Farming in the shade

While we were putting the roof and sides on, we were also taking out our frustrations a little at a time by busting out the old concrete floor. Yes, with a sledgehammer. Our skid steer was a great help in hauling off the concrete. We filled three dumpsters with concrete that will be recycled by a local excavator. Before the new concrete floor could be poured, we needed to wet down the sand. We were surprised at how dry the sand was, but it hasn't had any rain or moisture on it for decades so I guess it makes sense that it would be dry.  Four cement trucks came that day, and we poured an estimated 27 cubic yards of concrete. The day of the pour was fairly warm. Probably too warm for the workers. Some things are worth hiring done, and while The Farmer and his father helped, the bulk of the work was done by a contractor. The Farmer comes from a construction background. His father and one grandfather were brick masons. His other grandfather was a furnace man. The Far...

After the roof trusses were set, we nailed plywood to the roof and sides of the new addition. This work is not for the faint of heart, or those with a fear of heights.  Love that nail gun. After the plywood was on, it was time to put the steel siding up. My mother in law started the holes, to make the job easier when the siding was vertical. Again, not for the faint of heart. Sam, the intrepid cat, amused us by climbing ladders. Here is the start of the cupola vent. There will be three attic vents. This one is the coolest. Before the siding went on the ends of the barn, four windows needed to be wrestled in place and secured. Again, tricky work at the top of a ladder. It's almost weather-proof now, and the progress will be less dramatic from here on out. If you'd like to see the other stages of the barn renovation project, click here .

We grow edible dry beans. Many times people will ask us, "How do you dry them?" We don't. They naturally dry on the plants. The plants dry out and die. The pods become crackly dry. And the beans inside the pods dry and harden.  Once the beans are dry enough, we harvest them. With some varieties, that means hand pulling the plants and loading them on hay wagons.  We've found a very short window each day where the harvesting conditions are perfect--the dew is just gone from the plants, but conditions are not yet extremely dry. In the heat of the late afternoon, the crackly dry pods will break open and spill the beans on the ground when the plants are pulled. Too much waste. When the hay wagon is full, we bring it to the combine and run the plants through to separate the beans from the plants and pods. For a short video on how the combine works, click here .

We hired a crane (with a skilled operator) to help us set trusses. Some things are worth hiring done. Each one was lifted and set on top of the walls. A spotter on the ground held a rope hooked to one end of the truss to keep it from swinging wildly. The day was moderately breezy; we were glad it wasn't any windier. Each end of the truss was nailed in place on the wall, and then the truss was unhooked from the crane. Darryl drew the short straw and got to be center man. He nailed brackets in between the trusses to keep them spaced evenly. He walked on a 2 x 4 laid across the bottom of the trusses. Coming along nicely. Love this photo. We can really get an idea of the space now that the trusses are set. The whole process took about two hours. It was very gratifying to see the amazing progress. But it was nice when it was done. So much could have gone wrong. For more posts on the barn renovation, click here .

After the floor joists and deck were on the building, we moved on to the second story walls. All of the walls were prebuilt on the deck, and tilted up into position. We had visiting family over that week, and so the deck and walls happened pretty quickly. And no one had any strain from tool use, as the nail gun was handed around quite a bit. Each of the walls was braced to stabilize it. Then horizontal boards were added to the outside of each wall. These purlins give us something to fasten the steel to later on. It will be a gambrel style roof, so angled 2 x 4s were added to the north and south sides. And then more purlins were fastened to them, again to provide something to attach the steel to. For more posts about the barn, click here .

About a month ago, we were able to work a couple of fields to prepare them to be planted with a cover crop. Cover crops serve several purposes. They keep weeds from taking over in a field, and they add nutrients and increase the organic matter in the soil. Cover crops are typically left to grow for a while and then plowed down. It might be tempting to consider that a waste, but the reasons listed above make it a smart move. We seeded two fields--the part of the corn field that drowned out and was plowed down earlier this summer, and a field that was left fallow due to the extremely wet spring. Here's The Farmer filling the grain drill with two kinds of seed--oats and radishes. The oats are the longer, light colored seeds. The radishes are the round, red seeds. Just yesterday I took a walk out to the field with a camera. Despite the lack of rain, the planting is well established. We are hopeful that we can get one grazing off the back field. Pasture is in sho...

There have been a lot of deliveries to the farm lately. Concrete deliveries, beam deliveries, and now wood deliveries. In our quest to renovate one of our barns , the next job was to put the floor joists on top of the bond beam  to form the floor of the second story. Fortunately, the delivery truck came equipped with a crane to help unload the wood. We asked if the driver would unload the joists on top of the building. He was willing. The Farmer walked along the top of the wall to direct the swinging bundle of joists into position. While The Farmer's father helped guide the process with a 2 x 4. Once all the bundles were unloaded on the top of the wall, it was time to cut the strapping tape and spread them out. Each one was nailed into position, and spacers were placed between them at each end. After the joists were all in place, it was time to lay the plywood on for the deck. We lifted the plywood up with our handy skidsteer. Don't know what we would h...