Zen Acres: Transformations

March 15, 2009 - It was a weekend of many transformations for us, as the quickly approaching spring forces us into action. It was in the upper fifties on Saturday and Sunday, pefect weather for being motivated to get lots of things done. Plus I even got some sun!

Saturday, we started the day by making some changes in our apartment. So far we've been dabbling in some early seeding, but next weekend it's time to get serious. So we had to set up a slightly more efficient system before seed trays take over our home. Joe had the very clever idea to take full advantage of our full length, south-facing window in the kitchen. Before, there was a counter with a cabinet underneath blocking the lower half of the window -

Now, we have shelves to put our planting trays on so that they can get as much sun as possible on days when the greenhouse is still a little too chilly -

Cooking last night was a challenge with so much less counter space - er, none, basically. But it's a small sacrifice for lots of happy seedlings. Plus, it's temporary. Come May, everything will be outside.

Next on the list was getting the garden space at mom's house ready, because next weekend we also start planting a few things outdoors! Joe had done a lot of cleanup work late last fall, which made this a relatively easy job. Basically we were left with all the plants that we were still eating from into the fall - broccoli, brussel sprouts, collard greens, etc. Here's what was left of them -

I spent a few hours composting all the old plants, raking up the garden, and collecting and rolling the fencing. At the end of the day, it looked like this -

On Sunday, Joe came over to help me finish the job by putting up all the fencing. Last year we had many different fenced beds so that the chickens could run around between the gardens and eat all the bugs. It was definitely challenging getting in and out of a million fences. Plus we were constantly changing the fencing setup, so it was a bit like an ever-changing maze. Not this year though - no chickens at mom's means one very straight forward fence encompassing the entire garden space. One gate. Always in the same place. I'm excited. It's hard to see, but this picture shows the whole fenced in garden - it measures 55' by 32'.

Plus he tilled up one row in the back there (the left hand side of this picture) for us to plant our first crops next weekend. Can't wait to get started!

And now for the biggest project this weekend - I had been waiting for the call from John Hardeman that would say the weather was just right and everything was in place. It came on Saturday night. Sunday was the day. The greenhouse was getting a new skin!

Joe and I arrived after John and Campbell had already taken down the old plastic.
The three men lifted the 300+ pound roll of new plastic up onto the ridge of the house, and carefully rolled it down the length of it.

Joe was completely in his element - he's a monkey and he loves to climb -

It was a double skin, so once they got both layers up on top, they pulled the plastic down both sides.

I had the very important job of making sure the whole thing didn't blow off in one strong gust of wind. Too bad the wind was coming from the north. The men were sweating from the hard work and the heat that the plastic was already capturing, while I stood still shivering in the cold, shaded corner.

Once it was all on, they had to secure it to the frame on all sides -

I thought they looked pretty cool with their heads popping up against the perfect blue sky -

Here's me giving orders - oh wait, no, this is me taking orders. For lunch. :)

Here's the happy crew during lunch break - all still in one piece.

Joe and I had to head out after lunch, leaving John and Campbell to finish tying down the sides. But by now, that greenhouse should be all ready to go. The outside temperature while we worked was about 57 degrees. The thermostat is set to kick the fan on when it reaches 100 degrees inside. It kicked on before the plastic was even firmly secured. Gotta love how that stuff works.

The very last transformation this weekend was not one of ours, but one of mother nature's - Friday night we took one of our regular evening walks down to the river (my favorite part of the day lately) and we found this -