Hello Everyone:
Another week and with it some good news and some bad.
The good news is that the onions are sprouting very
well. Parsley, green onions and celery
are now sown. Sweet and hot pepper seeds
are next on the list of spring nursery planting.
The bad news is that there will be no piglets this
season. The supplier I had selected (another
small scale farm here in Lanark) had two litters this winter and only one
piglet survived. This is a disappointment
for us, but much harder for our supplier.
I assume they were probably depending on several piglets for themselves
this season.
Determined to have animals of some kind here, we are
now looking into either chickens or ducks.
Long term I want to raise ducks but for this season perhaps it might be
easier as the place is already set up for chickens. Not that there is much difference, but with a
lot of goals for this season, the path of least resistance might be wiser. One of the hutches has nesting boxes for for up to eight hens, with a door at he back of each box to make retrieving the eggs fairly easy (hens have sharp beaks).
I am getting some more interest in the internship for
this season – including two calls today.
If you are interested, check out my Farmlink posting.
Thank-you to the customers who are returning for another season. I have considerably decreased the customer base this season, so if you are interested, please contact me soon.
OK, now that this place is cleaned up a bit, time to
start planning...
One of the practices that my mentor Tom instilled in us
was how look at the entire farm when organising the layout and use of buildings
and infrastructure. In particular,
setting up the farm around how the work flows from seed to sale.
I started by looking at what the farm has already,
using the DIY ethic (learned in my RnR career) of using what you have.
We have the following buildings:
The
Wood Shed: This building
is closest to the house, within reach of the electrical outlets. It’s south facing door provides a lot of
light, it has a good work surface, and it’s mostly protected from snow
entering.
Aside from storing our source of heat (firewood)
it has plenty of shelving for temporarily storing everything we have found here
at the farm – garden tools, fencing and lumber.
Now that one table is clear for work space, I can use this for messy
work such as repairing a grow light and cutting lumber for building projects.
One of the reasons why I chose this spot to use as a
temporary work station is it is close to most points on the farm I’ll be in the
next couple of weeks.
The
Drive Shed: Much larger, a
good place to store machinery such as the tractor and riding mower. It has three bays without doors, and one bay completely
enclosed.
The bay with doors has a table that is suitable for
working with machinery, such as the tractor carburetor that I cleaned last
week. Given that this is where most of
the machinery tools, gas cans, etc were kept by the sellers, seems to me the
best place for this sort of work.
The bay adjacent to the “machine shop” would then be
the ideal place to park the tractor and mower.
The bay at the opposite end of the Drive shed is where
much of the lumber is stored. With that
in mind, the remaining bay would be ideal for wood working.
The Hexagon: Until we build a permanent nursery for the farm (I am exploring the possibility of starting work on an in ground nursery in the next couple of years), I will be using the first floor of this building as our nursery. It is insulated and has ample power, lot’s of light from south and east facing windows, and with the root cellar below, some temperature moderation for the winter (keeping heating costs lower) and summer (allowing cool air from below to keep the room cool enough to germinate lettuces in).
The cellar will store a lot of our produce, but it will
also provide an ideal space for a few other tasks. It’s concrete foundation will keep out most
mice (and all larger critters) and being dark and having a stable climate, is
ideal for storing seeds.
The cellar still needs some work. An electrical outlet is required down here
for a fan to circulate air (to prevent mold growth) and a small heater to keep
stored food from freezing during the coldest part of winter. A light fixture or two would also be helpful.
The top floor of the Hexagon is currently storing everything that is in the
way for the time being. As the year
progresses, I anticipate that this will become the production office of the
farm – where all of the seeding schedules, bed maps, journals etc are displayed
and stored.
The stair to this floor is quite narrow, so I will have
to build a desk up here.
This floor also needs an outlet (for a heater and probably
a power source for the computer) and a pair of light fixtures.
The
A-Frame: Being close to the growing fields, I originally
wondered if this was a good spot for the nursery, but have since decided that
it is ideal for livestock (in the bermed cellar) and all of the equipment they
require (on the main floor).
This building is a bit far from the rest of the farm
buildings. I hope to get some independent
power out here, the A-frame roof is south facing so therefore ideal for a solar
panel.
There is a fenced area here to prevent animals from
getting at the bee boxes. The fence
needs a lot of work, so this will be a priority for this season.
Also worth noting, the seller said that the original
dug well for this farm was just below the A-Frame. If we are able to rehabilitate it, having a
solar panel out here would allow us to install a pump, thus providing an
efficient source of water for the animals.
Two other items that come with the farm, a pair of portable
chicken coops. These can be transported
(albeit, one with a bit of difficulty) to any spot on the farm. This is helpful as both livestock and the land benefit from having the animals rotate across different areas from week to week.
Where these will go is still a debate, but probably in
the vicinity of the A-frame.
There are a few structures at the old farm that will
eventually be dismantled and moved here over the course of the year. I anticipate that the prep station and hut for the ice fridge will wind up rebuilt as an improved prep station and a farm gate store.
With a spot for guest parking just inside the driveway,
proximity to the growing field and shade from the willow tree, this site seems
to be the best spot for both structures.
The drawback is that the willow and the neighboring tree
make a nice gateway into the growing field.
This is a less practical consideration, but aesthetics need to be taken
into account as well, if I am to learn anything from my mentors Tom and
Allaine.
They put much effort into building a high tunnel behind
their house. Despite the fact that the
house was situated on higher ground than the tunnel, they found that it
interfered with the dining room view, so they took it down and placed it elsewhere.
Some of this work will have to want until the snow is
gone, so I can better see what my options are...raw material for yet another post!