We are farmers. And a potter. Who every day go about our lives with passion, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. [adapted from a postal ad] A new year is upon us and that means even more projects in the works. Here is a brief recap for January, 2014: 1) It has been decided that the old three room house with its beautiful aged siding, will be restored and remodeled into our future cannery and commercial kitchen. The best way to save a historic structure is to give it new purpose. We intend this space to be open to the community as a teaching kitchen for classes and for use by some of our local bakers, jam makers, hot sauce masters, and other artisan food and beverage crafters outgrowing their home kitchens. Remnants of its former life have been removed. Unsound elements are being removed, replaced and repaired including roof, ceilings, floors and interior walls. Once the physical structure is fully renovated, hopefully by years end, we will create a special fund to properly equip the facility. 2015 expect to see fundraising events or a kickstarter to reach our equipment fund goals. 2) We began construction this week on a new 14x36 greenhouse. After reviewing our options, we have chosen to build a wood frame structure with walls and a steep pitched roof which will be covered in 6 mil, 4 year, greenhouse film. When the film has reached the end of its useful life, we will replace it with a more permanent material such as greenhouse panels. Custom tables will line each wall as well as occupy the center space with two aisles between all. For now, the greenhouse will be unheated and used for seed starting. We plan to incorporate irrigation lines, misting units, and ventilation fans. We will also be building an accompanying shade structure area below the greenhouse for hardening off tender new starts. Please contact us if you have unwanted greenhouse supplies or equipment to donate. 3) We will begin a new addition to our home which will include a guest bedroom, guest bathroom, laundry room, and common area with a library/reading nook. The new guest room and laundry will have its own entrance. Our original plan to build a free standing restroom and laundry facility will be postponed until a later date. Our new plan will make having guests in fall/winter more manageable. 4) Maya has been back in the potter studio doing quite a bit of animal research, designing new products and practicing her throwing and sculpting techniques. We are now equipped with a small electric kiln and will begin doing our own bisque firing. All the new designs and work will focus on nature and the benefits and wisdom we obtain from the natural world. After a long hiatus, new sheep yarn bowls and fish mugs are on the way. Expect to see new fiber producing animal faces appear on yarn bowls and new yarn steins and crotchet/knitting tool holders along with a more economical line of yarn pottery featuring fiber producing plants. The first face bowls out of the kiln will feature animal breeds in need of conservation based on the criteria of the American Livestock Breed Associations. You will also see new fish mugs featuring Bass and other fish. And after much contemplation and requests to put different animals on mugs... you can look forward to a new line of animal totem mugs. 5) We have a little unfinished work in the Blueberry pasture to complete as well, but the new and better landscaping fabric and irrigation lines are in places as well as Micahs filter manifold. Our next task with be a whole lot of mulching. We had a nice harvest last year, but fingers crossed, this year will be the year we our stripes for picking and packing berries. 6) There will also be grading work and more land preparations for the new fruit orchard. We will also begin cover crop plantings to build soil nutrition in the orchard and begin researching cherry tree varieties as well as other fruit and nut trees. Hazelnuts have been decided upon for use as a windbreak row. If you are expert on cherries or hazelnuts, let us know! 7) We intend to find permanent homes on the farm for the perennial fruit trees and shrubs currently in pots in our nursery area, including Goji Berry, Paw Paw, Arctic & Hardy Kiwi, Plums, Grapes, Fig, Quince and Heirloom Rubel Blueberries. 8) We have some used freezer panels and Micah is designing a towable refrigeration trailer to make use of them. 9) We also just picked up a used 3 wheel electric golf cart that we are certain can be fixed up for use on the farm. 10) We will also finish work on the outdoor kitchen and plan to install lots of new outdoor lighting so our guests can worry less about where they have left their flashlights. 11) Deciding on a new camera, so you all can actually see what we are doing because it seems we have dropped the Nikon Coolpix in the field one too many times. Apologies for the lack of new photos... we will post some sooner or later.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 23:23:07 +0000
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