Sweat and Sweet Corn

 Last week we hosted a bit of a Skeehan Family reunion here on the farm. Family members from Colorado, Chicago and Australia all converged on this little piece of land right at the start of the sweet corn season and one of the longest heat waves in a decade. We were quite the hive of activity, with much laughing, eating, swimming, eating, horseback riding, eating, photo-taking, eating and when we were done eating, we even managed to get a bit of work done.

The big project of the visit was to start to tear the roof off of the old packing shed. In the first picture you can see the hard-working crew pausing from their shingle-stripping fun. Notice the lovely green porch roof below them. That was the most recent (and wonderfully shady) progress before the Skeehans arrived.

The de-roofing crew (plus a wandering garlic harvester)

Dan inspecting the porch roof while Miranda, Carman Marie & Dominique take a much-deserved breather

big progress on the de-roofing front

Carman Marie & Miranda stripping the last of the tar paper

Sweaty, but still smiling, Australian brothers Dan & Tom

It was such crazy fun to have every here. Huge thanks to my parents for providing cabin-accommodations, work-crew wrangling and photographic skills and to all the Skeehans for their good humor, great company and hard work. We hope to see you all again soon!

May Farm Updates

Its hard to believe that its been nearly a month since our last update, but oh what progress we've made around the farm. Nearly all the spring transplants are in as are the first and part of the second rounds of crop sowing. The earliest crops in the high tunnel are already phasing out and we are in the process of transitioning over to mid-season crops there.

Work on the new building continues, but at a slower pace now as Jill's dad is mostly stuck working alone since Sean's knee (though much improved) is still not up to climbing ladders and the gardens require most of Jill's attentions.

 Looking great with 3/4 of the roofing and the east lean-to steel in place

There are no words to express how thankful we are for all of Dad's efforts and for the huge help provided by Sean C during his time here this past week!

The gardens are progressing very nicely, due mostly to the efforts of our this year's crack farm crew. The crops are looking the most promising that they have in many seasons. We wouldn't mind a little break from the rain now though!

The fruit trees are also looking exceptionally productive this year. Even the ancient apricot tree that only bears every 10 years or so is loaded with young fruit as are most of the peach trees and the apples and pears as well.

With so many things changing and growing, there was still one outstanding element that was causing a little deep-seated discomfort...until this weekend, that is...

 It may not look like much, but this is exactly what we've been waiting for, the appearance of the first, immature growth of our newly planting acre of asparagus crowns. So far it looks like we've got a pretty good preliminary survival/growth rate. Not very happy to see the standing water in parts of the patch, but hopefully the soil will drain fairly well since it was so recently worked. I was a little surprised at the immense feeling of relief that washed over me as I stood surveying the plot yesterday. Guess I was a little more worried about it than I realized.

Progress

We are making progress on many fronts these days. The high tunnels are all sown and growing, we have a sunroom full of little (and not-so-little) transplants, we burned some native prairie areas plus some of the gardens that were overcome with weeds last year

we bought a "fancy" new BCS walking tractor/tiller and have prepped a good percentage of the beds and we are still making forward progress on the new building...

its about enough to wear out a farm dog (or two farm dogs and a farmer) out!

Framed

 The recent weather has been kind to us and we are making steady progress forward. At least now it takes less imagination to see the future building

Greek Progress

We continue to make progress on the new packing shed. All the posts are in and the first roof truss is in the air, though not quite in its final position. This shot really gives an idea of the scale of the new building compared to the existing one. Somehow it reminds me of the Parthenon in Greece. Must say, trying to get that first truss in place was interesting...the first one is always the hardest (I hope!)

Building Again

I've been neglecting the blog for the past few weeks, but now with a big new project on the ground, I'm back with updates and pictures featuring the stars of the show: namely Dad, Sean, Blue, Luci and the all-important skid-steer!

If you've been to the farm, you've likely seen the "character-filled" little building that we used as the packing shed, wood-fired boiler room, workshop and general storage catch-all. It has served us well for the past 6 season, but we've finally outgrown it so up and out we go! Since we are still using the building for a variety of purposes, we couldn't just tear it down, so we are building around it, and then will "deconstruct" it from within the protection of the new structure.

First post going up!

The ground is thawing and it is a muddy mess! But 3 posts are up!

Three sides done, amid a change in the weather...6" of fresh snow, now melting.

The original building never seemed all that small, until we started surrounding it with 22' - 24' posts. As of today all of the posts are up and tomorrow we will start installing the girts. Supposed to be 50°, so some welcome weather and lots more mud!