High Tunnel Time | Step 1: Clearing Land

Greetings Earthlings, today I want to share with you a little update from our homestead, Mountain Jewel.

Earlier this year we shared with you about Getting a High Tunnel Grant through the USDA which basically means you can get a High Tunnel for Free! Ini and I got this grant and, as it's due at the end of July, we're getting our butts into gear putting it up.

The High Tunnel has been delivered to the land by some gracious neighbors (we didn't have a long enough trailer for the very long poles and what a blessing they did!.)

Sunflowers growing as a cover crop where the HT will go.

We have been prepping the land since last summer when we first did a run through with the garden tractor my dad gifted us a couple years ago. It has a plow extension that we use to basically turn up the soil exposing rocks and uprooting weeds. I really don't like using machines too much on the land, but this is one exception that I allow. It's really a whole nuther story why I don't like big heavy machines and I won't get into that here! But suffice it to say, we mostly use hand tools here and we think of ourselves like indigenous peasants -- the way humans have lived for hundreds of thousands of years! Far from it being a negative or backwards thing, we relish in it! But I digress...

Now that the parts are delivered...

...We wanted to run through with the tractor again tilling up some of the cover crops (and weeds) we've established since last year. Those include: alfalfa, clover, buckwheat, sunflowers and more. We've run the chicken tractor through here for a few months this spring/summer and they did a great job of tilling up their little run each day, pooping, eating bugs, etc. What a great ally on the homestead!

We had to clear some Persimmon trees where the H.T. area where Ini discovered a little nest in which one of our fav chickens, who just cannot cannot be tamed, was brooding.

Ini and my dad fixed the tractor while @birdsinparadise were here a few weeks ago (and check out this post she put up today about a Cocao and Figgy Mint Tart! she made while she was here) and so it was up and running in no time today. The tunnel is 30x48 and we got it from Zimmerman's High Tunnels about an hour and a half from here. We roughly walked that space out, determining a rough outline for me to vroom around with the tractor.

Ini has the golden task ;) of following behind getting rocks and he also dug out some Johnson Grass (extremely pernicious grass with horrible rhizomes that break off at the slightest touch that had been delivered along with a bottomland soil load we had delivered last summer- wont' be doing that again!!.)

First run through- look at all dat green!!

I did a few run throughs then let the tractor rest as it is seriously hot today. Ini also spent time moving the mound of bottomland soil that we had delivered to "low spots" within the selected area.

After this, we'll go through and lay out the proper boundary lines...

... By doing the "triangulation" method (3:4:5 triangle; will explain more in next High Tunnel post) and then will mark where the 18 posts go. We'll then rent an auger (or borrow one from some friends who offered) in order to drill the necessary 32" for a stable post that will hold the High Tunnel arches. We have inquired about other methods of doing this, but due to our rocky soil, this seems to be the best method (see I keep a balanced approach when inviting machines into my life ;).)

Nearly there!

That's about all for today. Stay tuned as the High Tunnel process unfolds. Oh, and just for the record, we have about 3 D.Tube vids to put up and want to do some about the H.T., but the uploads aren't working right now.

Blessings from our homestead!!