2019 - The Farm

Wermland · Apr 2, 2019

Very impressive!

TrentL · Apr 3, 2019

Plastic pulling day on the isolation tunnel. Finally had a favorable wind day.

TrentL · Apr 3, 2019

Sawyer · Apr 3, 2019

Wow.

Wermland said:
Very impressive!

↑ What he said.↑

TrentL · Apr 4, 2019

Only thing left to do in that tunnel are tables, stretch some shade cloth, get a couple electric heaters to keep it above 40 at night, then move plants out to harden.

We'll take a break from construction to pot up a few thousand annuums, after that.

stettoman · Apr 4, 2019

Dayamn, Trent! And that is some flat, flat land you parked it on...How deep are you anchored?

TrentL · Apr 4, 2019

stettoman said:
Dayamn, Trent! And that is some flat, flat land you parked it on...How deep are you anchored?

4' x 12" pillar footers, the posts are 9' and set 3' in to the concrete. Took 12 tons of concrete to set the posts.

TrentL · Apr 4, 2019

Start of post setting day

End of post setting day

The concrete was pretty dry, 4" slump, wouldn't go down the chute, so that's what I looked like after hand-shoveling 24,000 lbs of stubborn concrete down a chute to get in the holes over 1.5 hours, while my buddy leveled and set posts plumb

Mildfruit · Apr 4, 2019

Wow, im so envious. Not of the labor, but what I wouldn't give to have that grow space!

Ruid · Apr 4, 2019

Yeah but that has to eat up his free time.

PaulG · Apr 4, 2019

Watching your palace of a "poly tunnel" emerge from the
beginning has been inspiring. What a beautiful building.

And you could always live in it, if need be :rofl:

I assume insurance is in place on all your equipment and
grow spaces including "hoop house". Crossed my mind
because i was wondering how much wind you have designed
the structure for. Maybe I missed it somewhere along the way :oops:

,
but you must get some Movin'-Right-Along winds in your area.
Along with floods. Egads.

Devv · Apr 4, 2019

Well done Trent!

You know when they bring crete, you can tell the driver to wet it a bit so it flows well.

I've done my share of crete work, and it's work! Watched a crete-guy at a school job swinging a 10lb sledge with one arm like it was nothing, and he was killing it. I said something to the foreman about and he said "you don't ever want to get into a bar fight with one of these guys". Too true, in fact I don't want to get into a bar fight with anywho :drunk:

TrentL · Apr 5, 2019

Mildfruit said:
Wow, im so envious. Not of the labor, but what I wouldn't give to have that grow space!

Thanks! If the farm ever folds I could build these for a living, I guess?

Ruid said:
Yeah but that has to eat up his free time.

What is that? Free time is when I do things like eat, poop, and sleep

PaulG said:
Watching your palace of a "poly tunnel" emerge from the
beginning has been inspiring. What a beautiful building.

And you could always live in it, if need be

I assume insurance is in place on all your equipment and
grow spaces including "hoop house". Crossed my mind
because i was wondering how much wind you have designed
the structure for. Maybe I missed it somewhere along the way ,
but you must get some Movin'-Right-Along winds in your area.
Along with floods. Egads.

Yeah I *just* had a meeting with an insurance co today. The three high tunnels (I have materials for two more of these on hand) will be insured at $27,500 each.

State Farm is dropping me on 4/15, apparently "farm" in their name doesn't mean much. I called last month to get my insurance expanded to cover equipment (it suddenly occurred to me in early March that mixer equipment, tractor, attachments, etc weren't insured at all....). Their underwriters found out that, gosh, we sell FOOD .. that people EAT.. and shit their pants. They didn't want the risk of .. you know, a farm that grows food. They covered us doing farmers markets no problem, but as soon as the guy heard the words "wholesale", "restaurant", and "grocery stores" in our conversation, we were done for. Their underwriting department canceled us.

The new company is Rockford Mutual and they'll insure everything, including my tractor, if it breaks down, my high tunnels, our well pump, furnaces, etc. Everything *except* the crops. If I want coverage on seeds that sprout and beyond, I have to go to a different company that specializes in crops, nurseries, etc. But they'll insure processed inventory (seeds, flake, flour, etc) and all of the equipment to make everything work.

Devv said:
Well done Trent!

You know when they bring crete, you can tell the driver to wet it a bit so it flows well.

I've done my share of crete work, and it's work! Watched a crete-guy at a school job swinging a 10lb sledge with one arm like it was nothing, and he was killing it. I said something to the foreman about and he said "you don't ever want to get into a bar fight with one of these guys". Too true, in fact I don't want to get into a bar fight with anywho

We couldn't do a wet pour as the posts wouldn't hold level. We JUST about screwed ourselves as the truck driver saw me struggling to keep up with shoveling dry slump down the chute about 3/4 of the way through and added some water; sure, went down the chute better but as soon as you'd let go of a post after getting it plumb and level, it'd sink or lean. So a couple of the last posts on the northeast side are JUST a bit tweaked out of plumb & level.
It sucks, but keeping it a dry slump for the next couple of high tunnels we do. I want to have at least two more built this year, after the wheat is up. Will go faster on the next two, not as much earth moving to do; they'll follow the grade of field, which isn't too far off level (they won't be dead nuts level like this one is)

Walchit · Apr 5, 2019

Just pour the concrete wet, then let it set up for a few minutes and plumb your poles? I've done some concrete myself, and the dry mud doesn't sound fun.

TrentL · Apr 5, 2019

Walchit said:
Just pour the concrete wet, then let it set up for a few minutes and plumb your poles? I've done some concrete myself, and the dry mud doesn't sound fun.

Doesn't set up all that fast in pillar footers. Not at all like a thin sidewalk or slab curing. Also if you missed that window where it's "just right".. you're pretty screwed.

At least going in pretty dry, you know when you walk away from a post to do the next one, that last one is good.

Worst thing was because we were setting post depth by string line, if you have one move on you, behind you on the line, if it pulls the string then *everything* is off. We had two strings set, the strings were marked every 4' with tape so we knew where post center was to go. The posts were marked, so we put the post in to the depth, matched the mark up with the bottom line to get our level, held it against the top line to get our N-S plumb, and then set our level and got E-W plumb. Goes pretty quickly at that rate.

Still, 50 posts are 50 posts, and even working pretty fast, we were averaging like 1.5 mins per post. Part of that was filling, and setting, part of it was getting the truck to move, adjust the chute (if needed) then get the stuff flowing. At one point fairly early on, dumbass truck driver dropped about 12 cubic feet too much on one hole and we had to shovel that shit out of the way. Was waving him to stop and he was on his phone or something.

At least he waived overtime fees on it. Go over 60 minutes on a pour they start making a bonus.

Walchit · Apr 5, 2019

1.5 minutes per hole doesn't sound to bad to me!

PaulG · Apr 5, 2019

And the saga continues...

Glad you got the insurance thing under
control, Trent. That has to take a little
bit of load off your mind.

When that tunnel is full of green it is
going to be a sight to behold!

Devv · Apr 5, 2019

Yeah, State Farm...they can suck eggs, that and it's their loss.

They take your $375.00 check and say sorry 2 days later over a ticket on a 20 year clean license. Local State Farm guy has been after LB and I for 25 years now..Uh..hell no.

Good on ya, put your money in a good company

TrentL · Apr 5, 2019

Tables done. Irrigation fixed up and ready to go. Heaters ready. Cooling ready. Just need to run some shade cloth and I can start moving shit out.

DWB · Apr 6, 2019

Trent, you continually display an amazing ability to get a breathtaking amount of work done very quickly. Kudos!