Nearing the finish...What goes up, must come down!

Day Two...ta da, NOTHING!

As a precaution, day two was without progress.  Hydraulic lines survive longer when they're not pushed to work in 10 degree weather and winds.  As soon as it warms to a more tolerable level, the excavation crew will be back to work. 

More photos for now-

The De-Construction Begins!

  Filled with anticipation, we arrived at the farm just after 4pm this evening to find our demolition crew from Bevington Excavation, Montville, Ohio nearing the end of a long day spend dismantling years of slap-it together (permit-less) construction care of the previous owner.  Over the course of nine hours, one third of the home had found its way into the dumpsters and the crawl space.  The front build out and side dormer had completely disappeared.  The view into the upper rooms with only partial floors remaining was interesting.  I can't wait to see the results at the end of day two.

While the crew finished up, I took to finding the rear property line.  It took no time at all to locate the first pin that only stuck out of the forest floor a few inches.  However, the NE pin played hide and seek for what seemed like forever.  Finally, after pulling measurements off known structures (tall trees, ponded water, and black vine masses) observed from satellite images online, I was able to locate the stake.  I still can't believe I found it through the light snow storm and the fact that it looked like a stump from a broken sapling!

Now to mark the lines and install some high-viz and substantial locators for future reference.  We've got a total of 5 acres wooded, 7 acres fenced and the remaining 2.75 acres is taken up by front yard and the home site.

You'll never believe this...

Things have been evidently stagnant for this blog as a result of several factors.  Securing an excavator willing to take on the task of transforming the wooded landscape into a place hospitable for a home to be built proved challenging.  The cost associated with this endeavor is substantial, to say the least.  Jennifer and I prayed about it, asking God to supply the needs and get things rolling already!  Well, if ever you want to hear the Creator of the Universe laugh, tell him your well thought out plans!

We will be placing this property (7.99 acres) up for sale shortly.  Someone will eventually end up enjoying and maybe fulfilling their dreams of building a home in the country (someday) on this land, but it won't be us...

I'm excited to say that this is NOT the end of our story!  Because God is bigger than any plans we might have, any desires we think we possess and any purpose(s) we believe we might be commissioned to carry out!

In route to this property, there is a farm house we pass by and always find ourselves thinking, "Man, someone needs to tear that place down!"  It is a 14.8 acre farm with 7 acres of fenced in pasture, 4.5 of woods, a chicken coop, a wood shed/pavilion, gravel driveway, pond, mini-barn and a nice sized garage.   However, all these structures are in varying degrees of decay because of neglect.  The house, oh the house!  Someone really needs to tear it down and start over!  Well, I'm excited to say that Monday, 03.04.19 will be the day that WE employ Bevington Excavation to execute that task.  By purchasing this property, we've taken a giant leap forward from the acreage we own just down the street.  Gravel drive (check), well (check), fenced in pasture for livestock (check), cleared areas for the yard and gardens (check)!

Demolition photos coming soon...

 

 

DIY Double Dutch Tomato Bucket System

Light Haven Farm's Aquaponic Green House V3.0

Aquaponic Test V3.0 & A Crowded Coop/Run

The tweaking and toying process of discovering what works best for
our aquaponic grow tower system (hydroponic - chemicals + fish = aquaponic) has begun.  We've added another layer to our fish tank to eliminate the leaking of the original liner, attached secondary filtration systems to the water delivery system to eliminate particulate that was plugging the lines, finessed the water cycling composition (ph/nitrate/nitrites/ammonia/nitrogen), re-engineered the water delivery system from flexible irrigation tubing to hard PVC with tower by tower ball valves and finally added a third row of 2" net pots to almost every vertical tower tube to facilitate more obstructions in the water flow and better distribute the nutrient rich water.

We took a hit a couple times over the past months, losing a couple
towers of seedlings (80 plants in all) due to feed lines plugging.
The suspended solids combined with an algae bloom was the culprit. One and five gallon paint strainer nets to the rescue.  Rubber banded on the outflow of the gutter and enveloping the pump housing revealed that we had water saturated with suspended solids.  The difference in two days of filtering and several cleanings is quite dramatic.  The next step will be to transfer the fish into a 250 gallon water tote and use the current tank as the reserve sump tank.  A two tank set up will not only allow ample water

backup but facilitate the creation of a swirl filter in between the two for further water filtration and suspended solids removal.  The swirl filters are designed with a bleed valve that expels the trapped solids for application to garden soil.  The fish poo slurry is one of the best organic fertilizers and the nutrients are like magic growth juice to maturing plants.
The additional raised beds are producing well.  We've turned over and harvested the first round of snow peas and spicy radishes.  Carrots are developing nicely protected from the sun by the big leaves of our zucchini / squash plants.  The beans, watermelon, spaghetti squash are coming along although I believe I might have gone overboard with the concentrated planting.  They are growing up the chicken hoop house nicely though.



We hatched out 30 Black Copper Maran / Easter Egger crosses which hopefully give us hens that will lay green eggs.  The math follows this equation.  30 chicks * 50% male / female = 15 (possibly) laying hens and 15 chicken dinners. My hopes are to turn over 5-6 of our existing flock and replace with the new additions.

That'll leave about 9 or so that I'll sell to pay for the feed to get them to 25 weeks.  Twenty five weeks is the about the time where chicken maturity level reveals male/female and egg production begins. The really neat thing about this type of cross are the egg possibilities.  Black copper marans produce dark chocolate / mahogany spotted colored eggs, easter eggers produce dark to light blue eggs.  When the breeds are combined, maran colored eggs, easter egger eggs and / or a hybrid cross green colored eggs are possible.  More interesting is the fact that although the egg might have a green exterior, when cracked the interior reveals a dark brown shell.  Because of the timing of color deposition, the green egg is actually a brown egg with a blue over coat!