Hope everyone's enjoying the nice break in weather! Doesn't look like it'll be sticking around for much longer, but we'll take what we can get.
This week is the first fall delivery, which means a lot less boxes to pack. Our membership drops to around a third of what it is for the summer shares, so it really frees up time to get things wrapped up around here with less harvesting/packing. Packing boxes usually took around four hours for three people from pulling out the first tote from the cooler to loading the last box in the trailer to deliver, so hopefully we'll be down to just a couple hours.
In the next couple weeks, we've decided to tackle a few projects around here. First is getting the irrigation system set for winter, which involves installing shutoff and blow off valves where the line comes out of the well head. Unfortunately, with all the rain and our ridiculously shallow water table (around 4 feet - perhaps why things can tolerate a little dry weather around here), the water line is submerged under water at the bottom of the hole we dug the other day. That complicates the install a bit, but we'll make it work somehow.
Project #2 is to replace the plastic on our large hoophouse and install new automated roll up sides. Typically, we have to manually roll up the sides as it gets warmer out, which was fine when we were on the same property, but now that we're not there all the time, it means we need to not forget to open them when it gets warm out and drive all the way up there to do it. With the new automated sides, they'll roll up and down on their own according to the temperature, which should help improve temperature control and with any luck will pay for itself with better growth and yields.
Project #3 is to install heat in our processing room. We were told that the plumbers couldn't get here until sometime after Christmas (apparently we chose the wrong profession!), so it looks like we'll be tackling it ourselves. We've installed two similar heaters in our greenhouses, so what's one more!
Project #4 is to install insulation and electric to the new pole barn; a pretty easy task, other than digging across the gravel driveway to run electric - it's amazing how solidly packed that stone gets!
In the mean time, we'll be harvesting and finishing cleaning up around the farm. If we get a few minutes, we'll do some work on the vineyard to get it ready for next spring. So, perhaps a little less farming going on around here, but we can't say it's all that much less work.
Just seeing that list makes me think we probably need to go get to work while it's nice out, so I'll leave this here for the week!
Have a good one!
-Brendan & Greta
