Another seedling room set-up task checked off today: hanging the lightbox. Not exactly a big job—the chains were already there from last year—but having it in place is a big visual reminder in the Milkhouse that we’re heading into spring. The box, given to me two-three years back, has four 48″ fluorescent tubes on 5″ (12.5cm) spacing. Raised up a bit more, it gives pretty good light to the whole tray, which is about 3.5’x4′ (1×1.2m). It’s been a welcome bit of much-needed space for larger seedlings, though this year, with the barely-heated greenhouse plan, maybe it won’t be so critical. I still have to line the tray with plastic, and possibly get round to giving the box a coat of white paint…
Milkhouse
The Big Shelf
The choice storage spot for tiny farm gear, especially during winter, is this giant shelf, where it’s warm and dry. It’s at the back of the Extended Milkhouse, the last 3-1/2′ of the old ceiling, propped up on the leading edge by a beam across and 4″x4″ posts. It would maybe qualify as an upper level, if you could actually stand up: clearance is only 3-4′ under the new sloped ceiling. It’s 3-1/2’x20′ (1mx6m) of up out of the way space…a big shelf! About 7-1/2′ feet high, I get up there by ladder. Only one season old, it’s still startlingly clear, orderly, and almost entirely filled with immediately useful stuff as opposed to sure-to-be-useful-sometime gear (though the inevitable packing boxes saved just in case of return already have a presence). It’s dusty up there. At this end are the many fluorescent light fixtures (12, I think) for the grow racks. They hang from chains from those dowels in front, and the dowels in turn hang by the nails from more chains on the rack! When seedlings are all done, I remove the lights and use the racks for harvest storage. The oscillating table fan is used to give newly emerged seedlings a bit of a toughening up, conditioning breeze. Down at the other end, stacks of 3″ peat pots and plug sheets and trays. Time to start seedling room set-up!
Barn, Milkhouse, snow load
Not a big concern, but part of my rounds is keeping an eye on the snow load on the Milkhouse roof. It’s that shallow angle. This pic makes the potential problem clear: big, steep upper roof, unloading onto not-so-sloped lower roof. Luckily, with the wind and angle, there is seldom upper roof build-up. Although the weather’s been relatively warm recently (it did drop drastically last night), and there’s melt-off, it’s also been snowing in regular spurts, dumping an inch or so at a time. So, I keep an eye out… (If not for apparent global warming—shorter, less snowy winters in general, for whatever reason—we might have gone steeper when building last year. It seems we’re already casually adapting to visions of a freakish weather future, which IS human nature but still…weird!)
Farming from inside…
Here’s the Extended Milkhouse, looking pretty much as it did in mid-February last winter, a couple of months ahead of schedule. This time last year, it was still a dreary shell; we didn’t finish up until January. It serves as a seedling room in spring, for overnight harvest storage and CSA pickup for the rest of the growing season, and as the farm office year-round. It may look like a…bunker, but inside, it’s a great, custom-designed small-farming space. Now, I have a little time to do what I haven’t done so far: get it all sorted out!
Machines and snow
Looking out the side door of the Extended Milkhouse, this is what I see. The mighty tiny tractors don’t seem too formidable under a little snow. A good old fashioned blizzard and they’d be…gone! A few years of crazy short winters, and it’s easy to forget how different the seasons used to be around here. Not that long ago, 15-20 years, winter meant a whole new ground level, with permanent snow at least two or three feet deep settled in for the duration wherever it wasn’t plowed. Now, it’s practically a novelty. I can hardly believe I’m not exaggerating… Well, there may not be as much snow, but winter’s still coming, and I’m still going to have to soon finish cleaning out the drive shed to put the machines away…
Early harvest day…
Harvest Fridays begin with empty bins. We have around 50 harvest containers right now, the white and the blue and the green trugs (heavy duty plastic baskets with handles). On any one Friday, some are washed and ready, others have to be rounded up and rinsed. Today’s stragglers drain and dry on the harvest tables. To the left, all new this year, a screen table for spraying and draining bunched veggies. Mostly hidden behind it, the ever reliable washer-and-laundry-basins rinsing and spin-drying section. To the right, a trusty 4’x8′ sheet of 5/8″ plywood that has served as a general sorting and packing table for at least three years now. Leaning against the Milkhouse wall beside the door, the old, tiny screen table (sometimes popped onto sawhorses and used for sorting), and further over, the harvest whiteboard. The extra-wide door leads into a clear space with a table for packing safely out of the weather (increasingly welcome as the days shorten and the temperature drops, a big step up from the all-outdoor fall packing of years past). Up on the walls, two bare bulb light fixtures that soon have to be switched to floodlights, for packing after dark. Add water, bags, rubber bands, scales, digging forks, knives, shears and PEOPLE and the harvest is ready to roll!
Roof is working out
Here’s the barn with the new milkhouse extension, doing fine. We were slightly concerned that the slope of the new roof might be too shallow for snow to slide off, particularly with roll-off from the roof of the barn. The starting point was determined by an existing heavy cross beam in the barn, while the next beam is halfway up the wall – sloping the roof from there would’ve required tons of extra work and materials. As it is, it seems to be working out. Not having much snow or much of a winter at all helps. I doubt the sky will be falling in!