It's been a busy couple weeks on the farm - but isn't it always. 😄
We've been fine tuning heat, humidity, CO2 levels, etc to make sure the room is ready to go. And we got our lighting in. So fun! We had a batch of mushroom blocks in for a day or two and then took them out to fiddle with all the levels again. We've got mushroom blocks back in there again and hopefully everything is set now.
With this project slowing down and nearing completion, we thought, "why not start a new project!?" Because... of course we did. This has been a way back burner idea for the last year or two but it seemed like a good idea to make some progress on it now.
You may have seen this little building in different pictures of the farm. It's the old milk house, sitting next to the barn. It hasn't been used as a milk house in a long, long time. For a little while it was used as a playhouse by some kids who lived on the farm. The whole interior is spray painted with flowers, squiggles, and a couple girls names. It has been a sort of junk/storage room for many years now.
We had always planned to turn this into an on-farm shop for people who wanted to come to the farm and buy mushrooms directly from us. We do certainly sell direct to folks who drop by the farm, but this separate little outbuilding for a farm store doesn't really work for us. It would work much better as an additional housing option for employees, interns, and volunteers who come to work on the farm. So we're giving it a bit of an upgrade and facelift!
New roof and the old shingle siding removed. See the spray painted inside of the door?
It has quite a view right now! The east side had a lot of rotting boards so they've all been removed. Looking forward to this being a snug space someday soon.
It's a bit of a cold project right now of course, especially with all the snow we've been getting!
In other news, the chickens finally started laying eggs!
They are small and we're getting maybe one every other day, but it's so exciting to have our own eggs on the farm again after so many years.
This will be our last newsletter for the year. We'll be back with more farm news and updates in the new year. We're excited to get out logging soon and inoculating for the new year and carrying on with all the various projects we've got going on - and hopefully finishing some projects too!
We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and we are so grateful for all of you - our friends, family, and other supporters - for your encouragement and support. Thank you!
Does this look comfortable to you? Spore seemed to think it was pretty comfy last week when I found him sleeping like this. So silly!
