So I’m not a slow learner. Really. And I guess after a year, I’ve got it figured out. There really is no down time in farming. I thought maybe in the middle of winter things would wind down a bit. We’d go home early; relax; hot chocolate season and all. Oh no, no, no. January is crazy busy. We have installed a new greenhouse; it’s about 30′ x 100′ and our goal must be to fill it completely up with little bitty seedlings, because we are planting our butt’s off.
We mix up a super special potting mix, (no actual soil involved), and then make soil blocks with super specialized tools.
The smallest soil blocks are seeded with no soil added over the top of the seeds. The seeds sit on top of the potting mix and magically germinate in a matter of days. They get a little help from the warmth of the super special heated mats that they sit on. (Yes, even Springdale Farm is High Tech.
And all was going so well. Until the 40 mile an hour winds gusts that came through last weekend. What the heck? Our new greenhouse plastic just tore right off. Fortunately, we were there when it happened – giving a farm tour! All hands on deck to batten down the hatches. um. plastic. We gathered bricks, organic fertilizer bags, etc. and piled it on the plastic to keep it down. It took all of us because the entire greenhouse was attempting to be airborne! The next day required emergency repair efforts – before the upcoming freeze. As I lamented to my dad, he just reminded me that in farming, “it’s always something.” I guess that’s just another truism of life. It’s always something. And isn’t that the adventure of it?!