We came across this quote by Toby Hemenway this week and it perfectly sums up how this weekend went for us.
First, I have to revisit something from my last post. The picture of the beetle (large timber framing hammer) Jeremy made last week just didn't do it justice. This one gives a much more accurate representation of his handiwork!
Jeremy and the Beetle
It was a three day weekend for us (I took Friday off) so the work started as soon as we dropped the kids off at school on Friday morning. As mentioned before, the greenhouse plastic was in desperate need of replacing, so that was the big job for this weekend. Friday and Saturday were predicted to be very calm with major wind kicking up Sunday and Monday. We started by removing all 3 layers of the old plastic and dragging it far enough away from the hoop house to not be in the way. Then we had to remove all the old hold down channel for the plastic and add some more tape/padding to a couple of edges that had rubbed on the old plastic. Then we unrolled the new plastic next to the greenhouse. All of this took until 3:30 or so. This is where the first resource gathered around us.
Pulling off the first 2 layers of plastic.
So here we are looking at 128 lbs of plastic (a 40'x105' piece) and a 12' tall hoop house, getting ready to do battle. Having already done this before by ourselves, we have some idea of the ordeal this is going to be and we have some doubts about whether we will be able to do this by ourselves. Last time we were able to pull it over an existing layer of plastic which helped immensely. We had no such bonus this time.
One thing we've learned from all of the things we've done is that sometimes you just have to make yourself do it even when you don't think you can. So we were mustering our courage, taking a deep breath, getting our last drinks of water and generally preparing for a major ordeal. Then my brother drove up unannounced! Hallelujah, the cavalry had arrived! It is impossible to express how much help it was to have an extra set of hands in this process. It took about an hour and half, but we got the plastic pulled over the hoop house and locked into the ends on Friday.
Saturday morning we were at the farm at 7:30 (yes, AM) to lock down the sides of the plastic before the wind started blowing. It was a bit chilly with frost on the ground and running the cordless drills made all our fingers get a bit numb, but we got it done. The plastic looked wonderful - perfect tension and everything. There were a couple of holes to patch from where it snagged on some loose staples, but they were quickly taken care of. Excellent! We got to cross this project off our list!
Then more resources showed up! Scott came by again around 9:00 and brought presents. He had some shelves and pegboard he had torn out of a house he's remodeling that he was going to throw on our brush pile. Instead, we will be repurposing most of it into our soon to be work shop space! Can't beat that!
At 10:00, our friend Jeff showed up again (we knew this one was coming, but his help is still such a gift). Saturday he helped us fold up the old plastic to be used on some future project and then he helped start building our new chicken tractor. The plastic was quite a chore to fold - 3 pieces at 128 lbs each makes for a lot of muscle moving!
Folding old greenhouse plastic
The chicken tractor, on the other hand, was a bit more technical. We first had to disassemble some large pallets to get the framing lumber. We tried the first one with hammers before quickly moving to the sawzall. The people assembling these things must have been paid by the nail! It was absurd how many nails were in every piece. Once we had enough framing pieces, we started cutting and assembling. Jeff is a carpenter by trade and he made short work of getting the pieces ready and making sure that everything went together correctly. It was a privilege to work with him and learn some of the tricks to really getting it right. We managed to get the whole frame together on Saturday before he had to leave.
Jeff and I and a chicken tractor in process
By the time we got everything picked up and wrapped up, it was 5:30 and we were pooped. A 10 hour day at the farm is not for the faint of heart. This was also when we realized we had made a tactical error when pulling the greenhouse plastic. We did it when it was too cold. In the 70 degree air on Saturday, the plastic expanded to the point that it was very definitely too loose. We were too tired to pull off all the side boards and re-tension it on Saturday though. It was definitely time for showers and some rest!
Sunday was a light day. We intended to go tension the plastic, but the wind was too strong. While it has been moving a lot on the frame, it doesn't appear to be any worse for the wear at this point. We will have to wait for a day that is both warm (60-70 degrees) and still(er) before we will be able to take care of the problem. Instead we kinda putzed around a little bit and then went to go see our friends Doug and Bayliss for a bit. ;-)
Later Sunday afternoon, we got to go visit the baby goats! They are truly adorable little doelings - full of spunk and very lovable. They are going to be a great addition to our farm in another couple of months.
Kids and kids...
Lastly, on Monday morning we put the finishing touches on the re-organization of the shed! Jacob put in the lion's share of the work on Saturday while the adults worked on other things, so we just had a few things to finish up. Check out the before and after!
Before...
After! :D
Some projects coming up for this week include:
- continuing to move dirt in the garden and finally finish getting all the beds ready (that project has only been on the list for a year now...).
- Pull out the cedar limbs from the garden fence behind the blackberries and thread the blackberry canes through the wires. This should keep them from taking over the aisle again.
- Mulch the raspberries
- Get the next set of beams laid out for the house so that joinery can commence
- finish the chicken tractor
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