I woke up today with the electrical inspector phoning me with a list of corrections. Apparently they had already been in our greenhouse, opening up boxes, fiddling with wires, checking my work. It was a really terrible way to start the day since it basically comes down to a couple of days of corrections, money, and my interpretation of the national electrical code, advice I’ve been getting from other local electricians, and the inspector. It’s going to cause me to lose almost one whole week of time (and believe me, there are so many other things the farm needs from me now) so I thought I’d try and reset things by wiring — excuse me — writing, about some amazing unexpected things that have happened on the farm over the years.
First, important quick news. Since we partially shut down our farm road (Bell Lane) on Sunday to replace a culvert, we’ve decided to extend both the Eggflood 2022 Sale and Early Bird Member signup. To signup for the membership or the eatership, start here. Now, onward with these crazy images from the farm archive….
Magic between farmers. We never realized how much mentorship we got from our friends Ian and Ellen, but when we helped our neighbors put up one of their structures, and then attempt to pull plastic on a very windy day, we learned early on about collaboration and the magic of season extension. They inspired us to build - and even bend the steel — for our first unheated high tunnels. We’ve since adapted these tunnels, with some of our innovations, to make them moveable.
Noah signals to friends that our helping pull the first plastic on one of our tunnels that we later adapted into one of 5 moveable caterpillars on our farm.
2. Mentors. We’ve had so many mentors over the years. In this photo, Mary’s dad helps with doing some deconstruction back in the days before we owned 2 sledgehammers and a sawzall.
3. Carrots. They’ve become one of our favorite crops. It became even more possible to grow them at scale with a farm-built root washer (also pictured). Not pictured is an under cutter bar that mounts on a 4wd tractor that straddles our 30-inch beds to do the majority of the digging of the storage varieties.
4. Reclaimed materials. Yup, that’s a photo of Mary, taking down her parent’s woodshed roof that we later converted to our first packshed. In case you wonder where we get this trait, the backstory includes the fact this roof was reclaimed by her grandfather from a farm building damaged by a historic storm Oregon, so our uses of it gave it a third or fourth life! The second photo is a pile of plywood we trucked in from another roof, in Spokane two years ago. That has become the sheathing for our new packshed.
5. Row cover. Row cover is one of our biggest tools. In this photo, Mary uses just the right amount of tension and true grit to get this second, 30 x 120 foot piece of heavy fabric on top another one to prep for a hard September frost. We usually do this with two people, in perfect non-windy conditions, but, in this photo she’s doing it solo in some very windy conditions.
6. Irrigation. About three years ago, we ran water to our high tunnels and with it, we added wires that connect to 24 volt valves that connect to various places on the farm. Some of this irrigation is automated, and it paved the way for us being a reliable, four season farm. This also paved the way for reducing our water usage overall; the farm continue to convert more crops to drip and micro-irrigation.
7. Malaya. On the hardest of farm days, our husky, that came to us as a sick stray ten years ago, continues to brighten everyones day. If you haven’t met her, she usually is found sleeping near the side of the barn, patrolling for handouts on farm member day, or digging under the crew outdoor tables, biding her time until her next snack. She sleeps inside with us at night but loves being out in just about all weather, to keep tabs on everything happening on the farm.
8. Laying Hens. I think laying hens made us a farm that develops, design and builds and learns to fail. We’ve had many versions of moveable chicken structures until we settled on our insulated mobile pasture barns. We currently have 4 mobile barns and a flock of two different ages.
9. Bitterroot Ingenuity. This was one of our many low moments on our road to developing a solid pastured laying hen operation. A few years ago we had one 65 mile per hour gust that flipped one of the barns. In the photo, neighbor Mike Weir and a host of helpers have righted the barn topside with the help of a crane and a landing platform created by a full dump truck of tires. It all worked, no chickens were hurt, and we’ve since welded outriggers on the big barn we call The Evergiven and changed our design: we now bolt the deck solidly to the frame. This particular barn has an interesting story; it was actually completely decommissioned many years ago by some farm members in one, 10 person, 4-hour workshift, and then entirely rebuilt, but that’s another story.
10. Partly because of the mishaps of building, and learning to work with affordable, yet sometimes difficult re-claimed materials, we’ve become a farm that builds. Pictured below are two stand-outs from projects, our market trailer and the inside of one of our cabins. During that one spring we built our small insulated crew cabins, we actually took a loan from one of our favorite restaurants (Dan and Mona, who run Bouilla) and we gradually paid off the balance over the course of the summer.
11. Small Tools. We’ve also become a farm that sources — and builds — a lot of our own tools. Here, Mary operates one of our quick cut greens harvesters, powered by a portable drill.
12. True Farm magic. With the help of our community, 4 years ago, we put up a yurt that is our personal haven on the farm. While our current building project has become way more stressful — since we have a community and crew that depends on us more than ever — we couldn’t have continued farming without basic shelter, and it still amazes us, and inspires us every day, that we got that project done. I think this gives us hope and helps us keep going. Without it, we couldn’t.
And, finally, you didn’t miss it. It happens just once a year. Until Thursday night eggs are $1 off ($5/ dozen). Come stock up or just come visit. Feel free to pickup your own copy of Sabrina’s artwork as well. Copies are available in the farmstore.
Note: Early-Bird pricing ends Thursday night. If you signup for farm membership and drop off your check, please grab a dozen eggs on us!