Red Sunflower Farm

Short Term Plans

I have a very long list of projects, and I am constantly re-prioritizing that list. Projects on the front burner for winter 2009/2010 include:

1. Finish building the greenhouse
2. Get seed orders placed!
3. Organize barn to make room for everything in the chicken coop
4. Build roosts and nesting boxes in the chicken coop
5. Make the chicken coop varmint-proof
6. Build more efficient system for cooking down maple sap
7. Build new basement stairs in rental cottage
8. Reset solar electric fenceposts and replace 17 gauge wire with 14 gauge wire
9. Lay 24" wide swath of plastic around entire one acre perimeter of vegetable garden and cover with wood chips to keep grass and weeds from growing up, touching the lowest wire (6" from the ground) and shorting it out
10. Finish cutting willow trees from dam of pond and use them, along with locust posts, to finish building fence around herb garden

Additional projects in the short term include developing nearby sources of manure and planting clover food plots to attract deer. In the next twelve to twenty four months, we intend to build a summer kitchen and start a CSA.

Long Range Plans

Mackey and I want Red Sunflower Farm to become a community focal point. At age 60, it will be impossible for me to accomplish all of the projects that we envision here. We will need the help of community volunteers and apprentices. And as we learn how to do things like build stone walls and buildings with slipforms, grow shiitake mushrooms, and create a rice paddy, we want to teach others how to do it.