New Year’s on the farm

First, a portrait of the farmer in winter:

Note the key winter identifiers: 1. reclined position 2. seed catalog in hand 3. cat at side 4. content drowsy expression.

Yes, that is one portrait of the winter farmer, especially true during the many non-daylight hours we’re still experiencing here in Oregon. But here’s another accurate winter portrait:

Key features here: 1. muddy raingear 2. warm hat 3. muddy work gloves 4. mud 5. alert excited expression.

Why the excitement? Besides the fact that winter farming is fun, 2008 is bursting with good things for us here at Oakhill Organics. The other night I literally couldn’t sleep at all because I was thinking about our many plans for the winter and how they will improve our upcoming season. Last year was all about meeting the bare minimums for our life and work here at the farm. We spent the winter building our house, which sucked most of our time and energy; then we raced in late-winter and spring to piece together any tools or systems that we didn’t have yet established (which was most things).

The result? We were fine. The farm was fine. But we definitely relied heavily on our finite store of youthful energy to get things done. Much of the work we did was not what you’d consider sustainable into the future, for our bodies or for the farm.

So, this year we’re focusing on system and infrastructure improvement. Our farm-related New Year’s resolutions are all about establishing the appropriate infrastructure in order to reduce wasting our own physical energy on simple things like moving around produce. (When we received a ‘materials handling’ catalog in the mail last November, we were actually excited . Pallet jacks! What a dreamy concept!) We also are building adequate and appropriate covered spaces to meet the needs of different parts of our operation: new greenhouses, a pole building, and our most recent project …

A covered wash station! Hoorah! It doesn’t look like much in this photo, but this 12′ x 24′ roof structure might just change our lives. We finished building the structure in two easy days, thanks both to Katie’s dad’s help and the simplicity of a pole building kit (we highly recommend McMinnville Lumber for those of you in the area). Now we’re working on laying drainage and pouring a cement pad. Then we’ll move our spray table and tubs back into place. The end result will be an area that should drain well, keep us dry, and allow us to drive the Gator through (giving us easy access from both sides). We’ll post more photos (of course!) as we continue working on that and our other projects in the next few weeks. Many changes ahead!