greenhouse completion + other small things

Hello everyone,

Apologies for the brief hiatus- we've been busy (the most productive day in the history of Two Spruce Farm happened last Thursday) and were traveling this weekend. But now we're back and several newsworthy items have occurred, chronicled below in photos.

Biggest thing for us is that we finished the high tunnel last Thursday and it hasn't blown down yet. Everyone cross your fingers. Just kidding. I guess if you're in to crossing your fingers you can do that but if you're doing it strictly for the benefit of the high tunnel you're probably wasting whatever magical power crossing your index and middle fingers gets you. In short, we're happy with how it turned out and it seems like it is not going to blow down anytime soon. We will be moving all of our seedlings to the compost bed (which measured 120 at the top of the pile today, so it's working!) this week, which is good because we're making a big potting soil-y mess in Donn & Maryrose's basement (we had been using a heat mat and fluorescent lighting to get our earliest seedlings started).

In other news, Maryrose has been shearing the sheep. I got to help catch a couple today, it is not unlike wrestling a fellow 150 lb man who is wearing a thick wool coat and doesn't really understand the concept of wrestling. We seeded peppers, kale, scallions and some herbs today with the help of fellow Dickinson farm intern Anna Farb (thanks Anna!) and also Daniel's sister + friends visited, presumably for the sole purpose of spreading news of the benefits of farming with horses to Montreal, to which they were headed. Thanks guys, for helping with the cause!

Thursday was also Get New Old Implements Day at Northland, as my Planet Jr seeder arrived via ebay, and Donn's two horse riding cultivator (a similar model seen here with discs hilling potatoes) was retrieved from Greyrock Farm after some repairs. Sweet.

and no, no mule foal yet. Lady Baby Watch continues.

Two Spruce for you, Bruce.

We moved a bunch of logs to the driveway Thursday morning so a grapple truck could easily pick them up. This meant making some tight turns with Connie and Polly and getting the logs in a particular spot, which was great practice for Daniel and me. 

Greenhouse progress: driving in stakes and setting up bottom boards

West wall up

Fast forward a bit, we've got all the hoops up, both endwalls and the shoulder purlins on 

Track for wiggle wire, which is everyone who has ever worked on a high tunnel's best friend/ worst enemy. (Wiggle wire is supposed to hold greenhouse plastic taut in place without putting holes in it)

Getting ready to put the plastic on with our new friends/ neighbors Jean and Deborah (thanks for your help!!) 

Starting to look like a hoophouse

Finished product

The crisscrossed rope is for preventing the roll-up sides from blowing out in the wind

Inside view, facing west (now there's no snow in it, these are a couple of days old)

Facing east, with the patented Scott scale bar (1 Scott= 6 feet)

The new (to us) Planet Jr 300a seeder, fresh out of the box and sans handles. We'll be using this for all our direct seeded crops (carrots, salad mix, beets, peas, spinach etc).

And here's one of Lee, doing what Lee does very well, which is try to lip/ chew on everything (here, the victim is the camera)