Sunday, June 26, 2011

Three more workdays announced

Hi All!
I'm going to have three workdays in the next week or so, and hopefully really push things hard out at the Greenhouse.

Workdays!
Tuesday, June 28th (this Tuesday)
Starting around 9:00 am and going until whenever. I hope to rent a soil compacter for this day. Come get your hands shaken off! =)

Saturday, July 2nd (I know, it's the 4th weekend, but that's when people responded that they're available)
Noon-5:00
If we get enough soil compacted, this will be a trough building day. Table saw!

Tuesday, July 5th (again with the long weekend, fool!)
9:00am til whenever.
This is when Stefan said he might be available, and he was such fun with the power drill... ;-)






Bring your friends! =)

Friday, June 24, 2011

More pics and a video

More work pics:

Digging hole for the sump

IBC sump. Adding insulation and cladding


Video on making the rafts:


Thursday, June 23, 2011

More aquaponics workdays!

Alas, I still really need a lot of help! The summer (2 days old) is ticking away, and so are my savings!

More details here: http://howlingmoose.com/page6/page6.html

and signups here: http://www.doodle.com/kpdenuxwzwsix7za
Please give me a hint as to you who are and how to contact you if you sign up on the doodle page from here, and aren't on the various e-mail lists I've sent this announcement to!

(yeah, ignore that grammar, thanks!)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Work day pics

Fer and Zach working on the rafts
Newly delivered trough materials

Newly delivered trough materials

More aquaponics workdays!

Still lots of work to be done out at the greenhouse! So I've added possible workdays. If you have the time and energy, and want to help out, please fill out when you might be able to make it!

http://www.doodle.com/kpdenuxwzwsix7za

See the first Aquaponics work days post for details.

Once my computer figures itself out, I'll post some more photos and videos.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Initial Video Tour of the greenhouse

A quick video tour of the Howling Moose Gardens greenhouse. It's about 4:30 long. Sorry for the poor audio! None of the captions are important, but they're easier to read at the higher resolution.

Aquaponics Work dates set!

Thanks so much to those who responded! Gives me a great feeling for when people will be available.

3 dates so far:

Session One: Tuesday, June 7th, 8:00am - 12:00pm
Respondents: Zach, Emily H., Stefan
This session will probably be mostly painting foam rafts, drilling holes in said rafts, and cutting said rafts into handle-able sizes. Each of those tasks takes a power tool I own, so we're probably pretty good for division of labor and tools.
As this is a morning session, refreshments will probably be bagels and/or donuts, and coffee. Any other favorite morning refreshments I should offer?

Rafts just delivered.

Session Two: Saturday, June 11th, 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Respondents: Caleb, Emily H., Stefan, Fer
This session will probably be mostly assembling troughs out of 2x4s, and moving some equipment around.
Power drills would be terribly useful additions to this session! I have all the drill bits I need to spread out among workers, but extra drills would be wonderful. Battery-charged drills are plenty powerful enough for most of these tasks.
Refreshments will probably be Pizza and Pop/Beer/stuff, probably
around 3, unless people will want lunch right off?

Equipment to be moved. Not as heavy as it looks!

Session Three: Sunday, June 12th, 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Respondents: Zach, Caleb, Fer
This session will probably be digging, plumbing, and various finishing tasks, or more likely finishing up what we did in sessions One and Two.
Refreshments will probably be Pizza and Pop/Beer/stuff, probably around 3, unless people will want lunch right off?

Construction!
People other than those who responded are welcome to come, and everyone is free to come and go as you wish, of course!

The greenhouse is out in Hugo, so carpooling might be a good idea. If you don't know the others who responded, I can put people in touch for carpooling.
Directions and stuff can be found here:

http://www.howlingmoose.com/contact/contact.html
The website says no restrooms. That's a lie, really... It's just behind a locked door.

-Karen

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Aquaponics Work Days!

I'm about to take possession of the greenhouse where I will be building my Howling Moose Gardens aquaponics systems. The construction will consist of a LOT of manual labor, so I'm hoping to get some help!

Pizza and drinks will be provided. As there are many people, and we're all so busy these days, I set up one of those "when is good for me?" on-line schedule thingies:

http://www.doodle.com/kpdenuxwzwsix7za

Feel free to mark as many times as you like, and people can come and go as they please, of course!

After some folks reply with times that are good for them, I will select two (or five, or...) times to get a maximum number of people.

In addition, I plan to be out at the greenhouse most days now, and so if you have a completely wacky schedule, but still want to participate in the crazy, I can probably arrange to meet people at any time. There are plenty of jobs for just two people.

To start with there won't be much to see, but I'm sure to be answering lots of questions, and there is a tiny aquaponics setup out there already, complete with tilapia and seedlings. Work will consist of simple painting, simple construction using basic power tools such as power drills and circular saws, basic low-pressure plumbing, again with the power drills and circular saws. Also some digging. Plenty of jobs for any skill set.

Please bring gloves and safety glasses if you have them, and if you have folding chairs or power tools, those would be terribly useful too.

Once everything is up and running, I will be holding "farm tours" as well!

Reminder: The most up-to-date info on the systems is probably located on Backyard Aquaponics: http://tinyurl.com/HMGatBYAP