Once again, we’re going to spend as much of the weekend as possible at the building, fixing the plastic along the back wall to stop the flooding and replacing the damaged boards on the front wall.  With any luck, the weather will allow us to get a lot done.  I’m confident that with just a little more tweaking, the back wall will be fixed for good.  It shouldn’t take too much longer to repair the front, either.  That’s just a matter of cutting and nailing up the boards, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to finish.

I’m proud of the progress we’ve made so far.  Looking at the pictures from “before” and then where we are now, I can see just how much we’ve accomplished.  There’s still a long way to go and a lot of work to do, but the building is beginning to take shape.  Sixteen years is a long time for something to sit unused, but thankfully the foundation is still in pretty good shape.  Within the next couple of months, much of the building will be like new, clean and restored, and I’m excited to watch it come back to life.

We still need your help.  There are still many supplies to purchase just for the remodeling and then a lot of equipment for the aeroponic units.  Please, if you can, donate to our campaign on Indie GoGo.  Your contributions will be used exclusively for materials for the building or the growing units.  We only have a couple of weeks to go on the campaign, so time is running out for you to donate.  Thank you again to those who have already donated to all of you who have offered me words of encouragement on this endeavor.

Well, there have been a couple of setbacks on our progress at the farm.  First, over the weekend, we discovered that the outer wall was in much worse shape than we had originally thought and will have to be replaced.  Fortunately, we should have enough wood already on site to replace most of it.  There’s quite a bit of wood stored in the building from old shelving and extra pieces that were leftovers from the original construction.  We shouldn’t have to spend too much money on repairing the external walls, but it will take some time.

The worse news is that, despite the repairs to the back wall, very hard rains like the one last night are still causing severe flooding inside, so there’s still work to be done to repair the masonry.  I’ve got a couple of ideas for how to fix it, but it’s going to take time and some dry weather to get it done.  I had included masonry sealant as part of my original estimate for costs, so there really isn’t a change to the dollar amount, again just the time.  However, we have to get the flooding stopped before we worry about anything else.

I’m still hopeful that we can have the first unit up and running by mid-May, but it’s going to be difficult.  There is a lot of work to do and the clock is ticking.  We’ll continue to work hard on the days when we’re there, and we may even try to squeeze in a few extra trips through the week.  One way or the other, we will still make this happen.