House-Raising

It's been awhile since I've been able to post, but I hope to make it up to y'all. Several people have asked me to publish pictures from our house-raising. Until now, I haven't had the time or the internet.
The house-raising was early in November, just after our church's annual Reformation Day celebration. It lasted three days. We were expecting a few people to help, but more came than we ever imagined. I counted 30 people that Monday. Not only did we have builders, but we had garden helpers too. And still others brought lots of good food for all the workers. It's amazing what we accomplished. We're so thankful for the wonderful Christian community that came to help us with a huge project.

We had a lot of fun those three days. We ended them with a cookout on Wednesday night. We ate hamburgers and hotdogs and drank IBC root beer. Afterwards, we sat around a fire, toasting marshmallows, while Claire and Kyle played and sang some bluegrass for us.

Thanks to everyone! We'll never be able to repay you. May God reward you for your selfless service.

And now the pictures. Drumroll, please...

Mr. M. and his sons did an excellent job digging our basement and pouring the concrete for the foundation.

The M. boys know exactly what to do, even when their dad isn't around. They poured the footings mostly by themselves.

Here's the basement. Notice that black-ish tar stuff. That's the waterproofing. Daddy did that part himself. It was a difficult, nasty job. The tar was super-thick and had to be smeared on with a trowel.

The framing begins.

Ben and Jacob look a lot alike from a distance. People get them mixed up sometimes. ;)

This prelimenary framing was done the week before the actual house-raising.

Mom had a full time job feeding the guys.

The House-Raising begins:

First wall on the first floor

John had his work cut out for him. He had to keep over 20 guys busy at all times, and oversee all the work they were doing. He did a great job. We could have never, ever done it without him.

John has trouble remembering people's real names, so he makes up nicknames for everyone. He's quite creative, and most of them are hilarious.

Ben is "Hot Shot"
Here's a view from the front. You can see the shop on the left.

Here's Caleb. (He doesn't like his assigned nickname, so I might be in trouble if I blog it :)

We had no less than three Calebs on site. We also had a couple Jacobs.

Olivia took some beautiful pictures for us. Maybe I can upload some of hers later.

John's patented Advantek elevator.

One floor down; one to go

"Pocket Hercules" :P
This Caleb came all the way from Indiana to help us. I understand he has a few nicknames; "Boom Boom" and "McLain" being the most popular. :)
Some farmer friends of ours sent their interns to help.

Jacob likes giving orders...

I wonder who he learned it from. :)

Josiah is from Illinois and Henry from Indiana. They both made special trips to be here.

Sam and Chris cutting up

It's beginning to look like a house! Kyle headed up the deck project, and did an awesome job.

Synchronized hammering? *insert Blue Danube Waltz*

I love the porches! Hoss does too.

Here's one I took a few days ago when it snowed.

Look out, Nashville!

Our very talented neighbors, the Howard family assembled a group of friends to create this country music video in hopes of cheering Jacob up while he was sick. We can safely say that it truly did the trick! Olivia is responsible for the artsy videography and design. We have the eloquent Bruce the Bard to thank for the clever lyrics and the....ummmm..."singing" ;0) The rest of the gang just went along for the ride. Obviously, they all had a blast! And they managed to keep it all a secret, too! What a hoot! I reckon' we're the only farm around with our own music video. Eat your heart out, Josh Turner!

A Wee Highland Lassie

Jacob's cow Thistle had a calf this week! She's tiny and adorable. He hasn't named her yet, so you'll have to wait until later for that. We discussed names briefly yesterday. If you want to read the story Mom wrote about how we found her, sign up for our newsletter. Thistle is very tolerant, and doesn't mind if we pet her baby. She doesn't like Hoss getting close to her, though.

She's so cute that I imagine you'll be seeing lots of pictures of her in future.

Here she is with her mama.

-Tricia Ann

Have you ever seen an artichoke plant?

I never had until I grew a few this year. Funny looking, aren't they?!?

Maybe we'll have artichokes in our 2011 CSA baskets!

-Tricia Ann

Farmer's Market Booth Re-design

We have a corner space at the Farmer's Market this year, so our set-up had to be changed. Plus, we needed to make our booth look really nice, so we'd sell more veggies. We now have two "pop-up" tents to shade our produce (the phrase "pop up" is deceiving, but that's another story :). The front is for our display of veggies for sale, while the side/back is our CSA pick-up area. So far it's worked out really nicely. We also made new matching price tags, which we laminated so we can write the prices with dry-erase markers, in case we have changes. I designed three banners so our farm can be easily identified. After they were printed, I sewed velcro onto them, so we could just stick them to the sides of the tents.

All in all, I think it looks very nice and much improved.

We're still under the pavillion this summer...yay! It feels about 10 degrees cooler under there than out in the parking lot.

Microgreens have been a big hit this season.

Here's our CSA pick-up spot

"Hit him on the head!"

"More broccoli?"

-Tricia Ann