Same entry-with pics?

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 4×3 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 32×36 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 4×8 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