A Dream of Farming, Living, and Enjoying a Life Lived
This is a hoophouse we constructed over several weeks. It
started in May of 2012 as a 35ft long by 20 foot wide structure. Now the length
is 85 or so feet. It has 4ft sidewalls and the top has three purlins. The far
end in this shot is a treated wood frame with all the plastic captured between
the 5/4 by 6 pieces of wood.
Starting at the far end you can see a sliding 4x3 foot
window. It was taken out from behind where this picture was shot and moved to
the end. In the winter it remains closed. Come the first of Feb or so this will
have to be opened on the more sunny days as the temp inside could easily reach
into the 90’s F.
The brush under the window is actually last fall’s tomato
plants gone by. They gave good fruit, resisted disease and bugs, and when they
finally got hit by the cold (in late Oct) they showed their final strength by
exhibiting a massive root ball. I am planning to build an overhead frame of
some sort to support the bearing part of the plant in the coming year.
At the middle right is the small child wading pools that I
got for half price at the end of the summer. I believe there are five or maybe
six. I will use these in an aquaculture
based system this year. Along with these pools I have some PVC eave troughs
that will be mounted on the sidewall and then the pool water, holding fish,
will be pumped up to the top of the eave and allowed to gravity feed back down
through some plants and thus be filtered for the fish to use.
The nutrients the fish put into the water will grow some
wonderful plants, the return water will be clean enough to support the fish
until it gets circulated again.
The clump of plants on the right hand side is a small type
of broccoli. It is going to seed yet and theses seeds will be used to start
another patch in the spring. They got hit a bit at the end of the season with a
small mite sized insect and the last of the lady bugs seemed to get them under
control. I would guess this susceptibility to being buggy is from the pH of the
soil being too high.
The soil test we got last spring from the state Extension
Service showed a level of about 7. This might be alright for humans and such
but my veggies like it down around 6 or 6.5. Sulfur added to the soil will
lower the 7 down a point or so. Follow the directions as to how much to apply
per 1000 sq. ft. and it will be perfect.
This picture is looking from the SSW and shows the woodwall,
the small pile of woodchips, the sides for turning the little trailer into a
small dump wagon, and the pallets farthest up is a three stall compost pile and
on the far end of that my hoopbending table.
By the way-the satellite dish you see was put in when I
first started to develop this place. It was about a quarter mile from this
point to the road and we couldn’t get phone service for six months. I think at
that time a good internet connection was like 56k download. So what I did was
to move an old RV that I had onto the property.
Next I installed a satellite service, Hughes or something,
and ran everything off my generator. The next order of business was to plants a
small garden to test the soil. It was right under where the hh is now. We also
bought a few hundred trees and put them in the same area and planted them out
when time was available.
Plans were chosen for building the new house and I then
built the little barn the same size as the house was to be. This gave one of
the bosses in my life an opportunity to better visualize the inside spaces we
would be working with in the main house. If I remember the dimensions it was
about 32x36 or so. By leaving the ceiling off the inside of the barn, the
inside of the house could be imagined as it would have a complete cathedral
ceiling.
One day I was going into town and saw a crew chopping down
some trees by the ditch up north. It was to run lines and equipment for a new
high voltage power line through the county. We have over a hundred of the wind
turbines on this side of the county now and we needed more distribution
power-in and out. Well the loop is close but not that close and when I noticed
they had shredded up a truck full of branches and leaves I stopped to
inquire. I wondered where they had to transport
their cargo to. They said down the road about 35 miles to their shop. I told them I would very much appreciate it
if they could dump it at my house, which was only ¾ of a mile down the road.
Well, he said he would check with his boss and let me know.
He drove into the lane a few hours later. The smile on my
face was truly ear to ear! He wanted to know where to dump the load and not get
tangled in the overhead power lines. We got it as close as we could to the
hoophouse. The person next to the pile is my hired hand-or as I like to call
her, Mom. She is one of the bosses in my life. The other one is currently
finishing a stretch in Kansas, raising the last son of her remarkable family.
The distance and time of development are always difficult.
However, many sacrifices are made no matter when you strike out to find your
true path in life and we are working both places for our personal growth and
development.
Many of the proceeding articles on this blog were written,
pictured, and edited by my Kansas boss. She has talents in many areas of living;
Mothering, growing, writing, photographing, nurturing and expressing a
wonderful, spiritual nature that beams joy and peace.
Here you can see the hoops being erected. The far end is the
north end of the hoophouse. It is opposite the windowed/wood framed end you see
in the first picture. The hoophouse sets
tight to the little barn and I removed the window on the left and put a full
4x8 foot door as passage from one to the other.
The door is plenty big to transfer equipment, amendments,
tools and pallets to the hoophouse. I also keep the heat in the hh and the cold
out of the barn. Above the new door will be the whole house fan for controlling
the temps during spring, summer and fall.
When I plowed in the spring of 2012 I made sure the ground was
turned up all around the hh. This area will be planted in the spring with what
I am calling outside crops; Cukes, squash, punkins, cabbage, asparagus, and a
grand variety of fresh, good tasting fruits and veggies. Many of these are
being planted out because of the room they require. I am going to try to plant
according to pounds produced per 100 square feet.
We hope to continue this blog during the year. It should
provide some guidance, hope, encouragement and laughter to all who care to read
it.
Thanks to all my bosses and thanks also to all the readers
of this blog.
Be well; peace…dan
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