Towards the beginning of clearing the space next to the shed. That pile on the tarp are 1/2 of the canalillys that I cut down. After that, I had to dig up all the bulbs.
Here is an example of a canalilly bulb mass. The ground was mostly these bulbs.
The wheelbarrow about 1/2 full with canalilly bulbs. I ended up filling this wheelbarrow up so much that it was in danger of overflowing and Aaron had to come and wheel it away for me.
Aaron spreading the dirt in the area where the grow beds will go. We needed to get the space as flat as possible. We found some old railroad ties that served as a barrier and helped the ground we wanted to use stay level.
After a hard rain, we found out that the roof from the first part of the shed was leaking on the second part and if we didn't fix it, we would end up with water damage. So Aaron got right on fixing and caulking the first roof off and then installed this gutter for the second. (there are two sections to the shed- one is a worksop and the other is mostly storage for the aquaponics system)
Wiley was a big help.
The gutter installed!
Once the gutter issue was addressed, we got sand and spread it out evenly on our grow site. We used a 2x4 with rope to smooth it down.
After the sand, we laid a weed mat over it to keep weeds from growing up from the ground and messing up the system structure.
The first grow bed is built and placed where we want it. You can see in this photo that we have started building the second one. It's all finished as I write this, but I can't find the photo I took of it.
So that's the story so far with the aquaponics system! We are very excited and I have chosen the vegetables to grow in our testing site:
1. Grape Tomatoes
2. Snap Peas
3. Pole Beans
4. Green Onions
5. Yellow Onions
6. Spinach
7. Collards
8. Chile Peppers
We will grow at least 3 types of each. We don't want to pick a type and have it fail and think all of those kinds of vegetables would fail.
I do have other news about the farm- just little random bits here and there. We had a big storm come through and it was scary at times. During the evening I was drinking as it got worse and worse. I started to worry about Carl, who wouldn't leave the porch. The wind was really strong and the rain was coming in sideways. I tried putting him in the barn but he wouldn't stay. So, (you know what's coming right?) I let him in the studio. ONLY for a short while till the storm blew over. But… now he thinks it's the place he needs to be and races in every chance he gets. Presently he's sleeping (and snoring) on the other side of this computer on my art table. Yeah, I relented. There is only so much sad kitty face I can take at my door- which, conveniently for him, is glass. He just sits there and watches me with the most distraught look on his face. He's NOT spending the night. Just hanging out for a bit and then I'll take him back to the barn. The other cats have not figured out what's up, and I hope they don't notice him sitting in my window watching them from above.
Wanda One Eye did notice that Carl came into the studio. She noticed because she's always on the porch like Carl is. So then she started begging to come in… along with Wiley who is always wanting to be wherever I am… unless there is a cat to chase.
I honestly don't know what to do about Carl. He is an older cat and if I had the extra cash I'd take him to a vet because I think he's got some injuries and issues. I wouldn't mind having an indoor cat but Wiley doesn't make it easy for him. (of course, because since when did Wiley make anything easy for ANYONE?) I guess when it's cold out I'm more of a sucker and tonight it's about 30 degrees. I'd really like to get the barn fixed up so that it's not drafty, but that's more expense. Perhaps Aaron can do it, but we are really trying to just focus on the aquaponics so I don't want to pull him away from that (since he does all the heavy lifting) just for working on my cat barn.
Any ideas?
Oh, and the last thing is that I did a silly drawing of Wanda surviving the big storm we had the other night:
She's not a white chicken, but I didn't have any beige pens.
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