Greenhouse is shaping up

I'll be sad to see our farm help start his new job, but I'm thrilled for him that he got one in this economy. Eliot has been our employee for over a year now and has been absolutely invaluable. My physical weakness and lack of knowledge of all things mechanical coupled with Michael's illness has made it all too clear that homesteading is not for the faint of heart, nerve or body. It's easy to see why the farmers of "olden times" had fifty seven billion kids. It wasn't for lack of birth control, it was for need of farm hands!

Here is the spot staked out where the greenhouse was going. Note the snow is STILL on the ground even though it's in the high forties for the third day in a row. Uh-NOY-ying!

Anyway, Eliot came out yesterday along with our friends from Oak Hill Farm and we managed to put the green house hoops up by the end of the evening. Or rather, Eliot did it and I hindered him on multiple occasions as I attempted to be useful. I did however, swing a sledgehammer with accuracy and strength enough to put one of the posts in ground. One of the 10. Eliot did the others. All of them. On his own. Sigh. Being old and weak sucks sometimes. So here are a few pictures of the deed being done. And yes, that's me in the coveralls. Contrary to popular belief, I actually do work. On occasion. Just not all that competently.

Here you see T and Eliot driving the base posts into the ground.

T and me securing the hoop in the ground pole

T's daughter supervising the project

The finished skeleton!

Anyway, the skeleton of the greenhouse is now up. Next up is framing the door, followed by mulching the floor and covering the whole thing with plastic. I have high hopes that this will be done in time for the pelargoniums I ordered to arrive from . I'm starting small with only fourteen plants, but I figure it's best to take it slow and get a feel for things before I go headlong into becoming overwhelmed. Besides, I've got to get the chicken coop ready for the new additions to the family and that will take up quite a bit of time if I'm to be ready by May.

If farm life has taught me anything, it has taught me that patience is required. Not that I have any patience, mind you. I just know that I should have it. I'm a list checker-offer kind of person, and I tend to get a little overwhelmed and frustrated when something takes longer than a few hours to finish. But farm life is not like that. There's no project that is finished in a few hours, crossed off the list and then you're done forevermore. Nope, it's a never ending project that you are never "finished" with. Something is always in need of repair, something is always growing or in need of planting in order to start growing, something needs harvesting or it will go kaput, something needs feeding or it will starve. The list goes on and on. And in the meantime you have to juggle those day-to-day demands of your time with the long term projects like fencing a new pasture or adding to a chicken coop. Or starting a blog, for that matter. But as of now I wouldn't trade it for the world! What a far cry from my dreams of Broadway as a college kid, huh?