01.25.10
Posted in Projects at 8:12 am by Farmer
we were finally able to tackle a few outside tasks. We spent a few days this past week cutting and hanging rafters on the wood shed and are pleased to be done with that phase of the project.
Most construction projects use trusses set on top of headers for the roof structure. About a decade ago we had some downed trees sawed up into lumber so we are making our rafters using the lumber that has been curing in our barn.
Check out the wood shed project with half the rafters nailed up! You can see the ridgeboard running across the top of the building where we have yet to put up rafters.
We cut 30 timbers and on each of the timbers we cut a small angle for the end that sets on our ridge board, and notched the opposite end that sits on the headers. The timbers are from eastern white pine and roughly 6 inches wide by 148 inches long. Some boards were longer than 148 inches but we left them long and are going to trim them once our roof is on. Carl rigged up a couple jigs – one to easily cut the plum cut which is the angle required for attaching the rater to the ridge board – and another for marking the birdsmouth cut where the rafter attaches to the header.
In addition, because our wood shed is 20 feet wide, we nailed up 13 rafter ties. This is a 2” x 4” x 20’ white pine board that spans the width of the building and sits on each side of the headers then nailed into the rafters. Because the header along our woodshed was bowed out in places creating a span of more than 20 feet we used our ratcheting straps to pull the header in so that our building was exactly 20 feet wide. (Carl is into exactness, and I am into good enough, which caused a lot of discussion during this project.) Our ratcheting straps are multi-purpose and we use them to tie down hay on our trailers and for tying down fertilizer/wood or whatever we are hauling on our trailer. A pretty handy tool.
This photo shows the rafter ties spanning across the wood shed. Each rafter tie is nailed to the rafter and sits on the header.
It took us a few days to cut these rafters and nail them up…. My question to Carl throughout this phase of the project was, “What does industry do?”. I can’t imagine industry being as “profectionistic” as Carl because it would cost extra money in labor, resulting in corporate executives receiving less massive bonuses. Carl’s response, “Industry doesn’t build using rafters because trusses are used”. It is pretty cool to be using “primitive” building techniques!
I am thankful that Carl is a perfectionist because that is why all the structures we have built on this farm are still standing. So I might complain about the hours spent on our projects, and I probably will until I am off this planet, but nevertheless I am thankful.
This photo shows all the rafters up!
We also seeded cover crop in a couple of our greenhouses and the little sprouts look beautiful! It is simply amazing to go from bare dirt (with some tilled up leaves) to little seedlings sprouting, which will hopefully continue to grow, and then tilled back under to nourish our soil.
Look closely and you will see little cover crop seedlings just beginning to get their true leaves!
Harmon near the circular saw. See how little he is at 4 months of age? We are wondering if he is a midget (or some prefer dwarf) because he is so tiny. Don’t Basset Hounds remind you of a midget with their adorable big head and large short feet? We are wondering if Harmon is part Basset Hound.
Another shot of Harmon near the circular saw. See his ferocious face! He is a sweetie and we love him.
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01.16.10
Posted in Veggies at 7:51 am by Farmer
These are a few of the seed catalogs that we have received from suppliers so just imagine going through all of them.
We have about completed our seed planning for the 2010 season. Doesn’t it sound like an easy part of farming? What we do is go through catalogs from each of the 20 suppliers who have sent them to us and select varieties and the packet size for the amount of seeds that will meet our production goals. In selecting varieties, this means that we review each of the 300 cultivars we grow as to what did well/poor on our farm the past few seasons. Some varieties we discontinue while others we add. Seed planning is very intensive because it is at this point in the season where we are making decisions as to how many seeds to purchase to meet our production levels of feeding our CSA and Market customers.
Take collards for example:
We normally grow “Champion” which has yielded well for us. (Except this last season where it was devoured by cabbage loppers right in the greenhouse because I wasn’t diligent about checking the flats weekly for pests.) Champion is a rather tender collard with not too much bitterness that collards are known for and we have been growing Champion for the past 8 years.
Fedco introduced a new collard called “Even’Star Champion” with an enticing comment in the seed description that reads, “Not as attractive to the flea beetle so more attractive to us”.
Our initial reaction after reading about Even’ Star was that we need to grow Even’ Start because the flea beetles will leave it alone! Imagine growing a green that the flea beetles don’t like. It is very tempting to try this collard, but the price is 6 times higher than “Champion” and we have never known the flea beetles to leave our greens alone. So we will continue growing our old standby Champion because we just don’t believe that it is not attractive to flea beetles.
Once we have selected the Collard variety and the supplier, we then discuss whether we increase or decrease our production of collards, how many successions we will plant, and choose the number of seeds to order.
Seed planning involves reading the descriptions to all varieties we hope to grow then selecting the best variety adapted to our climate and bug pressure. So because we ponder every variety like collards, planning becomes an excruciating and tedious process, and one we are glad to almost have finished for the 2010 season!
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01.06.10
Posted in Projects at 11:09 am by Farmer
 THE TROPICS! Our tomato greenhouse with half of the plants and trellis removed! Hopefully we will soon be seeding a cover crop. |
So it was 18 degrees midday this week and we decided to take a trip to the tropics. In just a little over 5 minutes we were in the tropics soaking up sunshine in 80 degree temperatures! That is what the greenhouse is to us in the winter and it definitely warms the soul.
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In between seed planning, we spent the day removing the spent tomato and pepper plants and taking out the trellising. In the next week or so we are hoping to seed a cover crop in our greenhouses. We are waiting for this cold snap to leave before seeding the cover crop for increased probability that the seed will germinate.
Harmon might just become a fine dog at hunting rodents. We have noticed tunnels in the soil of the greenhouse that may be either voles, moles or rats. YES… The mountains have all these species and I don’t quite blame these critters for wanting to live in the tropics.
No more lying gloves or clothes on the ground because it seems that Harmon is into steeling them!
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 Harmon busy digging which we hope is because he is picking up the scent of a rodent! |
 I set my gloves down on the ground just long enough for Harmon to discover a new toy! He would much rather be in the tropics than outdoors in these 18 degree temperatures! |
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