2012 Look in the Mirror

We officially celebrated our 10th Anniversary as the Genuine Faux Farm this Spring.  We started GFF in May of 2005 (we have lived on the farm since 2004).  So, this was actually the 11th year of offering a CSA program.  But, we figure we can continue to celebrate 10 years for a little bit yet.

As a part of this celebration, we're doing a series of "retrospective" pieces.  For those that have been with us for some time, you might enjoy seeing some of this to remind us all how far we've come.  If you have not been with us all that long, you get the benefit of seeing where we've been without having to go through the growing pains with us!
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For those who have interest, you may notice links in this post to other blog posts from 2012, so feel free to take them and explore. In particular, you can see what we thought of the year with our 2012 in Review post that we put out there in January, 2013.  If you missed our prior installments for this retrospective series, here is 2011 and 2010.

The great thing about looking back is that I can work to re-frame events.  For example, we have come to equate 2012 with the "spray incident" year because it was something that took up alot of time and energy until just this February.  Of course it was a big part of our year and we won't ignore that.  But, we are finding it useful to concentrate on the other parts of that year, because there was alot going on - just as there always is.

prior to clean up

after clean up

cold frame area in use

One of our early season accomplishments was to clean up the area by the old slab and prepare it for use as our cold frame/plant starting area.  When I took note that this happened in 2012, I was actually stunned.  We've gotten so used to that area and its purpose that we were both certain it had to have been set up earlier than that!  The area provides shelter from the North, it is near a water source and it faces South so it can collect more sun during the earlier months.  What's not to like?

The granary sporting new doors.

While 2011 featured some significant changes in our infrastructure, I'm beginning to realize that 2012 had its fair share of building work and equipment changes.  In addition to new doors on the granary and truck barn we continued to paint and fix up the truck barn.  And, if you recall, we had a project in the Poultry Pavilion to create a new room for the hens.  We managed to finish that project in the Spring and we started putting up permanent fencing for their pasture area.  Our Gang of Four farm friends helped us finish the room and start putting up the permanent fence.  Sadly, some of the fence had to come back down so we could move birds off of the sprayed pasture.  But, that's just the way things were.

Poultry Pavilion

Truck Barn

The very early warm weather was big news.  While it allowed us to get early work done around the farm, it had some negative results as well.  Garlic crops throughout the state were infected with Asters Yellow disease due to their very early start.  As a result, our garlic crop was very poor and our seed garlic was not viable.  Looking back at it, it was a good reminder that we should not get complacent with respect to crops that we feel we had a good handle on.

A meager garlic harvest in 2012.

Not only did we have a very early Spring, we had a very dry late Spring and Summer.  The picture below shows a grass area in June.  Normally, this area would be very green and in need of mowing at this point in time.  Instead, it looked alot like many people's lawns do in August - which is the traditional time for reduced rain and excess heat.  On the plus side, we were ready with our drip irrigation to keep our veggies growing.  And, if it doesn't rain, you don't have to stay out of the fields due to mud.  So, other than the heat and a number of three to six t-shirt days, it was a good time to get work done on the farm.  On the other hand, we felt that we had to cancel our Fall batch of broilers because we were afraid we wouldn't have any workable pasture to put them on.

Dry, dry and more dry.

While the weather was a challenge and we were disappointed about the second broiler batch, we were showing some pretty good staying power in 2012.  Our tool set was much improved and we were responding to crop needs better than we ever had.  Our ability to make an executive decision with respect to the broilers showed that we had some agility to respond to circumstances in whatever way seemed best.


We were in our second year of a SARE research grant that netted some decent results for potato and bean spacing and we were looking to do additional research with paper mulch in subsequent years.  Part of the mission of our farm is to advance and disseminate knowledge with respect to growing techniques.  So, it was nice to be actively involved in some grant-funded projects.

Beans and potatoes, together again!

This was the first time we had used rolls of mulch and the experience was generally a positive one for us.  While we aren't entirely convinced that this is the way for us to go, even in 2015, we were exposed to this option in a way that gave us a chance to explore the possibilities.  In many ways, if 2011 was the year of infrastructure, then 2012 was the year of exploring alternative growing techniques.

paper mulch in the field

the mulch layer

Unfortunately, the spraying incident took the wind out of our sails in late July.  It turned out that we were heading towards a record pepper crop that year, and all but a tiny fraction of it had to go into the compost piles.  The high tunnel was in the spray zone, so it was no longer our 'happy place' that it had been.  There is just no getting around it.  This was a big event and it still hurts to think about it. 

Compost bound

But, the list of positive things that came about after this is fairly long.  We opted to purchase a small incubator and tried our hand at hatching some hen eggs, with some success.  Many of our crops did quite well, despite the weather.  The green beans broke the half-ton mark,  the tomatoes were very tasty and plentiful and we set records for kale, chard and watermelon production in 2012.

Chicks in the incubator

We even had more sweet corn than Tammy and I could use, which is a rarity for us.  Usually, sweet corn is so low on the priority list that it often does not get in the ground in time.  This year, the early and dry Spring made it fairly easy to get everything into the ground.  As a result, we had some tasty sweet corn.  Enough to give some to our CSA members and sell more at the farmers' market.

Mmmmmm!

Grover, the blue truck was celebrating his 20th year (10th with us) and it was, unfortunately, his last.  But, we welcomed Chumley the Big Red Truck to the farm in the Fall and he has served us well.

Clyde and Chumley

Another Fall addition to the farm were the Sandman and Mrranda.  Don't let the picture fool you.  They are actually pretty cute.

And, we had a good pumpkin harvest, which was thoroughly inspected and approved by the Sandman.

Yep, this one's ok.

The year closed with a Winter Market in Waverly where we had a pretty nice spread of produce (note the spinach!).  And, we started work adding bushes to our buffer strip in an effort to make that buffer zone a vertical barrier as well as a horizontal break.  We got through the year.  And, while we were a little beat up, it was clear that we were already fighting back and preparing for another growing season.

2011 Look in the Mirror - Ten Year Tenure

We officially celebrated our 10th Anniversary as the Genuine Faux Farm this Spring.  We started GFF in May of 2005 (we have lived on the farm since 2004).  So, this was actually the 11th year of offering a CSA program.  But, we figure we can continue to celebrate 10 years for a little bit yet.

As a part of this celebration, we're going to do some "retrospective" pieces.  For those that have been with us for some time, you might enjoy seeing some of this to remind us all how far we've come.  If you have not been with us all that long, you get the benefit of seeing where we've been without having to go through the growing pains with us!

For those who have interest, you may notice links in this post to other blog posts from 2011.  They actually give a pretty good feeling for that year, so feel free to take them and explore. In particular, you can see what we thought of the year with our 2011 in Review post that we put out there in January, 2012.

Our granary, as it looked in January 2011.

After a pretty rough season in 2010, we were really needing things to go reasonably well in 2011.  And, if a person were to review some of our crop yield numbers, you would see a lot more variety and stronger numbers all around.  Some things, like our beans (788 pounds), lettuce (874 pounds) and summer squash (2909 fruit) did us proud that season.  Not too many huge bumper crops, but enough to redeem our faith in our abilities to grow decent amounts of good food.

But, if 2011 is known for anything, it would likely be for the rapid and significant progress on the infrastructure of the farm itself.  The new high tunnel was about to enter its first full season as was Durnik the tractor.  In a very real way, our response to the difficulties in 2010 was to dedicate ourselves to making this an even better farm than it was in years past.  To do that, we realized the barn was no longer going to be a working part of the farm and we had to adjust accordingly.

Turkey room in the Poultry Pavilion

So, the first effort made was to begin developing the "Poultry Pavilion."  The room for the turkeys was already in place, but we needed to get a hen room up an running if we wanted to get the hens out of the barn.  As it was, we ended up using the turkey room over the Winter while we continued to work on the project.  But, that's how things like this tend to go - especially when you are working around all of the idiosyncrasies of an older building.

Area prepped for the new hen room.

If you want a building to remain on a farm, you need to make sure it has a decent roof.  The granary was on tap for that roof in the Spring.

Always amazing how those guys worked on that roof.

Perhaps it is even more amazing to me, as I look back, how much many of the farm's buildings changed that year.  The white building (called the Truck Barn) was going to look very different by the time we reached the end of the season.  We took down one of the garage style doors that was essentially stuck in place and shored up the entire East side of the building.  We reduced the door size on the West and we fixed both the Southeast and Northeast corners of the structure.

A lot of progress by Fall.

Some of our progress was less visible than what you see above.  We added new electrical service to both the Truck Barn and the Poultry Pavilion and made some improvements on how each building was used. 

Meanwhile, the barn was under deconstruction

Looking back, it is obvious that we had been hurt by 2010 and that we were intent on finding ways to prevent that same thing from happening again.  Everything we did was within budget, but the scale was dramatically different from many of our prior years.  This was the beginning of a whole farm evolution that continues to this day.

Portable feed wagon parked in the old barn and the two bottom plow in the granary

We added Barty Senior (the walk behind tractor/tiller), the portable feed wagon was integrated into the mix, we bought our first running gear and put a deck on it and managed to acquire some appropriately sized implements for Durnik that Fall. 

The modifications to the farm weren't limited to buildings and equipment.  We worked to reconfigure some of our fields in order to make the operation more efficient with our changing tool set.

In fact, reviewing 2011 becomes more interesting if we consider how these changes have been adapted further by 2015.  The field reconfiguration was taken a step further this year when we added our second high tunnel.  Many of the implements we purchased, such as the two bottom plow and rotary mower are still important parts of our operation and Barty is incredibly important.  The Poultry Pavilion has two poultry rooms and areas to store straw now and the pastures behind the building have some fencing, trees and bushes added since that time.  The truck barn sees a great deal of activity every year and the granary is an important storage building for feed and equipment.  Meanwhile, the remnants of the barn slowly fall to the ground.

But, the most lasting improvement to our operation came in the form of a group of farms that agreed to take the time to visit each other during the growing season.  The Gang of Four was born, in part, as a result of the struggles of previous years.  Since that time, we have come to know some fantastic people who also have a passion for growing quality food using sustainable methods.  And, we have learned that part of sustaining our operations is finding and nurturing relationships with others who share some of the same concerns and trials.

Gang of Four at Scattergood Friends School farm

Believe it or not, this was our fifth season collaborating with our good friends.  As is often the case when you are involved in something good, you can't believe it's only been five years.  And, at the same time, you can't believe it's already BEEN five years.  Here's hoping for many more!

By the Numbers - Ten Year Tenure (TYT) Edition I

We often do posts that talk about the numbers for crop yields and other things farm related.  Per the norm, I try to put something in these posts for everybody to keep it interesting and informative.  But, even if I fail that, these posts do serve as a record we can use on our farm.

Cucumber Roller Coaster
In this post we'll concentrate on cucumbers - in part because we have so much interesting data on them.  We've actually used our cucumber crop as subject material on this blog in the past.  For example, in 2010, I went through one process we use to determine the worth of the crops we grow.  And, we also talked about cucumbers from the perspective of how we plan for success AND failure of any given crop.  After re-reading these posts, I still find that they hold up pretty well.  Some of our processes have changed, but not enough to invalidate what was said there.

Green Finger cucumbers

First, the basic numbers for each year since 2006.

Cucumbers Produced
2006	1588
2007	3641
2008	612
2009	1063
2010	7318
2011	1058
2012	5928
2013	5884
2014	2142
Total	29,234
Average	3248

Raw numbers are dangerous for many reasons.  First, higher and lower numbers can have many reasons.

For example, 2006 was fairly early in our farm's development and the number of cucumber plants we started was much lower than what we grew in 2007.  At that time, we decided the production level was a little high for what we needed at the time, so we reduced the number of row feet slightly for cucumbers in 2008.

and...this is what happened in 2008

At this time we were still direct seeding cucumbers.  And, for some reason in 2008, germination was terrible and growth was very poor once things germinated.  Many other growers in our region reported similar troubles after the fact.  And, these problems continued in 2009.  But, we made more efforts to reseed - so our production numbers were higher, but not all that good either.

So, what do you do after you have particular problems with a crop?  You make major adjustments.  We made several in 2010.  And, the cucumbers just happened to be landing in our best field for production.  We increased the row feet planted and planned some overhead irrigation if things got dry.  Needless to say, the cucumbers responded in record amounts.  As it was, we were back to the problem of too much of a good thing.  The turkeys that year learned to love cucumbers.

Our final year to direct seed cucumbers was 2011.  That was a particularly bad year for cucumber beetles - our timing for planting hit their peak population dead on.  Add to that the issue of being in a weedy field and there you have it.  Oh, and we reduced the number of row feet because we were gun shy of the exuberance shown by these plants the previous year. 

and that brings us to 2012-2014

We actually consider 2014 results to be a continuation of the success and consistency shown in the prior two years (more on that later).  Starting in 2012, we went to all transplanted cucumbers.  In addition to that, we went with installing drip irrigation immediately with the transplants.  It is far easier to install irrigation when you transplant because it is clear where the plants are and where the drip tape should be.  We also implemented a new plot plan where the peas, carrots and pole beans were organized differently around two successions of cucumbers.

Succession I in 2014

Our two succession model showed its value in 2014.  The first succession didn't really want to get going with the cooler early season temps.  As a result, the older, smaller vines didn't establish quick enough and we ended up letting them go when succession II started producing.  It just wasn't going to be worth the effort to get them weeded and give them attention for the returns we saw them producing.  On the other hand, succession II brought us to nearly half the production of the prior two years.  In short, despite conditions that were not optimal, our practices brought us an acceptable return.

Over the past three years, we feel we are safe in saying the following expectations are not unreasonable for these varieties:

Boothby's Blonde: 8.1 to 9.3 fruit per row foot - Succ I
        7.6-7.9 fruit per row foot - Succ II
A&C Pickling: 3.0 per row foot - Succ I
       3.5 per row foot - Succ II (likes a warmer soil to start)
Green Finger: 6.9 per row foot
Marketmore 76: 5.0 - 9.2 per row foot
Parade: 4.1 to 5.7 per row foot
True Lemon: boom or bust.  less than 1 per row foot to more than 10 per row foot.

These are all open pollinated varieties.  2013 was the last season we planted a hybrid cucumber and these were the poorest producers in both 2012 and 2013.

Top Ten Business Decisions - Part I

Earlier this year, Rob was involved in a Practical Farmers of Iowa event in Cedar Falls called the Next Generation Retreat.  Beginning farmers attended and were working on budgets and business plans for what they hoped would be new farm businesses in Iowa.  Rob's job was to share some insights for potential vegetable and CSA growers.

We felt it might be enjoyable to share various "TENS" as a part of our "Ten Year Tenure" celebration.  This will be one of several series we hope to maintain throughout the second half of the 2014 season.

This will, of course, be a Ten Part Series.  We are not putting them in order of importance as that's just too much work.  Instead, we'll do them as we feel like writing about them.

Adding the tractor and various implements to our tool set.

That is one daunting task....

Up until 2010, the largest tools we had on the farm were the lawn tractor(s). Our model was to try to build equity before making farm purchases and it took a few years before we really let ourselves begin investing capital into tools.  In fact, one of our favorite early photos (2005) is above.  Other than a lawn tractor used to mow and pull a small cart, our big tool was the walk behind tiller you see here.  Our first crash course about needing good tools occurred soon after this picture when the tiller 'threw a rod' and was down for the count when we still had things to do.  Our first response at that time was to have a new engine put on this tiller.  The second was to purchase a tiller attachment for our lawn tractor.

At this point in time, the old tiller still runs if needed.  The tiller for the lawn tractor has been down for the count for a few years now.

Durnik the tractor - resting after a little work

Of course, there were intermediate steps that lead us to 2010 and the purchase of the 1949 Ford 8n/2n you see above.  But, the purchase of this tractor represents a significant change in how we performed work on the farm.

It's amazing how much more efficient moving straw can be with the right tools.

This was one of those 'serendipity meets just enough daring to try to pull it off' moments.  That year was not, by any means, a great year for us.  And, we'd already expended significant capital on the high tunnel.  But, attendance at a recently deceased neighbor's auction brought us face to face with the possibility that we could own a larger piece of equipment that would have some people who were knowledgeable of the tractor's past.   So, we took a run at the tractor and landed it.  Members in the neighborhood, including the family, were pleased it stayed nearby.

We weren't able to use the tractor much early on because we didn't have any equipment that worked with it.  But, one of the first additions was a hayrack.  And, this purchase provided us with a crash course on 'why used equipment isn't always the best choice.'  Essentially we purchased a running gear that had no deck.  Rob was pretty confident in building the deck (and it looks great by the way) but he didn't notice that the darned thing didn't turn.  The front wheels were frozen in place.  Ugh!

Disk Harrow

Rotary Mower

Potato Digger

Two Bottom Plow (Moldboard Plow)

Since that time, we have added various implements and done a good bit of learning about how to work with and care for this tractor.  In fact, it is safe to say that we've learned what it is particularly good at doing.  And, of course, we've learned its shortcomings.  But, let's be honest, for the price of purchasing and paying for repairs on this tractor, we've had a an excellent course on how this sort of tool can be a key asset on a farm such as ours.  In short, I am not sure we would have learned as much as well as we did if we had made a leap to take out a loan and acquire a new tractor immediately.  In fact, I'll go out in a limb and say we would not have learned as much, nor would we have learned as well.  Further, we would not have been willing to invest money in several of the other tools that are used with the tractor.  A new tractor with a bucket might be nice, but if you don't have other tools for tillage, cutting, cultivating and planting - it is one-dimensional and wasted money.  Purchasing a less expensive, older, but fairly reliable tractor that had a traceable history was perfect for us.  We had capital to experiment with different tools to learn what we could (and should) be doing.

And, if we made a mistake, the loss wasn't nearly so great.  In fact, we've already removed some items from that farm that didn't work for us.  We've even replaced some items that worked, but we saw the repairs looming on the horizon.

Sometimes an auction purchase didn't work out.

This year, we took another step and added a much newer tractor to our tool lineup.  This time, financing was required.  But, we couldn't ignore the fact that it would address a long laundry list of issues we had with getting things done on the farm.

Rosie the tractor - We Can Do It!

The jury, of course, is still out on whether this, by itself, is a top 10 item.  But, we can assure you that we do not purchase things for the farm without a fair amount of thought and some wringing of hands.  It's no small thing to do this.  But, then again, consider what it will do for us:

• turning compost piles (something we have been unable to do since they got too large for hand turning)
• Using the tandem disk (Durnik just couldn't quite run the disk for much longer than 15-20 minutes at a time)
• better fuel economy.  We figure what we did with the disk and chisel plow soon after purchase used 1/3 the fuel that we would have with Durnik
• More flexibility and less time taking implements on and off (we can leave the flex tine weeder on Durnik and have the disk on this beast for example)
• The ability to add a transplanter to our arsenal of tools in the not too distant future
• Use of the rotary mower is no longer the adventure it is with the older tractor - and we don't mean adventure in a good way this time.
• A warranty during the break-in period so we don't get delayed by break downs...

Keep checking out our blog and see how our new tractor gets along with the old.

GFF Field Day

On August 17 of this year, we hosted a Practical Farmers of Iowa field day that was sponsored by MOSES.

The press release announcing this field day is at this location. 
Also - the questions and topics of the field day got me thinking that some more detail on some things might be appreciated.  so, the following blog posts (so far) can be attributed to the field day.  We hope they are of use to others:

• A post on irrigation.
• A post on our peak vents for the high tunnel
• A post on one of our top 10 business decisions for the farm.
• A post on one of our "lessons in farming."

The field day was attended by 60 people, the food was excellent and the attendees were a pleasure to have visiting the farm.  There were many great questions, some decent answers and wonderful conversations.  All in all, we were honored to be able to hold this field day and have the opportunity to share what we do with other interested persons.  Hopefully, attendees were able to learn from us - either by seeing what we do that fits their needs or seeing how we fail so they can avoid those same problems.

We thought we would share some photos that were taken by the PFI staff.  But, before we get to that - a big thanks to Tomoko, Tamsyn and Chris for all of their help!   PFI staffers are the best and are one of the reasons we're happy to keep doing things to support PFI.

Our youngest attendee - 3 weeks of age

We had attendees of all ages at this event, but the youngest person came along for the ride with Glen and Beth Elsbernd.  It turns out, Anthony didn't really have many questions.  But, believe me... he will. 

You want me to talk or Tammy?

The program started at about 3:20 when it looked like most who intended to attend had arrived.  There was some great creative parking going on.  Well done people!  The first stop after the normal housekeeping things that occur at these events was the ducks.  Rob made sure to ask if people wanted to hear from the knowledgeable person regarding the ducks or the one who just feeds the Appleyard ducks greens.  They opted for knowledge (and beauty), so Tammy presented on that topic.

Rob tells everyone which direction East is.

Once we were done with the ducks, Rob decided to be out standing in his field.  Everyone else stayed on the path ways.  Thank you everyone.  It made me feel special that I could trod around in the fields.  Since our topic areas had to do with intercropping, planning and research the field day ran the gamut.  We tried to respond most to questions and I feel that we touched on each topic.  The biggest difficulty had to be trying to do each thing justice without wearing the audience out.

So, if you were an attendee and wondered if there is more.  There is.  There is always more.  But, we covered a little bit of each thing in hopes that you could get some nuggets that were useful to you.

A Reds cap for Rob (super cool) and an A's cap for Rob's brother!

I was greatly honored to have another Reds cap at the field day!  What a great cap.  That young man is going to go far!  Even better, his brother wore an A's cap.  It just so happens that this is my brother's favorite team.  If they only knew.

I think there's something on my shoe.

The pictures we were able to view of the field day included an inordinate number of Rob.  I suppose the reason for this is that he was speaking.  But, if you know Rob, you realize he'd rather be on the picture taking side of the camera.  And, you probably also know he isn't a person who takes pictures of people.  Nothing like getting a new perspective of life on the farm.

We've always known this, but we never had it so well illustrated.  Rob feels it necessary to gesture when he talks.  We just thought you should know.

That actually looks comfortable.  Maybe I should sit, since there is something on my shoe?

The best part of the field day?  The great people with the great questions.  We wish we had more time to just converse with more of you!

James says, "Hey, did you know you had something on your shoe?"

James Frantzen of Riverside Feeds and Mike Gallagher of Sunshine Paper Company were both in attendance as well.  James provides the feed for our poultry and Sunshine Paper provides us with the Weedguard Plus paper mulch we use in our SARE research at the farm.  It was good to be able to point interested individuals there way when we got questions about what we fed our birds or where we got the paper mulch.

These people are smiling because they know smoked turkey is on the menu

The field day had some serious content, but we still managed to keep it light-hearted and laid back.  We figured most people there had endured a long week as we had, so providing an event that allowed all of our blood pressures to go back down would be a good thing.

Ending the event with a GFF smoked turkey prepared by Chef Chris Meyers of the Savory Spoon in Frederika (along with his home made buns) was an excellent choice.  The meal was supplemented by some GFF Bunte Forellenschus lettuce and all kinds of excellent items brought as part of the potluck. 

Oh...what a scary bunch that is!

Kieran, our Labor For Learning intern and Erik, one of our summer farm helpers, were able to attend the field day as well.  We think it provided them with more insight about why we do some of the things we do in the way we do it.  Sometimes explanations cannot be so thorough during a work day.  And, often the explanations are confined to what is going on at the time.  This gave a macro view that they both deserved to have.  So, we're glad they were able to be there.

Thank you for attending the field day.  Now... adore me.

And, apparently, the farm cats were on the list of must see items for the PFI staff.  Of course, being cats, they all made sure they couldn't be troubled during the field day.  Cubby did eventually show up so Tamsyn, Chris and Tomoko could see her.  Being the might huntress she is, she preened and posed.  Who wouldn't be proud to be Cubby?

Mrranda showed up almost immediately after the last car left the farm.  Sandman followed five minutes later.  They're response was - "What?  Was something going on here?  I didn't know."

Now that's encouraging!

People were great about separating trash, dishes, recycling, etc.  And, many people brought their own table service, reducing our efforts at cleanup dramatically.  Bless you all!

Of course, there were still numerous things to do to clean up after the event, but it wasn't nearly the onerous task it could have been.  Tammy did a great job organizing this part of the field day and those who came were helpful and positive guests.  Thank you to all of you.

And, of course, we should also thank people who came in days prior to help us prepare the farm for this field day.  Ron Lenth brought chairs from the extension office for us to use (thank you Ron!).  The Figura clan, Jo Foster, Erin and Bailey Bartlett and Kieran Cullen all showed up for some volunteer time on Saturday.  We managed to clean up the tomato field a bit, knock down weeds behind the cold frame area and slap a little more paint on the granary.  Nancy Hasenwinkel continues to help with maintaining the flower beds.  It's been pleasant to look at the flowers and not be disappointed in the state they are in.  Jeff Sage and Lyndsay Schmidt, two growers in Bremer County, joined us on Wednesday and helped us clean up some of our fields as well.  And, we would be remiss if we neglected to point out that Erik, Kieran and Denis - our crew this season, have all done a great deal to make the farm look as good as it could for this event.

Well done all!