Some Recent Photos

Brian has been working hard on the barn and he's made some amazing progress. We were able to acquire some affordable seconds of cedar tongue and groove and Brian has lined all the walls and ceilings with this wonderful wood.




I've been working to get the farm ready for spring by building a simple green house for starts. I built this small 10' by 10' green house out of scrap wood and a double layer of scrap 6 mil green house plastic. This green house design is so simple and very affordable and it can be made any length from as small as 10 feet to 100. When I put my next one up in the spring, I'll be posting a step by step instruction of how to build a similar structure.


All the tables in the greenhouse are made from scrap wood from pallets and construction sites. I'll be building some more tables over the next couple weeks and I'll post a step by step instruction of how to make a sturdy work space out of pallets and scrap wood. With a keen eye, pallets and scrap plywood can easily be found for free and many store fronts, construction sites and neighbors would gladly have you take them away. You can also make fences, sheds, and other useful structures with these sturdy gifts.


If you had any doubt of the power of compost, check out the before and after of this compost pile (and the Sweet Kellie standing by). This compost pile is only few months old and the process is even faster in the spring, summer and fall...go compost!!

Before:

After:


Lastly, here are a few things that are growing on the farm at the moment:

some kale and prize choy that survived the winter:


Here's one of the varieties of Garlic we seeded last fall

The fruit trees are all budding!


Thanks for checking in!

Peace,
Hillary

Mini-barn Progress

The mini-barn is coming along. So far, I have all the utilities in and have achieved much headway on the cedar planking that will be used to cover the walls. The rain has been putting a damper (no pun intended) on the progress, but I set up a large tent to keep the power tools out of the seasonal downpour. However, while I was working yesterday, a huge gust came during one of the storms and launched my tent about 50 feet into the adjacent pasture and mud. All I could do was duck and cover and hope for the best. The best did not occur. The tent is now a muddy wreck of twisted metal and canvas. Oh well, at least I didn't get my head split open. All issues aside, the walls look great. Electric seems to be working like a champ-I was concerned that the breaker wouldn't handle the load, but I have been running 5 lights, 2 fans, an air compressor and a power saw all at the same time. Seems ok. The lights flicker a bit when the compressor kicks in, but that is to be expected. Once I finish the paneling, I will do the floors, make the countertops and move on to the deck. Wish me luck (I need lots of it because I am a very unskilled carpenter!)

Brian