Hi Everyone,
The purpose of this note is to let you all know that the farm came through last week’s all-time historic flood in pretty good shape. But we also want to let you all know that we will be having a work party at the farm this Saturday, January 17th, from 9:00-5:00. We could use both skilled workers and unskilled workers to remove the sheetrock and insulation from the bottom two feet of our soon-to-be “farm worker home”—the blue house just ˝ mile south of our big white barn. Details are below, for those who are interested and available.
For the first time since the original house was built in the early 1900s, flood water inundated the blue house that we own which is the next house south of the one Wendy and I live in (on the same side of the street—it’s the two story house near our big pumpkin field). In two months, one of our full-time farm workers will be moving into this house. We have been planning this for a long time, trying to “wean” ourselves off that regular rent money, and this is the year. Unfortunately, this is also the year we got hit with the flood we hoped would never happen. Things could have been worse for us; the most serious damage was getting water into this home.
The home has been cleaned and washed out. The problem is that once the insulation in the walls gets wet, it becomes a seed germination site for all kinds of molds that can be a real health concern for anyone who lives there. The solution is to get in right now and cut out the sheetrock as far up as the moisture got (probably no more than a couple of feet), then cut out all the wet insulation, and then get fans going and let it dry out for a few weeks.
This is a big project, but many hands could make light work of it. Many of you have very kindly e-mailed expressing your concern, and many asked if you could help. For those of you who can make it to the farm sometime this Saturday, we will be having a work day. It will start at 9:00. We need both skilled and unskilled workers to cut and remove what we need to of the sheetrock and insulation.
There are four rooms that need to have this work done. We could very likely work in all four rooms at the same time. We have two skillsaws. If some of you have skillsaws and experience using them, it would be great to have you bring your saws. If some of you have good hammers (we have a couple), it would be good to bring those. We will need many people to carry the small pieces of sheetrock and the wet insulation out of the house and into the dumpster outside. So please bring gloves to protect your hands.
We will start at 9:00. It would probably work best if some people (especially those with saws) could show up then. If others came at 9:30 or ten we might be able to organize and work most efficiently. It’s not easy to orchestrate different starting times, but I'll just say this so you won’t worry about joining the work in progress; coming any time in the morning (and probably throughout the day) will work out just fine.
As I think you know, Wendy and I are away now. The work day will be overseen by Ryan and our newest full-time employee, Ian.
The one other thing that we need is fans. I had tried to buy some a while back, and everywhere I went had none (“hey, it’s winter—people don’t need fans now!”) Well, we need fans now. If you have a fan you could loan the farm, could you bring that along? Be sure to label it with your name so we can get it back to you.
Thanks so much in advance for those of you who will make it this Saturday. We know that not every one of you who would like to come out will have Saturday morning free. But if you can make it, we will be so very appreciative.
Farmers Wendy and Erick