Kind of a Bummer

In my New Year's 'blogolution', I described this blog as depicting "the cares and concerns of a working small organic farm." Well, here's a concern all right! You can probably tell from these photos that something is very very broken. And it's something that was big.

(Jupiter went out with me to survey the damage so I had to include him in an obviously sympathizing mode.)

Yes, it's our hoophouse that was bursting with juicy tomatoes really not all that long ago. In one of the photos you can see our greenhouse through the wreckage of the hoophouse; the greenhouse and hoophouse were the same size. (Greenhouse: heated with solid "endwalls" and ventilation system. Hoophouse: basically plastic stretched over a frame - no auxiliary heat but still warming the plants nicely in early spring and late fall.)

We had gone to bed to dire predictions of (another!) snowstorm, but not a flake to be seen. A neighbor was up at 3:30 AM - still no snow. Somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00 AM the skies opened, a heavy snow blanket was dropped, and the freezing rain sealed the deal. We woke up to a beached whale on our hillside.

We probably can't rebuild this. It was actually handmade with lumber milled at the farm from cedars cleared for our land restoration. One of a kind. Farmer K., who built it, mutters about rebuilding in the Spring. Practical son, B., is thumbing through the Farmtek catalog. "Hoophouse" just went on the Frog Holler To Do List, which practical son typed and handed out today. The list is long; and before we know it Spring will come sliding in on the tail end of those Winter winds. There is much to do.