It’s amazing what you can do…

…if you put your mind to it.  I am a big believer in the ability of a human being to be able to learn and do almost anything.  If we were to share and expand on this knowledge and learning what could we achieve? The problem is our society expects us to profit from every idea – we’re supposed to make money off of them or, if someone shows you something and you do it and something goes wrong, you should think about suing.

I am not a big believer in either of these concepts. I feel they stifle creativity and stop progress on things that could help people and the planet. (insert you own comment about big oil here)

This little rant is leading to the fact that I hope to not only show you what I am doing but how I’m doing it. If you have a suggestion on how to do it better, let me know. If you want to try some of the ideas you find (insurance company says I have to say do so at your own risk) please feel free. If we all put our heads together, who knows what we could come up with…

Project 1:  the greenhouse.  Here is a partial time lapse of the greenhouse going up (iphone ran out of battery partway through). Because there is no hydro on site as of yet, I did the cutting beforehand so what you are seeing is the assembly.
Planning time – 4 hours – I like to draw things out. And I made an extensive cut list.
Cutting time – 2 hours
Assembly time – 10 hours over 2 days; would have been shorter but the ground is a bit soft and I kept losing my wellies.

Tomorrow I am going to extend it and start planting. For now, here’s a look at what I’ve been up to.

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A little wound up…

It has probably been a good thing that it’s snowed the last couple of days. It has forced me to sit down and get more planning done. I know when the deal closes the last thing I will want to do – and it will be last thing I will have time for – is the planning . The deal closes on the 28th of March. Peas should be in the ground the first week of April and, well, tomatoes should be started in the greenhouse this week. So there is still lots to do between now and then. The seed order is done but there are still a couple of things I would like to get. The order was for about 40,000 seeds so far, so it might be enough but there are a couple of perennials I would like to start for next year and I can’t seem to find a heritage yellow corn.  The history of corn is actually very interesting and an example of how human intervention and experimentation with nature that deeply affect the planet.

So what do the next couple of days hold? There will be some measuring and marking out of the site; finishing the plans for a small greenhouse to get the tomatoes, peppers etc started – these need to be ready to start going in the ground as small plants by the end of May.  Figuring how to effectively heat the green house, this one may be a problem (I am open to suggestions); finish the planting schedule and map; then there is the business side, filling out forms to try to get into markets; working on a website so you can place orders directly; possibly a Facebook and/or google page; working out a picking and delivery schedule (this might be able to wait a bit as the markets will affect the delivery days); looking for restaurants and small grocers that may want seasonal vegetables; oh yeah, also coming up with a name that would be good.  Then to move toward, what I would like the farm to grow into,  working on some events and what I like to call open Sundays, which is about making the farm a community. At this point there are some logistic issues –  a toilet, for one.

I hope to make another post after the deal closes and after the Easter long weekend. Until then have a great week and long weekend.

Chris