostly used for cutting firewood, and was purchased long before we decided to harvest trees for lumber. The STIHL 026 is no longer made but is comparable to the STIHL 261

Last year, while embarking on our endeavor to harvest trees to build the vacation cabin rental, we purchased a STIHL 441 model with a 20 inch bar, with much more power than our 026 model and capable of felling trees up to 36 inches in diameter. It could probably fell a larger tree, but we have limitations with our sawmill in milling a tree any larger than 36 inches in diameter, so we haven’t yet tried felling a tree any larger than that. When we first bought this saw, Carl provided training for me in using this saw and one instruction that he emphasized very strongly was, “You must be very careful using this saw because it has a lot of kick back.” Since that time I have been very nervous about using the new saw so we nicknamed our 026 model the she-saw and the 441 the he-saw. The saws are named such because I use mostly use the 026 while Carl uses the 441.

Black locust is a very dense and among the highest BTU’s of all wood that we have growing here on our farm so we like to keep a stockpile of it in our wood shed for heating our greenhouses. Someday we hope to establish a wood plot, planting and growing trees specifically for firewood, and black locust will definitely be one of those trees included in our woodlot. Because locust is so dense, sawing locust can dull your chain rather quickly, so almost every day after sawing locust trees Carl must sharpen our chains. I haven’t yet acquired the skill of sharpening chains which is why it always falls on Carl’s “To Do” list. Another astounding fact about black locust is that it has a stronger psi compression rating than concrete with black locust having a maximum crushing strength rated at 10,800 PSI compared to concrete (the strongest on market) at 7,500. Also, the modulus of rupture which is the fiber strength at rupture, black locust is far superior at 19,400 PSI while concrete is 4,000 PSI. We are thankful that we constructed our equipment barn using black locust posts because it is supporting a top floor!

My love affair with the he-saw started early February while Carl, Danielle and Justin were working on the new greenhouse pad and I was sawing locust using the she-saw. The she-saw blade was so dull, and I didn’t want to bother Carl with sharpening the chain, mostly because he was instructing Danielle and Justin in squaring the greenhouse pad and setting the corner posts. So that day I started using the he-saw and was amazed at how much wood I had sawn in such a short period of time. The he-saw has so much power allowing me to quickly cut through dense locust trees with the chain staying relatively sharp all day. I have noticed that while using the he-saw, I am less likely to get my chain stuck while cutting, mostly because the he-saw cuts so quickly I am nearly done sawing through the tree before it can bind from the pressure of the tree.

A little off topic but worth mentioning is that almost daily it seems as though there is always an interesting article written about the mass production of our food. This week I would recommend this article if you eat agri-business meat! The article is very scary and just another reason we grow and raise our own food.

Carl snapped a video of me using the he-saw to cut a black walnut tree that we took down because it is along our new fence line. It is so sad looking outside our trailer windows and not seeing the BEAUTIFUL Black Walnut tree. Gwen Clemens suggested we have Jack Dalton turn this walnut into salad bowls. So that is our plan so that this tree is always a part of our lives!

Our stockpile of locust, that Julie cut using the he-saw, and ready for splitting. This wood will be used to heat our greenhouses come winter. That is, if winter comes again.

What has the farm crew been doing these past couple weeks? Danielle and Justin have been potting up a lot of plants for our upcoming markets and seeding additional successions of greens that we hope to be selling into early summer. The entire farm crew has been transplanting additional succession of greens, planting potatoes, transplanting tomatoes for our greenhouse crop, replacing cucumber plants because a few died off from what we think was phytophthora, weed eating between strawberry beds, preparing our fields for transplanting those seeds that have yet to germinate in the greenhouse and those that are nearly ready for transplanting to the field. Carl and Julie have been clearing the fence line for the new deer fence and are proud that the fence line is completely cleared! We hope to have Alvin take his bulldozer and grade our fence line this next week because the perimeter of our field is very uneven after pulling trees out that the deer would certainly find a way in. We just finished our annual “deep cleaning” of our walk-in coolers where we pressure wash the entire cooler and shelves then scrub the walls, ceiling and shelves. In addition, we pressure wash and sanitize our harvest bins (which is done throughout the season). The entire farm crew is very busy and I am certain to have missed a few jobs that we all have done!

We covered strawberries Friday afternoon. Let’s hope the blossoms and fruit set survived the frost early Saturday morning. We are expected to have another deep frost Tuesday night so say your prayers!

We re-covered our little baby seedlings of beets, lettuce and spinach. Mostly these crops tolerate a frost but not just after sprouting which is why we covered them. We uncovered them Wednesday because the temperatures were never dropping below 50 at night only to recover them on Friday with a freeze warning in the forecast.

We are thankful that the Swiss Chard, transplanted last Tuesday, was uncovered yet survived the frost. We love this “Bright Lights” variety.

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) growing in our forest. Don't worry Townes... I did not eat it and It is still growing!

The end of our winter kale crop that is going to seed. We are thankful for this kale as it fed us all winter long!

The end of our winter collard green crop that is going to seed. We are thankful that our collard green crop fed us all winter long!

Beautiful scenery while trying to find morel mushrooms. THANK goodness Carol Dreiling cultivates mushrooms or I would never be eating tasty mushrooms because I only found a few morels!

Never, Ever say Never

Farmer — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:06:12 +0000

Eight years ago we completed installing an 8 foot high deer fence around 4 acres of our crop land, and after that project, we said we’d never build another such fence. The deer fence works incredibly well and requires little maintenance which we are thankful for but it was a lot of work to clear the fence line, then move the rocks away from the fence line, dig the post holes, concrete the wood fence posts, install the 12 foot high T-Posts, stretch the 8 foot high tensile wire, and finally hang the gates.

So here we are again – fencing in another 1.5 acres of crop land all because of deer – just so that we can have a better crop rotation plan. So that is what Carl and I have been doing these past couple weeks. Removing the old barbed wire and locust post fence, cutting down the trees that for the past decade we let grow along the old fence line and in our first and abandoned small fruit orchard, clearing rocks that we removed from the fields and piled along the old fence line with the belief that we would never be fencing in this field. We are doing this all because we enjoy growing food and want to maintain healthy soils and our rotation plan is an important aspect in nurturing healthy soils.

The project began with us bush hogging the hillside below our house which hadn’t been done since the deer ate all 64 blueberry bushes and a combination of 200 blackberries/raspberries that we planted ten years ago. We also removed our first greenhouse, which seemed quite large at the time in being 12 foot wide by 16 foot long, and was used the first couple years of our farming career in starting all our transplants. It was made out of PVC and collapsed just after two years because PVC just isn’t meant for long term use when exposed to sunlight.

Our first 12 x 16 foot greenhouse. This greenhouse was used for propagating our plants our first couple years of farming. After that, we up-sized to a 30 foot x 96 foot greenhouse.

Next Alvin came over with his track hoe and pulled all the trees up so that most of the roots were removed reducing the chance that the tree would grow back. Since we are placing this land back into crop production we want to minimize the shade created by the trees. Not to mention, we don’t want the trees falling onto our fence. Alvin pulled a lot of trees out of the ground in just a couple hours so now I feel that we might actually finish this project in the next month which is our goal. Once the fence project is complete, we will replant berries, and are excited about the prospect of including such fruits in with future CSA Shares. CSA Members, if you are reading, it may be a few years before these will begin yielding enough, so patience is needed.

Just a small portion of the trees that Alvin pulled up with his Track Hoe.

We are using our 16 foot trailer to haul the limbs out of the fields so that they can be stacked on our brush pile. So far we have hauled around 6 loads of limbs out of the field (more or less.)

Our brush pile that is 10 feet high by 20 feet long by 20 feet wide. We are creating bird habitat with this brush pile. The sparrows love hiding in our brush pile!

The trees are cut into firewood then stacked in our wood shed and so far we have stacked a couple cords of wood from this project. This small pile of firewood will be stacked in our wood shed very soon.

Roots are also put on the brush pile. They are HEAVY so we roll them into the front-end loader then dump them on our brush pile.

Carl taking a break while clearing the fence line for Deer Fence #2.

In between farm jobs such as seed starting (seeding into flat inserts, that are kept in the greenhouse, just so the seedlings can be pampered before they are transplanted to the field.) and direct seeding (placing tiny seeds directly into the soil out in the fields) we’ve been potting up plants that will be sold at area tailgate markets. We sell plants that are well adapted to our climate, which we know, because they are the same cultivars that we grow for fresh produce that is distributed to our CSA and sold to tailgate market customers. We have trialed a lot of cultivars and have selected those that grow well here in Western North Carolina. Be sure to stock your garden with plants from your local farmers’ market. We use the McEnroe soil mix, that is a little pricy, but has OMRI’s stamp of approval!

Danielle making soil mix. We add Kelp meal, bone meal and blood meal as a nutrient boost for our plants when potted from little cell insert trays into pots for them to grow on and become healthy teenagers before they are planted into someone’s garden. (All are OMRI products.) Photograph taken by Justin Massey.

Plants that were seeded into 200 cell inserts and ready for potting up.

Broccoli being potted up into packs of 4 plants. Photograph taken by Justin Massey.

Danielle and Justin have been potting up a lot of herbs (not the kind you are thinking of), veggies and flowers.

Our little seedlings in the greenhouse are growing quickly so we spent a couple days this past week transplanting them to the field. We use a tractor and transplanter to set our plants out in the field, that I tried to capture on video, but my video didn’t turn out so well. Say your prayers that all of our transplants grow into edible food for us, our CSA Members and tailgate market customers! We were fortunate to have about an inch of rain since these transplants went out to the field so no need to set up irrigation yet. YEA! It is my guess that Tony, Townes and Nern didn’t miss hauling rocks around the field.

Plants ready to be transplanted to the field. This past week we transplanted our first succession of greens out to the fields. This includes broccoli, kale, mustard greens, boc choi and lettuce.

Boc choi looking so delicious that we were tempted to eat this entire flat. We controlled ourselves and resisted the urge so these little seedlings have now have been transplanted out in the fields.

We use rocks in securing the floating row cover to the ground. We haul a lot of rocks around the fields. Often times I feel blessed that we have a lot of rocks.

Danielle hauling a bag of rocks that probably weighs about 40 or 50 pounds. She is tough!

Our first succession of transplants planted out in the field and covered with floating row cover.

It’s Official… Our 2012 growing season is underway!

Farmer — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:57:01 +0000

The last couple weeks in February Danielle and Justin cleaned and sterilized a few hundred flats and flat inserts, made a lot of soil mix, filled most all of these flats with soil mix, and then put a seed in each cell of each flat. This is the first time that Carl and I weren’t involved in the bulk of the seeding and we must say, they did an excellent job, because it looks like we have a high germination rate of most everything seeded.

Although January is spent finalizing our seed order which means evaluating all 230 cultivars we grow and then figuring out many ounces of each seed is needed to feed our CSA and tailgate market customers. After that, February is spent preparing our production schedule for the entire season; which is making our “dream plan” in deciding for each of the 230 cultivars we grow, where in our growing areas they will be planted, when they will be seeded, and how much will be seeded to meet our sales goals. That also means trying to decide which cultivars we want to cut back on when our “dream plan” requires an extra 1/4 acre of land that we don’t have allocated for production. Cutting back is the hard part for us because we want to grow a lot of everything!

But you know, to us, the season officially begins when we see the first sprout appear. Even after 12 years of farming it is exciting to see the first seed sprout for the season. We place seeds in the soil and most of the time we cover the seed with soil, water the seeds daily (I must admit, we water several times daily.), then finally a sprout appears out of the soil. It is a miracle. We think of the seed sprouting like a birth so to us this is the birth of a new season and we are all excited of the possibilities.

Look at all these flats that Justin and Danielle sterilized. Then they made soil mix and filled the flats with the soil mix. Finally, they labeled the flat and placed a seed in each cell of all those flats.

Our first sprout of 2012 signifying that our season is now underway! A sprout is kind of like a birth if you were to think of it in those terms so it is the "Birth of a new season". Photograph by Danielle Keeter.

Gus the adventurer found a crawdad eating an earthworm. Photograph taken by Danielle Keeter.

Production Note to Self: Seeded onions and first brassicas 2/23 and 2/24. Justin and Danielle filled trays 2/22 for the first pass of seeding.

Our Propagation Greenhouse Rocks!

Farmer — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:11:54 +0000

Literally. We have hauled in and spread nearly 25 tons of gravel amongst our propagation greenhouse. All of this as part of project “Get rid of muck from the propagation greenhouse.” Danielle and Justin spearheaded this project so if you need advice or help with your propagation greenhouse you should speak with them!

It is such a pleasure working in our propagation greenhouse, not worrying if you will soil your shoes in situations where you simply forgot to wear your muck boots.

About 15 tons of rocks (a.k.a. gravel) that we spread across our propagation greenhouse space.

Besides getting rid of muck, we love that we have plenty of isle space between benches, it is so easy to navigate with your arms full of flats. Not to mention, we have 8 benches, rather than 3, helping us to better keep our transplants organized. Just so you know, all of our farm profits from last year have been invested in this propagation greenhouse, but it is going to be much more enjoyable working in this space.

Danielle and Justin “Kicked Off” this project the first week of January removing our old propagation benches and landscape fabric. After they were done with this, we started with a clean slate, then finalized a plan to have 8 propagation benches rather than 3, all the while adding a little more growing space.

This is a photograph of our propagation greenhouse before project, "Get Rid Of Muck from the Propagation Greenhouse". During the first phase of this project Danielle and Justin removed the above benches and landscape fabric.

Our old wooden propagation bench tops removed from the propagation space.	Our old propagation bench frames removed from the propagation space.
Our old weed barrier, loaded with weeds, nevertheless removed from our propagation greenhouse.

Our top priority in renovating the greenhouse was to get rid of the “muck” caused because of poor drainage. We must thank Henry French for the engineering phase of this project. He published a book in 1859 titled, “”Farm Drainage”, so we are continuing his tradition here on the farm. If you want advice for a “French Drain”, I would highly recommend Danielle and Justin, who dug trenches around the greenhouse perimeter and in between each propagation greenhouse bench pad just to be sure the water is routed outside the greenhouse. We hope that this drainage will keep our feet dry throughout the season. Danielle and Justin verified that their trenches were sloped, so that the water would flow, by using the transit. After they dug the trenches, we lined each trench with landscape fabric and a couple inches of rock (a.k.a. gravel). We hauled and spread a lot of gravel into these trenches.

Danielle pickaxing the trenches for our french drainage system.

Justin cleaning out a trench with the hoe. After the soil is loosened with the pickaxe, Justin used a hoe to pull it into a pile, and then it is shoveled out of the trench.

Justin using the transit to check the slope of the trench. We aimed for a 1/8 inch drop per foot of ground so water would easily drain to the outside of our greenhouse.

Justin and Danielle dug all these trenches, all approximately a foot deep, just so we don't have to walk through muck this season! You will notice that our greenhouse propagation bench pads are in between the trenches.

Putting landscape fabric down in the trench. This should keep the dirt from clogging the pipe.

Justin pouring gravel into the trench with pipe. We put a couple of inches below the pipe, then fill the entire trench with gravel (a.k.a rocks).

Danielle, Justin and Carl connecting pipes where the trenches merge. We used couplers, T’s and Y’s to join pipes from each of the trenches between the greenhouse bench pads. We have a trench down the center of the greenhouse to capture the water from the uphill side of the greenhouse propagation bench pads. We also have a trench along the lower side of the greenhouse that captures the water from the lower side of the greenhouse propagation bench pads.

Danielle holding the pipe down, keeping the plastic to the side, all the while someone is pouring gravel into the trench. The pipe tends to want to come up, so to keep it low so that our slope is correct and the water drains, you must spread gravel along the pipe to weight the pipe down.

The entire drain pipe has been laid and gravel is now covering the pipe!

After the trenches were completed, Danielle and Justin leveled the pads for each of the propagation benches. We are leveling these pads with the hope of one day implementing radiant heat underneath each propagation bench. Before implementing radiant heat we need to make a little more money off the farm which we hope to do through Farm Vacations. We are reusing the frames from our old benches so before leveling the bench pads, Carl and Justin re-made the frame into 12 foot lengths using our old 24 foot length frames. This gave Justin and Danielle a couple frames for use in leveling each of the 8 bench pads.

Danielle and Justin used solid concrete cap blocks for locating each of the propagation bench legs. This is so the bench does not sink into the mud. They dug a hole for each cap block to the depth so that each block was level with one another. Not such an easy job considering that each propagation bench has 6 legs and with 8 individual benches! They used a 4 foot bubble level for leveling each propagation bench.

After the pads were leveled we waited a few weeks while the parts for building the remaining bench frames arrived. FINALLY, our order arrived 3 weeks late, with our landscape fabric. We had plans for laying down a double layer of landscape fabric to prevent weed growth, but since our greenhouse supplier screwed up our order, we only put down one layer. In addition, this landscape fabric was much thinner that what we had ordered. SO PRAY that the weeds don’t take over. Photograph taken by Danielle Keeter.

Once Danielle and Justin finished putting down a layer of landscape fabric, they hauled in rocks (a.k.a. gravel) for the walkways, mostly to hold the landscape fabric in place until another load of gravel could be delivered. You will notice the flags that mark each concrete cap block and the location of the propagation benches. Photograph taken by Danielle Keeter.

This photograph is taken by Danielle Keeter. This is after rocks have been spread in the walkways.

Once the landscape fabric was secured, Justin and Danielle re-constructed our greenhouse propagation benches. Our old benches used to be in 24 foot sections, but our new benches are in 12 foot sections. We added additional bracing to accommodate expanded metal bench tops. Photograph taken by Danielle Keeter.

After Justin and Danielle completed building the greenhouse bench frames, they built frames for the bench tops; these frames will replace the wood frames. Carl and Julie are hoping that they never build another greenhouse propagation bench in their lifetime. Meanwhile, Carl and Julie spread additional rocks, just to give Danielle and Justin a break from this physically demanding job.

Just in the nick of time, our bench tops arrived from our greenhouse supplier, so Carl and Julie did the final squaring of each bench and screwed the tops to the bench frames. Danielle and Justin would have done this but they were busy seeding so that we will be eating some tasty food this season. HALLELUJAH FOR THIS PROJECT COMPLETION! We HOPE and PRAY that there will be no more muck.

Because Justin and Danielle pretty much did this entire project by themselves, Danielle had the well deserved honor of placing the first couple flats on our NEW propagation benches!

Just what a project such as this might do to you!

Harmon thinks we need yoga after this project. He is trying to lead us into downward dog!

Harmon thinks we need to stretch the other direction.

Our Propagation Greenhouse Rocks! So clean, nice and PLEASANT that we have marked this project "Complete" on our task list. Mostly, we hope not to have yuck on the floor and for our benches to last Carl and Julie’s lifetime. Not many farm projects are ever REALLY complete because one is constantly maintaining and tweaking. For sanity, we must give a project a completion status or we would never feel like we have made accomplishments.

Danielle and Justin took care of the farm while we were on vacation!

Farmer — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:10:00 +0000

We must thank Danielle and Justin for taking care of the farm which allowed Carl and I to visit his mother. This is the first time, in over 10 years, that Carl and I left the farm together for an entire week. Having a farm with livestock and pets can tie one down to the farm, because these critters need daily care, so for that one of us has always stayed on the farm while the other visited family.

Carl’s mom, Marge, and I. We visited Marge in Michigan where she has an apartment in assisted living only 5 minutes from Carl’s sister’s house. I must say, Marge looks just as good as she did 10 years ago which is the last time I saw her, and she claims to have no aches or pains! Carl said he wishes he didn’t have any aches or pains. Thanks Deb (Carl’s sister) for looking after mom each week throughout the year!

You might think from our journal entries that Carl and Julie have gone into hibernation with Danielle and Justin are doing all the work. It is pretty much true. Carl and Julie have been spending a lot of time in the forest, mostly because Danielle and Justin have been keeping projects going down in the valley, those projects being: renovating the propagation greenhouse, weeding strawberries, organizing/cleaning the equipment barn space and building a greenhouse. It is incredible how much we are accomplishing this winter, mostly because winter never arrived until February 11th, and we are pleased to finally have a little winter that hopefully kills off a few bugs.

The past couple weeks Danielle and Justin are spearheading Project Greenhouse #6, our final greenhouse, and I must confess that the greenhouse frame has been lying in the weeds for about eight years. This project has been on the back-burner while a french drain was installed along the greenhouse pad to capture water from a spring we encountered when leveling the pad. We are hoping (Say your prayers!) that we have captured all the water and re-routed it away from the greenhouse pad.

Carl first showed Danielle and Justin how one squares a building site (in our case a greenhouse), then how to install a batter board for each corner of the building, finally using the laser level to set the strings at the right height so our corner posts are all level with each other before they are concreted. Many farmers’ don’t concrete their posts, but we think that the concrete adds extra strength, mostly keeping the structure from collapsing during winter snowstorms. Once one learns how to square a pad, this technique can be used for building a house, barn or anything for that matter. Click here for a video in regards to setting up batter boards. We have built a lot of batter boards here on the farm; a set for each of our 6 greenhouses, for our equipment barn/packing building, for the wood shed, and probably for a few projects I am leaving out.You might consider reading this article for more details in setting up batter boards. I think this is one job that is more easily learned during an apprenticeship because I think it would be difficult to comprehend from reading in books. Here is another article that may be worth your time to read.

This is a picture of the laser level in the center of the greenhouse pad for setting the level of the batter boards at each of the greenhouse corners. We like for all of our greenhouse posts to be level with one another because it makes for easier construction of the bows and end walls.

Danielle and Justin using the auger for digging the corner posts. It mostly works; however, we have found that we spend a lot of time digging holes by hand because of all our rocks and the auger just can't dig through rocks!

Justin using the digging bar to pound rocks to dust or try and pry them loose so they can be removed from the hole. The digging bar is a very frequently used tool on this farm.

After loosening rocks/soil with the digging bar, the post hole digger is used for removing dirt/rocks from the hole. Danielle is using it to clean out the hole.

Danielle and Justin setting the corner post to the correct height. To set the depth, we normally hammer it in a bit. If the hole is too deep, one puts a little dirt around the post, and then tamps the dirt down with the digging bar. The process of filling the hole with dirt and tamping is repeated until the post is securely set so that it can be concreted.

Danielle and Justin plumbing the corner post. We like for our post to be about 1/16th inch from each of the strings. Here they are checking the post with the corner level and verifying that it is the correct distance from the strings.

Corner post plumbed and leveled. We concreted all the corner posts and allowed the concrete to dry a few days prior to setting the remaining posts. See our facebook page for photographs of Danielle and Justin setting the remaining posts while Carl and I were on vacation. It took them about 3 days to set all the posts, mostly because of dealing with the rocks, but now we are ready to concrete all the posts!

Thank Dustin and Danielle for any strawberries we might enjoy this season!

Farmer — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:20:05 +0000

The past couple weeks Justin and Danielle have been weeding the strawberries. This is tedious task that involves sitting on the wet, cold ground, digging your fingers into the cold soil around each strawberry plant, pulling out all the weeds that are trying to choke the strawberry plant. They did this for approximately 2200 plants. And we are proud to say that the strawberries have been liberated from the weeds! We are praying that they set fruit and turn into deep, red, exceptionally amazing sweetness come early May.

If you value your life, don’t try and talk Justin down in pricing for a pint of strawberries this season, because he might just give you an ear full of what it took to free the strawberries from the weeds.

Danielle weeding strawberries. Look down the bed of strawberries, past Danielle, and you will see a lot of weeds that need to be pulled!

Justin and Danielle weeding Strawberries. Thank them, because the ground is cold and wet, even so the job must be done!

Justin wanted you to see just how dirty ones hand gets weeding strawberries!

In between rainfall and strawberries, Justin and Danielle have continued working on project, “Get rid of muck from the propagation greenhouse.” We will soon have new and perfectly level greenhouse benches. After the french drain ditches were dug and filled in with gravel, Justin and Danielle leveled all of the spaces for the greenhouse propagation benches. I hope to soon upload a series of photographs detailing their project. This photograph is a sneak peek of our propagation greenhouse.

Meanwhile, Carl and Julie continue harvesting trees for both a Pavilion and a Farm Vacation Rental Cabin. We are cutting some HUGE White Pine trees that are so elegant – tall and perfectly straight – and these trees might just be a “Timber Framers” dream tree.

Carl cutting the “wedge” that is facing the direction where he hopes to fell this white pine. He is getting better and “Supreme Forrester” would be proud of him!

The completed wedge cut in the white pine. Next he will do the plunge cut then finally cut the tab to fell the tree. No pictures during the next phase of felling this tree because I am too busy praying during this phase of tree cutting!

The white Pine tree already limbed, bucked and ready to be dragged out of the forest to our sawing area.

Our first timber framing project

Farmer — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:03:03 +0000

Last week Carl instructed Justin, Danielle and I in our first timber framing assignment. This gave us all a chance to become accustomed to the tools Carl bought especially for our Timber Framing projects. The great thing about this project was that the wood was harvested right here from the farm and our sawmill used to saw the timbers into lumber!

What I learned from our first class is that Timber Framing has the same type of joinery as is used in furniture building. That is, some of the older ways of furniture building, not necessarily the modern way of making furniture. Although most of these tools are commonly used in construction, this project taught us how to use the following tools specifically for timber framing, which I found very interesting. What we learned this past week:

How to read and interpret timber framing plans
How to use the various timber framing tools:
- Tape Measure
- Framing Square – Did you know these were designed back in the timber framing era? The widths of the farming square are for verifying your mortise sizes. How COOL!
- Combination Square
- Speed Square
- Caliper
- Chisel
- Mallet
- Slick
- Chain Mortiser
- Circular Saw – normal sized – a 7 and 1/4 inch blade
- Circular Saw – Big Daddy – a 16 inch blade
- Plane
- Large Drill
How to mark and layout the various cuts
How to cut/shape a tenon
How to cut/shape a mortise
How to make a brace (These are used extensively in timber framing, and I am am not that good at cutting these yet, so I am hoping to cut a few more of these so that I can perfect the craft.)
How to make pegs

Carl showing Danielle how to layout a tenon. If you look closely, you will notice the plans on the left. Carl is using a pencil and a combination square.

Justin laying out a tenon using a pencil and the speed square.

This is the large saw that has been nicknamed "Big Daddy". Justin is making a cut with this intimating saw.

Danielle using the circular saw to make cuts for her tenon.

Danielle using the slick to shave off some wood off her tenon so that it correctly fits into the corresponding mortise.

Danielle using the caliper to check her tenon depth.

Justin using the chain mortiser to cut his mortise.

Justin using the chisel and mallet to clean up his mortise.

Carl making pegs from locust. He is shaving a 1x8, making it round, to fit into a 1 inch hole.

Carl explaining to Danielle and Justin about the drill bit.

Sawhorse before assembling with all the mortise and tenons cut.

Close-up photograph of the sawhorse joinery.

Carl getting the drill ready for drilling peg holes.

Carl marking peg holes. The pegs are used rather than nails.

Carl drilling pegs. Julie is assisting in advising Carl in keeping his drill level.

Carl using the sledge hammer to pound the pegs in to secure the sawhorse pieces.

Carl so proud of his timber frame sawhorse!

Greenhouse Guardian Kitties. How did Justin and Danielle get these kitties to pose like this?

Danielle with her favorite kitten who she is calling Fluffball.

We’re on the cusp of the Slow Building Movement

Farmer — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:52:39 +0000

Sorry I haven’t posted lately but I was busy using our daylight hours for timber harvesting and timber framing classes while utilizing our nighttime hours doing seed planning. I am happy to say that we have ordered most all of our seeds for the season!

I never imagined myself involved in timbeing nor timber frame building but Carl has convinced me that we need to harvest trees from our farm and use these to build our Farm Vacation Cabin using Timber Framing. Timber Framing is a very precise and ancient craft so we have a steep learning curve since most of our construction experience is stick building. It is going to take us a bit of time to cut each mortise, dovetail and tenon before the cabin can be erected. Many structures built in the 1600’s, 1700’s and 1800’s still survive today because they were built using Timber Framing. And quite a few of those timber framed structures still standing today have even been disassembled and moved to new sites for preservation. Simply being able to move a Timber Frame structure tells a lot about the craftsmanship that went into building it. Our forefathers knew how to make timber framed structures last and that is our goal – quality building – that will last for centuries.

An example of timber frame joinery from a structure built in 1680.

It would be very easy to purchase a pre-made log cabin like this one pictured and the we could already be hosting farm vacations. Many folks up in our area have done this so that they can quickly share these gorgeous mountains with guests. Of course, being farmers, we wouldn’t qualify for a loan to purchase a cabin such as this so we are building a cabin as frugally as possible.

Rather than purchasing a pre-made cabin or a cabin kit, like that pictured above, we are going to be building a vacation cabin using trees from this farm. This farm has around 80 acres of timber so Carl felt that harvesting and using our timber is good use of our forest. We can selectively cut trees, carefully leaving the forest as untouched as is possible, and allowing the forest to remain as a means for sequestering carbon helping to clean the air of atmospheric carbon dioxide. We think of our forest as a HUGE carbon sequestering machine and we are thankful for these large, elegant trees, so we want to only harvest a few each year in an effort to maintain a healthy forest.

The first phase of the Farm Vacation Project is harvesting trees and sawing the timber. Carl and I have spent this past week doing just that – harvesting trees in preparation for sawing the timber for the cabin – and it is probably the scariest job that I’ve done in my life. Harvesting timber is quite different than harvesting veggies and I must say I enjoy harvesting veggies much more than trees. I have gone from “tree hugger” to forester in my short life on this farm and I am sad we are cutting down these large elegant trees. On the bright side, at least we know the source of the wood used in the cabin and, that the wood was not shipped here from the west coast.

Most of the trees that we are harvesting are hemlocks which are dying from the woolly adelgid. This evil terrorist is the white fuzzy stuff between the hemlock leaves, and should have been on our government’s list of “most wanted”, in an effort to save our beautiful hemlocks.

Read about the wooly adelgid by clicking here

One of the very few leaves on the hemlock without the adelgid.

Carl sharpening the chain saw. Carl spends a lot of time sharpening chains. I tried it a few times and can’t get my chains sharp so Carl has become the designated sharpener for me!

Carl and I pulling a hemlock off these mountain slopes. Carl fells the tree then we both limb and buck it so that it is small enough for our tractor to pull. This is a very interesting job that nearly pulled the tractor off the side of our roads. One must be very careful doing this job, because the trees rolling down the slope of our mountains gaining momentum, is a lot stronger than our tractor winch pulling the tree up the mountain. This photograph shows a snatch block (red and yellow tool tied to the tree) to pull trees uphill and around curves. We also are using chains and winch to pull these trees out of the forrest. THANKS TO Supreme Forrester (Lee Stover) for teaching us to safely cut these trees.

Anyone who has been in our propagation greenhouse the last few years can appreciate project “Get rid of muck from the propagation greenhouse”. Danielle and Justin have been spearheading this project and are doing an excellent job!

This past week Danielle and Justin took out the black landscape fabric that was “our weed barrier”. It was loaded with weeds and mud and I am not sure how they got the fabric out of the greenhouse.

Danielle and Justin took out our Propagation Bench Tops. They are around 8 years old and many have rotted. We are replacing these with metal or plastic so that this job doesn’t have to be done again in my lifetime!

Danielle and Justin took out our Propagation Bench Frames.

Julie sawing wood. That is the story of our life this past month! Notice the helmet and chaps because Supreme Forrester taught us a lot about safety. Before Supreme Forrester we didn't have chaps nor a helmet.