Farm Store Happenings

My personal recovery continues this week. I have felt better and been more and more active, with walking, some swimming, and generally moving around. Both mentally and physically I am not as fast or productive than I am used to, but the change of pace is a welcome reminder of my relative improvement. My ongoing project has been preparing what we are calling our “mini farm store.” Our farm store has some fun and interesting beginnings. The building was once a tool and tractor shed for the previous owner of the farm. Our first year on the farm (2013) we used the only form of power greater than our own human strength (a team of horses) to pull the building up to a location by the road for use as a small farm store. Check out this FB video from years ago of the process.

When we closed the farm store at the beginning of 2020, with the onset of the Covid and a new professional context for Racey, we converted the store building into our office. Moving the office out of our house has done great things for our work life separation and was crucial to working while having the kids around for the lock down in Spring of 2020. The question now is, can the office share a space with a little store? So we’re going to give it a try.

We found a display freezer and had it delivered only to learn it needs a dedicated 240V circuit. This means an electrical project! One of my favorite activities. After some investigation I discovered that I would need to upgrade the electrical panel in the building to support the freezer, and my first farm project in months was taking shape.

The existing panel was installed when the building was first purchased and then we added insulation and plywood coverings to the walls. This meant that I had to uninstall a recessed panel and re-route all of the existing wires into a now surface mounted panel. With patience, some knuckle scraping and a few trips to the hardware store I was ready to plug in the freezer, test it, nudge it into position, test for level, get out the shims, level and support it then step back and admire.

Then we moved our refrigerator and check-out station to the other side of the building where there are no plugs so I ran some surface wiring to make a spot to plug in the fridge, scale, square kiosk and such.

I’ve got some ideas on how to organize and display the notoriously difficult selection of frozen meat products in vacuum sealed bags. If any one out there has low cost ideas on how to display such things I would be interested to know! Our hope is to have a small space where we can offer our products on a self-serve basis in addition to our current curbside pickup and home delivery options. I believe that connecting with the physical place where your food comes from is important and I hope this can be a means to that end.

I have not finished the project, and so this is not an official announcement of the opening. However I am learning what it means for me to have some “doing” in my life. I have been reminded of the excited and tense feeling of trying to finish something by a certain time. I have also felt old pains in my body again as old productive patterns take hold and my body reacts in habitual ways. With reminders of old pain I try to remember that noticing is progress.