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So I finally decided to do what I want and H**L freezes over. When I started this process I decided I would do this or die trying, so
I’m not going to let this stop me. I just didn’t figure that it would be this soon. This has been a weird spring and as a start up farm, well, it’s not helping. The biggest issue is keeping the greenhouse at an acceptable temperature for the seedlings. Ideally the soil temperature should be in the 20 c range. In a regular day the sun would warm the soil to above that and the soil would hold the heat through the night, even if the air temperature fell. Well, not this spring…with so little sun, the issue is keeping things warm at night.
With that in mind I have basically moved into the greenhouse. At night I am doing my best with an alarm to check the temperature every hour and then making sure the woodstove is loaded for the next hour. It’s making for long nights.
The issue is because a greenhouse is a passive solar system the daytime sun is imperative. It can be used to warm water through the day and that will give some of that heat back at night. I tried boiling water on the woodstove to reclaim some of the heat – not so good. The sun warms the ground and rocks and these also give back heat. So I went for a walk in the fields and picked up some rocks then I started cooking/heating them; this worked better than the water.
In the end I will do what I can but farming is weather driven. I guess I could go rent a generator and heaters but that wouldn’t be right, or at least not the way I want to do this. So for now I’m up most of the night and hoping for better weather.
But, hey, yesterday was nice and I got the peas in the field.
Other things going on – some broccoli and brussels sprouts along with some basil are up.
I cleared some of the corn stocks to put in the peas.
And we have an osprey nest next to the farm.
I would also like to say thank you to Kelly and Peter for the wood.
Posted by seedandseasons | Filed under Uncategorized
Seed and Seasons 