Ramble On

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

More Saturday Progress @HawksbillHops

This is Delilah, who supervised me while I was
goofing off in the barn.
With Eric and David making their way about the trellis, I was given an assignment to tinker a bit with some of the irrigation connections.  It wasn't challenging intellectually or physically, but it was my first time so I spent a few minutes on the learning curve, to ensure I didn't mess things up.

This involved a trip to the barn, where David's goats Delilah and Buttercup have a stall.  They were very curious about what I was doing there, so I went over to pay them a visit.

Then it was back to the task at hand.  I was going to make connections between some of the black 1-inch hose and the blue 3-inch lay-flat.  Accessories required for the assignment included a blowtorch, petroleum jelly, rubber cement, a flat head screwdriver, and a socket wrench.

Thinking back on it, I think I went to some USAF parties that required the same accessories.

Here's one of the valves I connected to the supply lines.
The route from the well over to the hop yards is a couple of hundred yards, with five or six 90-degree turns.  These bends also happen to be where the water will flow through the lay-flat and then transition to the black pipe, so those were the connections I was putting together.  Kind of glad to have an opportunity to build a part of the whole thing.

Meanwhile, David and Eric were really making hay stringing cable.  They managed to get all of the cross runs done, and got three of the lengthwise interior cables in place and connected on the north end.  After they connect these to the south end and take the slack out, there are only six more cables to run and the trellis will be finished.

Meanwhile, David and Eric continued their work
on the trellis.




That's great news - it means that if the weather holds, we'll have a completed trellis by the time of our planting event on Saturday May 2.  Hoping to see a few of my followers there...starts at 9am and the hop  yard is across the street from Public House Produce (click on the link for the address).  


2 comments:

posumcop said...

There was nice local news coverage (WHSV TV-3, Harrisonburg, VA) of your fledgling business adventure. The piece was aired on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the note - they gave us a call at around 10am Wednesday to set it up. I was back in Alexandria, but thankfully David was nearby to meet them at the farm!