Unity Farm Journal - Second Week of August 2015

Although there really is no such thing as vacation for a farmer, I am trying to work from home on Mondays and Fridays in August.  I saved on commute time and had a few hours free between phone calls to catch up on the University of Massachusetts Farming and Sustainability courses that my wife and I are taking.   It’s finals week and my 22 year old daughter was very amused by my comments - “I have a paper to write, a final study for, and 300 pages of reading, where will I find the time?”.

At this point, the course is done and I’ve learned a great deal about post harvest management of fruits and vegetables.  

Our barnyard redesign is making good progress and we’ve laid down a new roadbed of crushed rock and top dressed it with gravel.    The new hoop house to store all our farm equipment is going up - it’s a kind of barn raising at a small scale.   Here’s what the process looked like, including the extra help from the geese

Our barnyard is pure New England soil filled with rocks, roots, and gravel.   Pounding 14 footings 2.5 feet deep was really challenging.   Some were easy and some required a post hole digger/crowbar/axe combination.     It all worked in the end and we’ll add the polyethylene to the frame next Saturday once the wirelock channels for attaching the plastic arrive.

As you can see, the Terex now has a year round home in the barnyard and soon all our machinery will be in this new hoop house, ready to use where it is needed most, next to the animals, outbuildings, and paddocks.

Kathy is hard at work making sun dried tomatoes from the 10-15 pounds I pick every evening.  

Next week I'll bottle a few kegs of honey lager and a mild British Bitter.   As Fall approaches I'm planning on the Porters and Stouts that will carry us through winter.

During the August vacation hiatus my writing slows, but more IT related posts are in the works about our FY16 application and infrastructure strategic planning process.     More to come soon.