Slow Progress

It seems that nothing moves as fast as I’d like it to. It has been so frustrating working with contractors around here. They are not prompt in getting back to you with quotes or to return phone calls. It’s not the way I’m accustomed to doing business. A customer shouldn’t have to hound a contractor to see when he’s going to show up to work. Our excavator hasn’t put in more than one full day on the job, per week, since he started over a month ago. Now that we have to have everything done by this weekend, I thought that we had lit a fire under him but he only worked a couple hours this morning and is now gone again. Ugh !!! We need to have all of the utilities hooked up by Saturday so we can get our motorhome on-site and hooked up. That way we’ll be close to mom to help her out and check on her.   He got the water hooked up but now we need the sewer and electric done.
Right after I put the last post on the blog, my mom wound up in the hospital for almost a week. Her gallbladder got terribly infected and her heart was in A-Fib so she had a tough time of it in the hospital. She’s been home now for about 10 days and I’ve been staying with her to change the dressing on her surgical area and flushing the drain that they have sewn into her side near her gallbladder. Lots of doctor’s appointments to take her to so it keeps me hopping. Two weeks from today we have our aquaponics training to go to in Elora, Tennessee. My brothers and sister will check in on mom while I’m gone. If anyone is interested in learning more about aquaponics, it’s 5 days of hands-on training in system design, the business side of things and pretty much everything you need to know to get started. For a training site closest to you, go to http://friendlyaquaponics.com.
We’ve got some exciting marketing stuff going on ! I spoke with the local grower’s market about putting together a survey to see what people would like to see offered in our area. I asked if I could attend some of the market days to hand them out and get feedback. They said that if I put a survey together and would be willing to share the data with them; that they would e-mail the survey out to their mailing list of folks. How cool is that !  So I used Survey Monkey to create the survey and it will tabulate the results as they come in. A unique identifier is created for every survey and the results are linked back to the person who created the survey.  A great way to get a professional looking survey and tabulated results to boot.
While researching the mechanical components needed for our aquaponics system (air pumps and water pumps), I came across some neat info on the internet concerning water aeration using alternative energy. There are wind mills on the market (for under $2000) that are used to aerate ponds which help to eliminate or reduce the amount of algae in the water. Using super efficient designs, they can generate 3 – 4.5 cfm with even very light winds. These are generally used to aerate ponds that are 10-30’ deep so I think there would be a great application for use in troughs that are only a foot deep. Plus they have a controller module that senses when the turbine is not turning so your regular air pump would kick in to make sure the plants and fish have oxygen. How cool is that ?! Something to check out further…for sure.
Hoping to have more pictures of our progress and another update soon.