Those stinkin pallets

Here at Butternut Farm we receive a lot of stuff on pallets! Those pallets seem to accumulate over time and I've finally found what to do with them.

At first you start stacking them behind the barn. Then the stack gets moved "Out Back" where it is out of sight. Eventually though the ever growing stack of pallets starts to wear on you and a solution must be found. They are handy in helping the yearly brush pile to burn! This seems kinda wasteful though unless of course the pallet is "Beyond Repair". So the old rotten ones are tossed in the brush pile to burn but we are still left with the good ones! There must be a use?

The answer came one day during the pick your own apple season a couple of years ago. Todd Scruton was visiting the farm with his family and we got to talking about firewood. Now anyone who has ever used wood as a source of heat knows that it must be moved way to many times before it gets moved into the woodstove, and each move is almost always done manually. Todd said to me: "Gee Giff you have plenty of pallets and a tractor with a set of pallet forks, why not devise a way to use the pallets to store and move your firewood around". Seemed simple enough and it could save at least one if not two "moves" of the wood. So I figured I would give it a shot!

3 years later I have finally come up with a design which seems to be working. The first two evolutions of this design were prone to blowouts which always seemed to occur while moving the pallet full of wood. Nothing like stacking it twice onto the same pallet! The most recent design involves using slats from one pallet which is ripped apart (more on that later), to build a combinations of braces which hold the 3'*3'*4' stack of firewood on the pallet. The only thing is those stinkin pallets are hard to take apart! Talk about questioning if your using your time wisely or not. Taking apart pallets to generate the pile of slats necessary to build the braces is very time consuming. I often thought maybe it would be more economically feasible to just buy some strapping from the home depot to build the braces with? However for the sake of using the resources I had without spending money on bringing more stuff onto the farm I decided I would continue to tear apart the pallets for my source of slats. Turns out too that the pallet slats hold up better over time because they are made of hardwood, while the construction strappin which is made of pine falls apart very easily when exposed to the elements.

When all the dust has settled our pile of pallets is no more and with the advice of one of our customers and some stubborn desire to "find a better way", we have eliminated one manual move of the wood. Was it all worth it? I think so.

The snow covered firewood was processed in January and is now seasoning for the upcoming heating season of 2012/13. The other photo shows wood which was processed last winter and is now staying dry in the barn ready to burn.

Mid winter blues

Today is feb 2nd and the snow is coming down hard! Not much to do today on the farm but plow snow and stoke up the woodstove! So I figured it would be a good day to update the farmers blog and post a couple of pictures which remind us what summer is like!
Its been a great winter so far from the farms perspective. December was relatively mild and snow free which allowed us to clear more land for crops to be planted. We removed to overgrown rock wall areas near our strawberries. Not only was it fun to play with heavy equipment for a week but the benefits to the farm are numerous. Removing these walls cleared .5 acres of land for future plantings of strawberries and eventually peaches. Their removal will also increase the air drainage off the property and will allow for more efficient land use (hey were paying for that half acre of sunlight might as well harvest something off it). To boot we got about 4 cords of firewood from the hard woods that were growing along the walls! Also in December I was able to set the posts and build the end braces for the new bird netting system to go in around our younger cherry trees. Can't wait for cherry season!

That was December, then the snow came and it still seems to be coming. In between snow removal January was tax, budgeting, and business analysis time. On one of the better days of January I was able to get out and do some wood splitting. Now that job is complete and it is about time to start pruning the apple trees. The only problem is now there is at least 2 feet of snow in the orchards which obviously makes getting our there and moving about the orchard a bit more laborous. The farm might have to invest in a set of snow shoes this winter! All this snow does make winter chores more difficult however I would rather have it then not. The thick layer of snow makes a great blanket to insulate our plants and trees' root systems from potentially damaging extreme cold. Remember that while you are out shoveling snow this winter. The snow is a royal pain now however its' abundance should lead to a plentiful crop of pick your own peaches, strawberries, and raspberries this summer at Butternut Farm.

Thanks for reading and stay warm. Remember Pick your own strawberries is only 4.5 months away.