This Month on the Farm

Some days when I walk into the barn, it's in full wedding make-up, beautiful and floral and gorgeous. Other days it's an explosion of fall: pumpkins, happy families, and the smell of donuts. And then there are other days, when I walk in the barn to see a tractor parked there, or a truck, or giant piles of torn-apart equipment. 

The constantly changing landscape of the barn was the inspiration for us to add a new "monthly round-up" about the farm to the blog. Because every month - every day, really - there is something new going on, and while these things aren't always the most Instagram-able things we do, they are always interesting and always in service of bringing you a better experience here at the farm.

​We're a little last posting our January wrap-up because, to be honest, these first months of 2020 have gotten away from us. But in the month of January, we've been busy making a mess out of the barn. 

The first project on Kyle's 2020 maintenance agenda was to refurbish the wagons on the kiddie train. We built the original green wagons back in 2015 and then built the red ones in 2016. The green ones - being our first experiment with a wagon build - weren't as strongly constructed as the red ones and they've needed quite a bit of upkeep and maintenance throughout the years. 

​So the first thing I walked into when I came back from a little Christmas break was wagons piled high all over the barn and the VERY strong smell of paint. Kyle and Q, one of our favorite multipurpose guys, rebuilt all the green wagon frames and replaced wheels and other parts so they matched the construction of the red ones, which have been virtually maintenance-free since they were built. Then they all got a new coat of paint and were sent out of the barn, all ready for next fall. 

Next on Kyle's list for maintenance are the big pumpkin patch wagons, which means that the next time we have a few weeks with nothing scheduled, I might be working from home!

But the thing that has been taking most of Kyle's energy and time has been ice cream. A few months ago, Kyle bought an old cable repair truck and we here at the farm were...confused. But much like the barn itself and in true Kyle form, the vision he sees that has us all scratching our heads at first is becoming a reality...and a cool one at that because this funky vehicle is going to become our new ice cream truck!

​He's been gutting the truck, has ordered and received the new window (which we almost tripped over), ordered essential tanks and equipment, talked about rewiring, and has been chatting with the State about the licensing requirements. Add to that installing back-up cameras and other safety equipment, working with a designer to spruce up the outside, and working with a welder to fix it up to our requirements, and you can see why this month has flew by! 

Right now, the truck still doesn't look like much, but quite a lot of the time-intensive work is almost behind us, and we hope that the remaining parts will come together quickly and we'll have our truck up and running in a month or six weeks. And we can't wait to bring you more stories about ice cream, which we will feature a lot here on the blog in the next months as we get more going on with our new fun farm treat - and it's new fun farm wheels.