Rafts, Roughing In and Run-off

It’s been a super busy week for us. Last Sunday we attended a workshop about 3.5 hours from us that dealt with setting up a farmer’s market stand for the best presentation. The workshop was put on by a program assistant with the Penn State Extention office out of Allentown. After going through the powerpoint program, we then split into two teams and were given veggie props and signage and competed against each other to see who could come up with the best looking table display. It was interesting to see what ideas each team came up with and how each team used the items in a little different way to give visual interest to their table. After the workshop, we went to the Emmaus farmer’s market, ten minutes away, and we each had to critique one of the vendors. While at the workshop we got to meet another aquaponic farmer who has also been to the Friendly Aquaponic training in Tennessee. What are the odds of meeting someone that specialized, with the same information that we have for doing aquaponics in Emmaus? We got to swap info with her and will continue to stay in touch with her as our project progresses.

We got all of the growing rafts painted and cut this week. Each raft needs two coats of Benjamin Moore MoorGlo. After getting the 15 sheets painted, then we were ready to move on to cutting them. First we created a template of the 32 and 55 hole rafts, using the measurements from the Friendly Aquaponic manual. Then, you used a cordless drill and hole saw to cut out the holes. The saw doesn’t go the whole way through the 2” foam board so you have to flip the board and using the drill bit hole, finish the cut. It’s really messy work and is really tedious but after “plugging” away for most of the week, we got them done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Wednesday we attended a workshop on “Raising Chickens, from birth to Processing”. This workshop was only two hours away and a day full of great info. This workshop was put on by PASA (Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture) and was held at a Mennonite farm in Mifflinburg. At the end of the day we watched him process chickens at his on-farm processing center. It was a great opportunity to learn about all things related to chickens.

This week the excavator got started correcting a lot of the drainage issues that the original excavator ignored or created. What a difference a few days, several pieces of equipment and a knowledgeable eye can do to a landscape.

		Excavation Work at New View Farm VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

He worked about three days, installing a drain tile along the length of the greenhouse, swales on contour (with berms on each swale) behind the barn and a ditch behind the barn. Once he finished the work, we went and got some old hay, that my brother had, and mulched all of the swales. This will keep them weed-free until we can get them planted. We also got the 6 mil plastic and geo-fabric down along the length of the greenhouse. It will allow water to penetrate it so it will reach the drain tile and provides a nice level area for our outside trough. We’ve already stubbed out the air line for the outside trough so that is ready to go. The outside trough will allow sprawling plants like beans, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers to run out on the ground. The fabric will provide a weed-free environment for them to spread out and grow plus the black color will give this trough an early jump on growing, by absorbing the spring sunshine. We are so happy with the work that Rob McClure did for us. He was very willing to learn about the permaculture practices that we wanted to put in place.

I went outside a little while ago to see how all of the areas are doing, with all of the rain that we’ve had today. The swales are holding water. The top swale is holding water where it is on contour….at the point where we want excess water to drain, it runs off to the adjacent pasture or over behind another large mound that we have planted. It’s so great to see all of the systems working together.

 

 

 

 

 

With permaculture practices, you want to capture and use every drop of water before it exits your property (remember what we said about “the problem IS the solution?). These swales do exactly that while providing moisture to the items planted in the mounds. If we had any type of livestock in the fields above the plantings, that would create more “nutrient flow”. We can’t have any animals in those fields right now, since we have one more year to go in our CREP contract.

We’re now working on installing the water and air pump systems in the greenhouse for the aquaponic system. Hoping to have that complete within the next week. We will get seeds started in the sprouting table very soon so that they will be ready to go in the rafts when the whole system is ready. Lots going on….it’s getting exciting. Oh and look at our potatoes and squash go…they’re starting to blossom.

 

LiveJournal Tags: aquaponics,organic,squash,potatoes,sprouting table,air pump,permaculture,swales,Friendly Aquaponics,chickens,excavator,trough,PASA,Benjamin Moore Moorglo