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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Joan Vibert <joan AT windwalker-farm.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: from the windy prairie
  • Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 09:27:28 -0500


Just wanted to make most of you feel a little better in comparison. Since
Saturday night we have had winds that wouldn't quit - finally on Tuesday
night gusting to over 70 mph. We've awakened at night expecting to see the
hoophouse coming toward our house. The frames have bent under the stress.
On Sunday I replaced the two end doors, thus keeping most of the wind out of
the inside since the wind was lifting the conduit frames right out of the
2"X12" wood base frames. These base frames are staked into the ground after
having the whole hoophouse take off last year and wrap around a tree.

Anyway, yesterday morning at 4 a.m. we awakened to the sound of a train -
but there's no track nearby. The house was shaking so badly that the water
in the toilet was rippling noticeably. We could hear great hunks of asphalt
shingles flap loose and slide down the roof - and the wind only barely
subsided. Once it was light we kept our eye on the hoophouse and my
husband, Jim, even went up and stood by it for a long time assessing what
was happening to it every time a gust hit it.

It got down to worry about the hoophouse, once again taking off, (Jim even
moved all the cars out of potential paths) or cutting free the NEW plastic
to save the frames. So armed with utility knives we each took a side and as
quickly as possible began cutting the plastic free - trying all the while to
keep the plastic from going airborne. It was incredible but we saved the
hoophouse and will cover it with shade cloth for the summer and stop
considering it a hoophouse - from now on just a shade house. A new and
improved hoophouse will be relocated to a lower area with more wind
protection.

In the meantime I have a very small greenhouse crammed full of seedlings
that were destined for the hoophouse until transplant time - and I haven't
yet put the pepper or tomatoes into cells from their flats. Its going to be
a challenge - but then maybe the weather will straighten up and I can up the
shade house anyway!

Today is almost calm - I haven't had the heart to survey the rest of the
damage but I know we lost a lean-to in the corral and the lean-to attached
to the barn was being severely tested yesterday afternoon.

What a week - isn't just growing exciting enough without nature's extremes
popping up?

joan
windwalker farm
ottawa, kansas





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