Growing Growers workshop and a little farm update

This was another very busy week. Our days were full of stress at our day jobs, scheduling meetings with home construction contractors, barn builders and preparing for putting our Shawnee house on the market.

There were very few visible updates at the farm. But on my visit to meet with a potential contractor about the alpaca barn, I saw this…

Garage doors installed.

The garage doors are installed and there are temporary handles and locks on most of the doors. I hadn't anticipated encountering locked doors. It was nice to realize the structure is now a secure space capable of keeping things inside safe.

Saturday I attended another Growing Growers workshop. This was the sixth that I've attended. These workshops are intended for future farmers and, in addition to the workshops, have an apprenticeship component. Even though my full-time job doesn't allow time for apprentice work, the workshops have been very educational. My favorite part has been the farm tours and meeting with people in the business of growing plants.

The workshop on Saturday was at Powell Gardens and covered Small Fruit Production. We heard talks from Missouri experts with the University of Missouri Extension as well as from local growers like Dan Hoerz of Duncan's Berry Farm. After lunch we took a tour of the Heartland Harvest garden with the garden manager.

Here are some pictures from the tour:

Tomato and pepper garden - part of a patchwork quilt design/layout.

Beautiful elderberry outside a structure supporting kiwi vines.

A veggie garden with a nice Gothic arch that also support tomatoes.

One part of a large vineyard with many rows and arbors.

Lastly, we saw the high tunnel project.
These tunnels cover an acre of land - all planted with tomatoes.

Our busy week ended with a Father's Day celebration at home. Brent is a hard worker and, even on his celebration day/weekend, he was working constantly! Saturday he and Logan salvaged siding and roofing materials at the farm for use on farm outbuildings. Sunday the boys and I gave Brent another Festool power tool for his collection and we ate apple cake (a recipe from Brent's mom, the late Barbara Ragsdale). And we all worked to pack up our clutter to make our home look nice for potential buyers.

Slowly, our future as farmers is getting closer and closer :-)

Water lines and wonderful pasture

The weather in Eastern Kansas has been fabulous, perfect for growing beautiful tall grass in our pastures. So Brent and I had a little picnic Friday evening in the summer kitchen at the farm. We opened up the double doors and enjoyed the breeze and the quiet evening birdsongs. We even took a walk out to the draw to see if the pecan trees were alive.

Here's what we found:

Me (with a little wine) in the lush pasture.

And, yes, the 2 pecan trees are coming back.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will have pecans before I'm 60.

It was a very beautiful evening. And on our walk we saw many flowers blooming in the pasture including: rudbeckia, yarrow, Deptford pink, and spider milkweed. Strangely we also noticed the blackberries on the west side of the draw that in previous years had been thick are now nearly gone. Hopefully they are still growing on the West side and in the fencerows.

The most exciting development we noticed in the construction of the house was the water lines. They have been installed and we have hydrants for the greenhouse and the barn. We also can see the placement of the cisterns for rainwater collection.

The water line enters the house on the West side (right behind where Brent is standing).
The orange rectangle is the placement of the 2000 gal. cistern.

This is the hydrant that will provide water for the greenhouse.

This orange rectangle marks the placement of the 1000 gal. cistern
where we will collect the run-off from the east side of the house.

And our septic tank was installed.
Unfortunately all the yuccas in the area were destroyed.
I wouldn't be surprised if I could revive them by simply sticking them in the ground.

This is the second hydrant we had installed. It will provide water to the barn.

Before we ended our very fun evening, Brent took this awesome picture. It's the view through one of the rectangular cut glass pieces in the sidelight by the front door. I'm hoping the front door, when it's installed, will have a few spots at my height so I can enjoy this view without a stool.

Two girls fishing from a paddle boat in the pond across the street to the West.

Rocks in the parking space

We drove out to the farm today with some family for a visit and we found this in the parking space:

The first load of rock for the retaining walls.

That was pretty exciting to see. Those rocks will be the beginnings of the beautiful native and edible gardens that will surround our home.

We also noticed that all the siding is finished - time to pick paint colors!

Here are pictures to show all the sides of the house.

West side (notice the shake singles in the peaks)

Southwest corner

South side

Southeast corner

East side (you can really see the shakes in this one)

Northeast corner

South side (with Jeremy - who enjoys being goofy - and Margaret and Brent in the background)

Busy, busy… beehive

Our week was so full that we were only able to squeeze one super-quick visit to the farm on Memorial Day. But it was a productive one. Brent installed my beehive!

Beehive number 1 - ready for bees!

This year we will keep our fingers crossed that a scout from a swarm will find its way to our farm. The beehive is a Warré hive. I painted only the exterior of the hive to seal and protect it from the weather. Otherwise, all the wood inside is bare.

In order to make the hive more attractive to bees, beeswax has been rubbed on the bars. It has a lovely fragrance that apparently encourages the bees to begin building their comb right where you put it.

While we were installing the hive we saw that the rough-in crew has made more progress on the exterior siding and installed the front door.

West side with siding partially installed

Northeast corner showing shake and lap siding over garage doors.

If you click on the photo above, you may notice in the larger photo that there is some detail in the siding. We have shake in the peaks above the lap siding. Those shakes will be painted a different color than the lap siding to add some detail.

I heard yesterday that the crew is finishing up the siding. So there will no longer be a need for the Skytrak that has been rented since the installation of the SIPs panels. 

Next, the septic system and installation of our cisterns for rainwater collection and storage. Interior work will continue as well, including meeting with the electrician.

Busy, busy!

Windows!

Today we met with Bob McCartney of McCartney Cabinets to measure for the kitchen cabinets and saw that our windows have been installed. The front door is also at the property but hasn't been installed yet. It all looks really awesome!

Here are the usual photos showing all the sides of the house.

from the parking area

from the West

Southwest corner

South side with Dave Robson and Brent (look at all those windows!)

Southeast corner

West side (notice the little dog door by the double doors?)

Northwest corner

 We are so pleased. And it was really fun to finally see the windows in the two downstairs bedrooms on the east side. The lap siding is also starting to look pretty nice. You can see it on the garage and Summer Kitchen. It is really starting to look like a home :-)

The only snafu is those double-doors on the Summer Kitchen. They are supposed to open out. Right now, they are opening in. Not sure how that will be resolved. But, if that's the worst thing that happens, I definitely will not be complaining.

On an even brighter note, the two dogwoods that I thought were dead are alive! Not only that, but the persimmon seedlings we planted have almost all leafed out, the elderberry seedlings appear to be thriving and we have lots of apples starting to form.

I'd say we enjoyed our visit :-)

Siding and upper level framing

We visited the farm during our busy week of graduation, family visits and birthdays. It was fun to show off the new house and again see the progress the rough-in crew had made during the last week.

These pictures show the normal exterior shots.

from Parking area.

West side.
Notice the foil? That's on the extra layer of foam insulation. The garage has no insulation,
just Tyvek over wood.

Southwest corner.
Notice the strips on the insulation. They will create an air space between
the insulation and the siding.

South side (Jeremy in one of the Master bedroom windows)

Southeast corner. My step-dad, Pete, and brother, Scott, with Jeremy in the
window of the "office" space.

East side.

Northeast corner.

North side.

Our tour of the inside was where we saw the most change. The crew has framed in all of the interior walls. And we were busy last week working out the details so that the plumber could get the basic water lines in. We also met with Bob McCartney about our kitchen cabinets.

Here are just a few of the interior pictures.

One side of the closet in our master bedroom.
By today's standard this room will be small. But, with the walls in, we can tell
this will be plenty of space for us.

Here are the pantry (right) and coat closet (left).
The pantry was modified to utilize the space over the stairs. It's huge!

Jeremy dancing in the spacious room that will be the
living room, office and kitchen/dining room.

We couldn't be more pleased with the size of the interior rooms. It's just right! (I feel like Goldilocks.) And the view out the windows impresses us every time we walk into the house. Inside we are dancing with happiness (we let Jeremy do the actual dancing - he's better at it than we are).

Happy Mother's Day

I got a great present. Brent built a Warré beehive for me :-)

My first beehive. It's made of lumber salvaged from the old house on our farm.

Overall, it was a beautiful day. I spent it working on potting up all my native seedlings and moving more of the tropical plants outdoors for the summer.

Happy Mother's day to all!