The refurbished hoop house is complete. This story and more after these messages from our sponsors.
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Farm News
As mentioned above we have completed the installation of the new plastic on our hoop house. It took longer than expected but I think this is true of all farm tasks. Installing the plastic is pretty straightforward but you don’t realize how big the project is until you are scrambling around on top of the bars like a kid on a jungle gym. And once the top is finished you think you are most of the way done, but in fact — except for getting the plastic over the structure — this is the easiest part. The sides and ends parts of the project each take just as long as the top if not more so. Nonetheless, we have finished and will load it up with plants this week.
The other time consuming project this season is battling the nefarious goons who have nothing better to do than hack my web site. To paraphrase our exulted leader, “It could be the Russians. But it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds”. I’m starting to think English isn’t his first language. Didn’t I hear something about him being born in Germany?
Anyway, as I mentioned, I am spending as much time this season fighting against these web site incursions as I was fighting the constant tractor repairs last season. I’ve installed security software on my site which seems to be mostly successful but somehow once in a while (time for some WordPress jargon so just nod knowingly if you have no idea what I am saying) the plugins get deactivated which deactivates the security plugin (not to mention my online store plugin). So if any WordPress gurus know what causes plugins to deactivate on their own, or how someone could deactivate them without logging in (the security software tracks both successful and unsuccessful login attempts) please shoot me an email! Speaking of unsuccessful logins, looking at the security log, I have several login attempts per minute. We’re talking thousands per day! That’s more attempted logins per day than all the gophers on our farm!
Which brings me to the next problem looking for a solution. With all the forecasted rain for this last weekend we planted a bunch of stuff in the ground with the expectation the rain would provide the moisture necessary to get them established. While, the amount of rain we got was the exact opposite of the number of attempted logins we get, or to be more precise zero inches of rain. So this Sunday I setup the sprinklers to water in the plants, turned on the water and zip, nothing came out of the sprinklers. So I walked the length of the underground irrigation lines and found a gopher mound that seemed to be getting wetter by the second. After shutting off the water I dug it out and found the hole the gopher chewed through the pipe. After fixing the pipe I restarted the water and still nothing came out of the sprinklers.
So I walked the full length of the irrigation lines again and found nothing. I walked it again and found nothing. I tested to see how much water we were getting out of the well and we were getting 30 gallons per minute — slightly more than the number of attempted logins on my web site. After reconnecting everything I turned the water on again and walked the length of the irrigation lines — still no luck. However, I was able to shut off half the irrigation lines which allowed me to start the sprinklers and isolate the problem to only 3000 feet of underground pipe. So I continued to run the water through the side of the irrigation system that leaked hoping I would find a damp spot somewhere. After running it for a good 45 minutes — at 30 gallons per minute mind you — there was still no damp spot. That’s over 1000 gallons of water! Of course maybe the hole isn’t quite that big and the amount of water coming out of the hole was less than 30 gallons per minute but still it was leaking enough to lower the water pressure and prevent the sprinkler from operating. There should have been a puddle somewhere.
Without success in finding the leak I decided instead to plan on rain supplying the watering needs for this week and as time allows continue to try to discover where the water is going. And with the hoop house film reinstalled and the rain we are planning on, it looks like the next project is planting the hoop house. Ya gotta like indoor farming this time of year.
As always, do not hesitate with comments, questions, suggestions, jokes, etc.