Blog Archives

The Ironworker

1/31/2012

The moon and Cord's Ironworker - finally home.

I've been meaning to tell you this story for some time. Cord has owned an Ironworker - (a machine for cutting and punching and basic processing of iron) for many years but had not moved it home. It lived at a friend's industrial repair shop in Colorado Springs and that friend was moving his business and so it goes - when you have to do something - you do. Cord's friend Lex had a rig they thought would work. Part of the reason for not moving it before, besides time and money, was how heavy this monster is. 6,500 lbs. Together they had the resources to go get it.
They got home to our house at twilight with an increasing moon cheering them on. I got the pic above right before we went inside to eat. In Colorado Springs it was loaded on the trailer with a fork lift borrowed for the occasion. After lashing it down with chains, they began the journey home. They took an alternate route, deciding not to attempt our steep mountain road at the end of a long day.

Now, how were we going to get it OFF the trailer? A couple of phone calls later and our neighbor was on his way over with a giant machine.
They put chains around the Ironworker, and hooked the chain on the bucket. The bucket loader picked it up off the trailer and Cord drove the trailer out from under it.
Our neighbor Steve set it down to get re-adjusted but it did not want to lift it again.
Around this time - another neighbor showed up with a skid loader, ready to help. Cord had talked to him the night before and he wanted to see what was going on. So here is this little skid loader and a humungous bucket loader that barely fit in the driveway. Together, the guys figured it out.

I couldn't imagine what Ray was going to do with that little skid loader - ha! - he pushed and shoved and pushed and shoved and it slid on the snowy, icy driveway! Just like that he had it shoved across the yard and almost into place. It was great! I was amazed - I video'd the entire homecoming of the Ironworker as it happened.
The next step was to see if Steve could squeeze the giant bucket loader into place to help lift it just enough to get it positioned.
And so he did.

Such teamwork! The Bucket Loader fit and did the job.

So that's the story of the Ironworker - it sits outside Cord's shop door to be reckoned with and leveled another day. He will begin to collect die's and get it operational. Meanwhile, there are greenhouses to build, seeds to sow and spring is upon us.
Welcome home Ironworker.

Cord working on iron log racks and a greenhouse vent cover with the Ironworker waiting in the background.

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A Day In The Greenhouse With Cord

1/24/2012

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Cord sowing saved Kinko 6" carrot seed.

I love hanging out with Cord - he is my favorite person. We've been trying to get down to his greenhouse to take it back and replant it and we finally made it.
The very first thing we did was prep the middle bed for carrots. I had gathered a 5-gallon bucket of small, half-crushed leaves for this very thing. Carrots don't like a lot of nitrogen and they appreciate organic matter to keep soil loose so we dug the leaves in with compost. The leaves will tie up some of the nitrogen as it's breaking down. Meanwhile, the carrots like the aeration and good drainage.

It was a great start and we left happy and full of plans. 2 days went by and we made it there again, it's hard to get there and then once you do - you lose track of time and don't want to leave.
Today we cleaned the rest of the beds, spread compost and Cord turned half of it in and raked it. Tomorrow is another day. It was so fun to clean up the old and prep for the new. We left this greenhouse fallow for a few months as our lives dictated. We didn't like it and were anxious to get it going again.
So here we are - and the beds are throbbing with life - ready to deliver.

Before.

After.

Before.

After.

Last year's tomatoes and a lot of other past growth needed to be bagged up. All of the green plants - like a lot of arugula, went into the bag to go to the compost. I was so happy to provide Cord with my gold - my finished compost - and in exchange, he sent me enough green material for at least 2 layers! I can't wait to make some more compost in the days to come. It was a good trade.
I loved our time together and soon it will all be planted.
We will be direct seeding tomatoes at the foot of the barrels, and planting mixed greens up against the glass. Bok Choy and Chinese Cabbage are favorite winter eats.
I'll keep you posted - it doesn't take long to have something to eat once you've planted.

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Building Passive Solar Greenhouses

1/18/2012

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64' X 18'

The latest greenhouse project is a doozy - no doubt about it. Look at the growing potential in this thing. I think it's wonderful.
Cord is actually taking over this job after the person who started it had to move on. He comes in after the foundation is poured and the back wall is up.
The foundation turned out to be not level, (to put it mildly) and extremely erratic.
Cord and our great friend Rick spent a week correcting it. It was quite something. Now that it is righted - they can really get started.
They are back at it - enjoying the southern Colorado winter weather.

This is what they did about it.

Tedious, slow focus - that's how you correct a problem - that and a band saw. It looks beautiful though - so cool - now they can continue to build with confidence that it will be true.
The back wall was built as all one piece. They took it down and as they leveled the foundation by cutting boards exactly to the contours of the concrete, they put the great north wall back up in sections.
It is straight and true.

We will keep you posted on the project as the mighty one goes up. Cord will be dodging storms and oh yeah, he's a blacksmith too - there is that. There is so much to do - during lunch break we talk about what we hope to plant this spring.
Sound, solid, straight, true. Cord is really good at that. Be sure to see more pictures of this greenhouse on the greenhouse page.

Build it huge or build it small - you will love it inside.

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One Bowl of Tomatoes

1/16/2012

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This bowl of tomatoes is very special - very special indeed. They made me cry - and not only because you could smell their fragrance just looking at them but because I did not grow them. The owners of the greenhouse Cord built this summer - (see the greenhouse page), sent these home with Cord - and there were a lot more before I could find the camera.
They planted large tomato plants in up against the barrels in September. The plants are now 9-10' tall and bearing like crazy, enough to send bags of tomatoes out into the world. After all of these years of growing them year round, teaching others how, telling them not to believe the nay-sayers, and gifting tomatoes to believers and non-believers alike, someone was sending ME tomatoes! Grown in winter, in a greenhouse Cord designed and built, from seed and with love.
A circle complete for sure. I never knew just how wonderful it is to receive fresh, delicious tomatoes in the dead of winter. The juice ran down our chins! I felt like I was tasting them for the first time. There was moaning.
The fact that Cord and I were so over-booked last year meant our gardens suffered - there was no love! There are no winter tomatoes because after 19 years, we finally dropped the ball and everything isn't growing when it should be. It's okay - we're so looking forward to the 2012 season! However, that bowl of tomatoes is somethin'.
I am humbled by their success - they certainly have a green thumb but the most important thing is they believed enough to build it in the first place - now they are believing the results.
It feels so good to know someone else knows what it's like to walk into their warm, passive solar green oasis in the dead of winter and be amongst the green and smell moist earth - ah! heaven!

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Author

Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth. She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds. She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman. Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner. At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.