Family baloon ride

Folks have asked how we got the picture of the balloon shadow on our Blog page. Well, here you have it. Our family went up for a ride in April 2003 and floated north to a soft landing at the County airport. I looked over my shoulder and took a picture of our farm as we floated away. Cheerios; Ed

Fall bonfire at the farm

We have bonfires at our farm and occasionally bury food in a pit under the fire. This event was during the fall of 2008. Ed is showing off his medieval marshmallow stick. In the picture below, the band strikes up a tune. They were a motley bunch but enjoyed having a place with lots of space where the decibels could climb to the stars. Michael "bones" Chambon is a member of the Barbecue Boys playing the steel guitar in the center. Our computer guru, Kevin Cantley from Computer Zone and his singing daughter have teamed up for the lead. Scott Rankin is strutting around with a bongo and Ed is on the drums trying to keep up with the band. Thems were good times. Cheers; Ed

It's been a little chilly on the farm recently. We had frozen fog called "Pogonip" which covered the farm for a few mornings in January. This photo is a wllow tree at sunup.

Barn house progress

It's barn building time. Now that the foundation is up and the weather is smiling on us, we are taking the beams out of their dusty storage, washing them down, and applying linseed oil to them. Last, we sort them into vertical members and horizontal members. One big puzzle. Stay tuned.

VINEYARD IN WINTER

These vines look so humble, meek, sticks in the snow. I hope they are all alive under their blankets of snow. I'm optimistic. We'll be expanding this vineyard with 70 new vines next March. We will begin building a trellis system as soon as the ground thaws. Stay warm; Ed

Preparing the stemwalls for beam construction

Here we sit waiting for better weather to bring out the big beams. We will be assembling six bays with steel and mortise and tenon joints and then get a crane to stand up the bays. The center point of the bays will be about 30 feet in the center. The top surface of the 12 by 12's in this photo will be expose as the first floor flooring will be set flush with these beams. Stay tuned; Ed

Winter at the farm

We have had continuous snow cover as the temperatures have remained low. The storm fronts keep passing through with rare periods of high pressure.

Happy New Years from Comstock Seed. The hoophouse is dry and cold; good for drying out seed.