Lincoln Gardens ~ bringin’ you da’ beets

The winter was not friendly with our lean-to building that is attached (barely) to the main sales building. This is the plastic covered ribbed style shed that we have the pottery in. The ribs are rotting and separating. We have known for a long time that it needs to be replaced, but finances, time and the overall shoddy construction of the place has been limiting us.

The buildings that we use as our sales area were existing on the farm when Wayne purchased it. I don’t want to offend who ever built it, but seriously, I could have done a better job on my own! Nothing makes sense with the construction. I think the builders must have been tipping back a few beers during construction. The place is safe enough, but basically where ever they could cut corners, they did. Yesterday we placed two more teleposts in to support the main load bearing beam.

So now, on top of the constructions costs for the greenhouses we are trying to decide how to deal with the lean-to. One idea is to add a metal building, that would be fast but not cheap. Another idea is to build a timber frame lean-to, that would be neither fast nor cheap. Or we could just wait for it to fall over next winter an take it from there!

Any suggestions are most welcome.

Last fall we purchased an older mobile home to use for staff accommodation. We have been working on repairs and upgrading it so that it doesn’t shout 1970!

We didn’t expect to find so many things wrong with it though. So now we are replacing the sub-floor, some of the insulation, wall panelling, and floor covering. We are also repainting the entire thing and building a covered deck off the front. It should look fairly nice when we are done. over the summer we will paint the outside too. Right now it is a hideous shade of MINT green.

Actually, Kim’s mom is doing a lot of the work. She is demo-ing and painting the entire place. Kim’s dad is building the bunk beds for the staff.

We have 4 workers arriving on May 9th so we have a short time frame to get it all done. On top of that we discovered (during the rain the other day) that the roof of the market is starting to leak badly. Worse. Many customers will know that it started to leak last summer, but it has progressed over the winter to a flood situation! So we now need to replace the roofing on the market before we open that part in July.

We are needing to furnish the staff house too. We are looking for kitchen chairs, coffee tables, kitchen supplies (cutlery, plates, coffee mugs etc) and patio furniture in ‘good as new’ condition. Most of it we hope to find through family and friends, but we will purchase all new bedding and towels. We just purchased 6 new mattresses from “Sleepers Mattress Factory” in Regina. They build everything in Saskatoon and actually use cotton in the construction rather than a lot of petroleum based foams.

If anyone has some nice furniture (i.e. from the last decade!) please let us know.

cheers

The less glamorous side of running a direct sales farm. Clean-up!

As the snow melts and the weather warms we are able to get into the sales area to do some work and cleaning to prepare for the season. The building we use as our storefront is not winterized, which means that after November it is too cold to do much work in there. We close everything in the fall and don’t do much with it until spring. So once it warms up we rush around like mad doing the improvements and repairs that we need to do before we open.

This year we are renovating the upper floor which houses the gallery space. We installed new stairs (thanks to Kim’s father who is a master carpenter!) and re-painted the entire space (thanks to Kim’s mother who is a huge help on the farm). Maintaining the old building is a big job, but necessary. It would be much less work to sell our produce at the Farmer’s Market only, but it would not be as much fun!

Next we have to to a major scrub down of the entire sales area. Although the produce sales will not begin for several months, we will have customers in a few weeks and we like to have to market area clean and welcoming. Wayne has collected numerous prairie antiques and customers are drawn into the market area to look at them. So if the display where we place produce is dirty, it will not encourage people to come back to purchase the lettuce latter!

We also are renovating the staff accommodation “bunk house” that we purchased last year. It needs new paint, new flooring and a new deck. The employees who will live in it arrive the beginning of May so we need to get moving on it.

Landscaping projects are next on the list. Cleaning up the walking trails, moving dead branches, cutting down overgrown areas. Kim is building a labyrinth at the beginning of the walking trail. It should be ready by June with any luck. We are also creating a rest area in the u-pick field. More ways for visitors to enjoy the farm and the valley.

It is never ending. We should replace the roof, we need a new shed, the road needs repair. We need more hours in our day to get it all done, and with that I should really get off the computer and get to work!