Farm Update:
So over the first week of 2013 we have not been idle. Firstly Sara has been very busy finishing the vegetable plan--which includes a CSA calculator, garden layout, and a planting and harvesting schedule. All very useful for farmers, but probably not the most interesting for others. We'll have a separate post for those, going into the details of the spreadsheets so others can use them. Also she has made more consumer-friendly pdf showing what you will get, everything, based on our projections, can be accessed by the tab at the top of this page labeled "Our CSA." At the bottom of the page is a link to a PDF we have hosted on Google that lists a week by week breakdown of what Veggies we hope to be offering in our CSA. (If you have problems accessing it let us know and we can e-mail you a copy.)We have planned for enough veggies to take care of at least 20 families that eat a lot of veggies, and would want to save some for winter as well. We are looking forward to exploring a lot of familiar and unfamiliar foods and sharing our experiences and farming methods here on the blog with everyone.
Worf looking after his ladies |
We drew out the problem using a drafting program I have from when I was in school. We were able to lay out the garden, see what the plant spacing that Sara had planned will actually look like, and before even laying a seed in the ground we can make very precise estimate for seeds required and predicted harvest.
Firstly we found that we would need far less space than we had planned! This allowed us to expand how much store-able veggies we could add, such as more dry beans, which will make great soups, chilies, and more.
You want me to go out there? Yeah, no. |
We realized that based on what we need of our buildings, the potting shed would be an ideal chicken coop and feed storage place. It will allow the chickens almost twice the living space indoors, and we won't have to buy a silo. Win-win. The building is also better ventilated and insulated than the brooder hut is. Most beneficial, the potting shed has nice pasture to the west, where the chickens will be able to graze among the other livestock.
Before moving the chickens, we have to build a wall dividing the potting shed interior, make new roosts, cut a dogie door to the outside, and construct some nesting boxes. We started by building a frame for a chicken mesh wall and door to segment the potting shed into two areas. This being one of my first building projects it had some fun obstacles.
Yay for free wood, reclaimed! |
We got almost all the materials we needed by taking out the makeshift wooden floor/platform the previous owners used to hold their beehives in winter. (We found a few new projects in the process out in the barn, but we'll save those for later.) We've been lucky though, since the tool shed and potting shed were already here, but we've also used existing materials like branches for roosts, and now reclaimed wood for the coop. By doing this our infrastructure costs so far for the chickens have been kept minimal, which has been one aspect that has been pretty great about the chickens.
Well that is all for this big update we'll follow up this week with some more specifics about the many projects we have been working on.
Here's some links to some of the files we mentioned above. And more information should follow in some more blogs soon.
Weekly Share Breakdown
CSA Calculator
Garden Layout
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