From The One, Two

Today, I completed one of the weekend projects that I eluded to in an earlier post. Our 24-foot long (7.5 m) hoophouse is now two 12-foot long hoophouses. It was a simple matter of cutting the base and each of the the two purlins. There was a hoop on center so I just cut right beside it and added two new 2x6 end boards and one new hoop.

I decided to do this because the structure was just too long and unwieldy. It was necessary to use a tractor to move it and I was afraid that the base wouldn't last another season without coming apart. We now have a lot more flexibility in that we can pasture our hens in one and raise replacement layers and/or broilers in the other.

The other project that I haven't yet completed is taking samples to send away for a soil test. I figure that I need separate samples for the lower pasture and the hilltop pasture and the vegetable garden. I'm planning to use Ohio Earth Food for the tests. If anyone has experience with this company, I would appreciate hearing about it.