Fini

As in done, finished, over, past, completed.

The greenhouse is fini.

I would be happy except I am so past the point of enjoying the greenhouse that I want a full week of not thinking about the greenhouse, not looking at the greenhouse. Then I am sure I will enjoy it.

For the final push, we asked one or two friends to help and we had six arrive, including my sister. A true team effort. Sometimes, mostly when I am sick of the greenhouse, I lose sight of the goal. I have a wonderful circle of friends who support my crazy ideas and endeavors, and they arrived (with beer!) to help with the final touches.

We tarped the long side, installed the doors, installed the fan, installed the louvers. It was a warm, beautiful day and even with the screen doors fully open, it was HOT in the greenhouse. All was good.

Later that night, I realized we installed the louvers backwards. No big deal, just need to pop them out and turn them around. Should take ten minutes...

So today we began the last day of work on the greenhouse. Three hours later, we're standing in the rain, trying to screw in door hardware and the slimy, wet plastic coating for the doors. Definitely not going well. But after much swearing and repeated vows to "never again", we got it done.

Finished.

The greenhouse is a small first step in a long journey towards a successful farm, but it's finally behind us. I underestimated how long it would take to build, how many precious hours of my nights and weekends would be spent measuring, cutting, painting, hammering, sawing, nailing, tying, screwing, and oh god, painting some more when I really should be conditioning my horse. It's a good lesson. When you work full time in addition to the farm, the "cheapest" solution is the one that takes the least amount of time, even if it costs more.

But that's all behind us.

It's done.

The chickens enjoy the sun as Odie presides over the hens.

Front view with the double doors. Screened here, but now have plastic coverings as well.

Wow, it looks like a real greenhouse!

Back view before the door was installed, the metal is the cover for the exhaust fan.

Inside looking north towards the front.

Looking south towards the back.

Done.

Brief Update

Life is getting really interesting around here and I apologize for being so behind in blogging. Between work and farm, I have little time for quiet reflection, and even less time for frantic blog typing.

So to sum up:
1) The greenhouse is almost complete. Expected completion is this Saturday where we will tighten down the plastic film, install the ventilation system and hang the doors. Benches, paving, 3 yards of soil and beds to come later.
2) The horse sacrifice paddock is on its 20th ton of stone dust. Oh yea, that's some serious work on the ol' tractor. We'll be driving posts and taping off the paddock this weekend. Once we get the horses off the "forest pasture", we can clean it up: logging, rock removal, raking, and seeding.
3) More tractor goodies in store: fence post digger and logging forks. Gotta get those on Saturday.
4) Another tray of seeds started: Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, and Kale. I can't wait until I can take the trays to the greenhouse for day trips to get them some protected sun.
5) Two weeks or so until we break ground on the outside garden. In the meantime, we need to pick up last fall's leaves, drop a few trees, measure and plan it out and borrow a hand tiller.

I'm tired just typing all that.

On the chicken front, I was able to surmise that the sick chicken succumbed to an infection of Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG) due to the crazy weather. She did recover after 10 days and is symptom free. Since MG is omnipresent, I am not worried about the general health of the flock (unless she makes this a pattern). But she will not make the cut for next winter and is obviously not part of the breeding program.

I'm glad I was too busy to include you, my dear readers, on my chicken angst. I need to think of the collective like a farmer, but I don't want to lose compassion for the individual. I opted in this case to not cull the chicken after she recovered and she's back out with the flock. Time will tell whether I made the right call, but trust me, I spent many sleepless moments agonizing over the "right" answer.

The picture of the chick I posted earlier is a week-old Speckled Sussex pullet. I picked up five at a chicken swap locally, although I suspect one of them is a little cockerel. I've got 25 chicks coming in April 14th and that should round out my laying flock. There will be a lot of birds around this summer, but the intent is to get down to 20 by winter (18 pullets and 2 roosters) that will form the foundation of my sustainable flock going forward. Then the meaties arrive in July. I need to build two chicken tractors by then.

There's lots going on from the Brego front, but I will just need to post to that blog soon.

New On The Farm

Greenhouse Raising

I am too exhausted to type. Only one minor injury (fingernail mistaken for a nail). Pictures from today. I will post more detail soon.

Yes, it freakin' snowed while building the greenhouse!

Life

The seeds I sowed a week ago are growing so fast. The package says 7-14 days to germinate, but we saw life after three days. I guess the numbers are for outside temps.

We've been very busy around the farm. We've been moving yards of gravel and stone dust to make a sacrifice paddock for the horses before their pasture turns to muck with the thaw. The tractor makes quick work of moving materials, but it's hard to see even with the side lights at night. I wanted to grade for the greenhouse, but still a bit too much snow.

No complaints though. We are deep in the throes of mud season which is the rite of passage out of Winter and into Spring.

The baby seedlings give me hope and inspire me to work until 10 pm every night to prepare a good home for them, and the rest of the critters on the farm. The little sprouts all look so similar, so neonatal.

I sowed another tray today, half spinach and half broccoli. Tired, but happy.

Tray full of life

Brussels Sprouts

Broccoli

Spinach

Great Soup

Part of sustainable eating is making every "expensive" calorie count. Expensive calories are those that take a lot of resources to produce. Meat is considered expensive because it requires a vegetable to be grown, harvested, and then fed to the animal. Then the animal is grown, harvested and (usually) fed to the person.

Here's some fun feed conversion ratios:
Sheep: 8 kg feed to 1 kg of live weight
Beef: 8 kg feed to 1 kg of live weight
Pork: 3.4 kg feed to 1 kg of live weight
Poultry: 2-4 kg feed to 1 kg of live weight (Depending on breed)

Live weight does not equal pounds of meat. Usually the conversion to meat is 50-67% of live weight. It makes the feed conversion ratios look even more grim.

On my own farm, it takes 1/4 lb of feed to produce one egg.

Anyway, a dear reader Austen has put together a recipe for making that (free-range, sustainably raised) chicken stretch across many meals. We make stock of our chicken carcasses ourselves and I can't wait to try this recipe.

"Rustic" Lentil Soup

Bon appetite!

Another Spring Weekend

More slow thaw on the homestead. I can actually see part of my lawn for the first time in, oh, three months. It's quite exciting.

Today was Greenhouse Work Day. More painting of the frames and sealing of the foundation boards which will be in contact with the soil. I opted out of Pressure Treated timbers for obvious reasons. I also glued the PVC ribs together.

I found another good use for the tractor.

PVC ribs

There's only a few more things I can do on the greenhouse, like screen the doors and predrill some holes, before the Big Greenhouse Raising Day. I am not sure when that will be since there is still over a foot of snow on the intended site. But we're supposed to get five straight days of sunny, mid 40s - 50s weather which could very well take care of the rest of the snow. Of course, it could then dump another 6 inches on us before the next weekend, but I will have my fingers crossed.

Gratuitous cute dog shot. Gotta love those ears.

The sick chicken may not be sick after all. She is baffling me with her runny nose and complete lack of other symptoms. I asked around on BackYardChickens and they appear baffled as well. Maybe allergies? Regardless, she won't be contributing to the next generation, that's for sure. But I hate to cull a chicken who is actually fine, just because. Plus, she's our best layer. So she gets another week in isolation to see how it goes. She's actually adjusting well to being a basement chicken and is very social. I hate it when animals I am supposed to kill are cute. :)

I also set up the brooder because next weekend, if all goes well, I will be picking up some day old chicks at the ChickenSwap. More cute animals on the way! These chicks will be layers, so I am allowed to get attached to them, right? I am hoping for some Speckled Sussex pullets which will make a nice contribution to the sustainable homestead flock.