Tomatoes and Trusses

Hi all, how has everyone been this week?  Enjoying the CSA?  It's been a while since we last talked, did you miss me?  I certainly missed you.  Well, now that we got those pleasantries out of the way I can get down to business.  It was a benchmark day out on the farm today, at least in my mind, because we were able to get tomato starts into the ground in the hoop house!  It could be raining, cold, windy, etc, but if there is talk (or sight, or smell) of tomatoes then my mind is firmly focused on summer.  I don't know what it is, but planting, eating, or even just thinking about fresh tomatoes puts me in my warm happy place a little more than anything else.  Let's hope it's a good year for them so we can all share in the bounty.  Also notice that I used the word "we" in the above paragraph, because I had some time today to pretend to be a farmer again!  Unfortunately, I didn't get to help plant the tomatoes or anything, I was too late for that (figures, right?), but I showed up just in time to help Jen, Dawn, and Eugenio weed the carrot beds right next to the tomatoes.  Karen was off working on setting up greenhouse irrigation, so it wasn't so much like old times, but I got to hang out with the noobs (plus Eugenio) and they're pretty awesome so it made for good times spent in the weeds.  And, at least I got to help out with something farm related.

In hammer and nail-ville we've been spending a lot of time in the shop this week, partially because of the crappy weather we've been having, but also because it's time to start preparing the components for the atrium's timber frame so it can all be craned in and assembled in the next 2-3 weeks.  We cleaned up and cut to length all the columns that will be the support structure for the trusses (some are stacked and drying in the front of the above picture).  Once that was done we went through and filled any and all old holes and notches with perfectly cut pieces of wood that we snugly secured in place with adhesive and finish nails, fun stuff.  As for the trusses that I won't shut up about, we spent today bolting them together with custom made plates we had made specifically for them.  It was a fun and simple job for two people to spend a day working on it and I think they turned out super cool.  Going into this project I had a feeling that working on the timber frame was going to be my favorite part, and at this point I'm going to say that I was right (with everything else we've done coming in at a close second), and we haven't even really started framing it yet so I'm excited for what is to come.  Once we start putting it all together I'll have more to say about it besides how cool it all is, but you're going to just have to bear with me a little longer. 

But see, Dylan and Isaac think they're super cool too so...

Enjoy your upcoming weekend, hope for sun!
Til' next time,

Louis