As you can see, Sweet Rose Farm the website is up and running. Frances Bevington of Wilkington Design is my designer and I think she did a great job. The site has the feel and look of Sweet Rose Farm and will go along way in helping document the goings on out here in Highland County. I will update our progress via the blog and hope to hear from all of you via the comments or email. The IN THE FIELD tab will include what’s being planned or planted at Sweet Rose. The CSA tab will include any other news for our CSA members.  The LIKE MINDS tab will take you to a list of web sites that I have come across in setting up and running the business of Sweet Rose.

Welcome to Sweet Rose!

Not quite what I had hoped for

Before the plastic was off it was on, but I get ahead of myself.  Let’s start in the middle.  We talked earlier about how we were able to set the bow pipes and build the end walls for the high tunnel at Sweet Rose.  Once completed all that was left to do was get the plastic up and over the frame and tack it all down.

As the schedule would have it, we had one day to get the plastic up, that day was the day before the Blizzard of 2010.  We got everything prepped out and the weather cooperated.  No wind.  All was fine until my third hand could not make it.  This was the beginning of an ominous ending.  With just two of us to hoist and pull and stretch and attach, we struggled to get it all done before dark.  It was well past dark when I took one final walk through the covered tunnel.  It was calm and a bit warmer inside.  The snow would start in three hours.

As I drove back to Vienna to prepare the shovels for the home front , I replayed in my mind the  hanging of the plastic and had two nagging thoughts.  Was the small rip we created when we hung the plastic secure enough…and did I remember to go back and put more screws in the end wall wood strips that secured the plastic?

The eighteen inches of snow fell and slid off just as it was designed to do.  A couple of days of sunshine and it was downright balmy inside the hot house, well that is how I imagined it, since I was still throwing snow at home.  And then came the second snow of about 6 inches and as it often does in the Blue Grass Valley in Highland County, the skies cleared…and the wind came a knockin.

And rocking, and ripping and, you get the idea.  It was forecasted to be 65 to 70 mph and it was probably all that.  As we drove up Maple Sugar Road, the sun was out and even though we knew the unshoveled snow of not just two storms, two record breaking snows, was there to greet us, we did not think the high tunnel would be waving its welcome, like it was happy to see us.    But there in all its glory, the plastic billowed along the entire length of the hip board.  After a day of snowblowing, we made it up to the shell of a tunnel and found the plastic had probably ripped at the small tear and that the end board has too few screws.

Time to order more plastic.

Trenches for pipes

The construction of the high tunnel is ongoing with hopefully just a few steps left to go. We started in December with clearing the pad to place the tunnel. Using a bulldozer we leveled a pad about 130 feet by 50 feet. We met some resistance with rock but eventually we got a pretty level area to put the tunnel.

Looking down from Blue’s Hill

Once we got the pad set, we tried to drive some posts to hold the bows of the tunnel. We were met with a lot of rock and had to abandon the plan to hand drive posts. That night the snows came and after a few days of rough weather, we ended up with 20 inches of snow on the pad. Back came the bull dozer to clear the pad and then we brought the backhoe in dig a trench for the posts.  We placed the posts and over a few days and fill in the trench as mucha s we could before the ground froze for good.  Once we got the bows up we were able to stabilize the structure by attaching purlins and braces and wood base boards.

The end walls were constructed out of framing and plywood.  A sill plate was sunk in the ground and the joists for the walls were connected to the pipe with metal strapping.  Sliding doors complete the solid wood wall.

Next up will be to attach wood on the side of the bows to create a hip board the entire length of the tunnel.  The plastic will attach to this board and the board also helps to stabilize the structure.