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Land of a thousand colas, part deux

gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
Chapter 7

Few years passed, another move to a new place, coastal maine. Legal State. Hopefully my last or 2nd to last stop before im space dust.

Chapter 7 because i think this is the 7th place ive personally grown cannabis at in the last 25+ years.

Hopefully not chapter 7 for bankruptcy either. Thou that would be ironic. This new property has the potential to bankrupt, it is capable of multiple life times of work. And if im not careful its potential could bankrupt me.

Been working towards a dream property like this for close to 20yrs now. Acreage and water features is what i dreamt of, and well its here. Lets just hope i can make it all work out. Giving myself 2 years to make the decision to stay on course, or switch directions to something smaller. Its Been one year since ive been here full time. I have about 1 more year to make the decision to stay or sell. While its a dream, its also a business, and the numbers need to work!! But onto the place and then the first phases of build outs underway.


The place & land:

mid-coast, close to the Atlantic ocean or gulf of maine. 140+ acres, multiple ponds, streams & water falls. Multiple dug wells, & one artisan spring well. Irrigation pumps & housing, underground irrigation pipe on 60+ acres. Property is nicely graded with excellent drainage, about 100' in rise from one side of property to the other. On the longest point to point of the property it is almost 1 mile. One point this place was a cattle farm till the mid 60's

Great potential for farming, air bnb cabins, retirement. Couple buildings already here and the first growing area will be outdoor and flower and veg already underway in a 36'x48' 2 story barn. The first phase of the barn im about 7months into, and probably less then 50% of where i want to be.


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Abit to the right of this view I later set up a 500yd target range.

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Woke up one morning to a Turkey fight over the 100+ yr old wolf river apple tree. i have a video somewhere.

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Catching minnows, brook trout, American ells, catfish, and crawfish from the above streams and stocking the 4 ponds. Above pic is after a few inches of rain. The biggest pond is little over an acre and about 15' deep. Many springs on the property, a few year round
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Summer of 22 dankfrank came up for a festival and helped me Build 3 3'x40' amended soil raised beds. I later then Enclosed the area to keep deer and other animals out


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Began sawing my own lumber. Not the best log to start with, had some soft spots, but i was also learning.


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Moving on to bigger logs. Eastern white pine, 52" at base w/bark. Was told by previous owner this was probably a 100-120yr old tree.

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Old artisan spring well on the back side of the property. Was still flowing last year despite the drought. Feeds another small pond

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gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
Start of the Barn build:

Alot of footing repairs and a few other beam replacements will need to be done over the next year or 2. Having some barn footings on rock foundation, and some other footings on not so solid ground, certain areas sunk over time and caused sags and shifts. Then throw in an attached lean-to structure with poor footings starting to sink. then that lean-to pulling the barn to one side, and now seperating from the attached house.

Best i can tell this barn was built and or added onto a few different times. middle then late 1800's , 1930 or so, and 1985. In the barn there are a few dated name tags

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this upper floor area is where the first 2 flower rooms went. the lower floor will be a veg room, mushroom cultivation, and a lab for mushroom and tissue culture. both areas are 12'x40'
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One of the first things i needed to repair / replace was 2 wooden timber pegs. The barn shifted a few inches and pulled sideways. the floor suspension pegs didnt hold, broke and or slid out of the receiving timbers. tbh i was surprised how short the pegs where to begin with. The cross cut sections where the timbers meet where about 14inches together. if i had to guess the pegs where about 10". There was no where near enough surface area to hold that peg properly.

The above pic shows one adjustable metal column put in at some point to help the sag. this floor originally spanned 40' with no vertical columns. the floor has metal rods holding the floor in suspension. the metal rods transfer the weight to above to the a-frame timber,then over to the barn side walls.

Seen as whole, here is the "A" frame that transfer the floor load.

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And here the peg repair began. i cross braced at multiple points with heavy duty ratchet straps from army surplus, ebay NOS airplane cargo transport straps. metal come-alongs, chain brakes, and lifted with bottle jacks. I realigned the floor load timbers back to the original spot, seating the timber back into a recessed scissor type joint. drilled out the busted pegs, and replaced with 1" steel bolts an hardware. There where 2 a-frame load transfer systems repaired

Very Very nervous time. massive tension, creaking & cracking with every tightening of the devices. up the ladder down the ladder. to one side then to the other side. over an over till holes realigned. lift up, pull diagonal, pull towards other suspension timber behind my back in this ladder photo.

at one point on the ladder I thought this would be a perfect meme for "why women live longer then men" series!!

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Now how the fuck do i build a room inside here so when i rebuild and raise the barn footings later, so it doesn't completely throw the room off square. So the room ceilings were built with a 2" grade to the right of these photos. At the time i felt 2" was a happy medium between areas i could raise, or possibly lower. Will see how that plays out later on if i have the chance to get to it.

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2.75" closed cell poly insulation with fiberglass faces. reclaimed from a roof,4'x8' sheets, found on marketplace for $18 a piece. so i grabbed 120 of them. Itchy job even with full face respirators.

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gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
Flower Rm1

Sooo i was like fuck it, im building light movers!!

Im not in the rooms to dance, i want as much canopy within reason, basically wall to wall. Making the room one big light. the first flower room is 12'x24' total. one 12'x12' light array and the 2nd array is like 8.5'x12'


Myself i call the metal material uni-strut, some call it c-channel. I never built a large light array / mover before. Did some research on pulley systems, uni-strut loads, deflection. Crunched a bunch of numbers of weights and measures, over engineered the hardware, and this was the first stab at the build.

Since this photo i have doubled up the uni strut to reduce the deflection. 2 pieces of uni-strut with flat side to flat side.

I knew i was gonna build light movers for maybe 2yrs. So some of the hardware i sourced 2nd hand or NOS or new. some last minute from big box stores, ebay amazon, tractor supply, some big ticket items where facebook marketplace.

Basics of the materials where Tons of nut an bolt hardware. eye bolts
unistrut 1-5/8x 1-5/8 x 10', looked for like 9 months , finally found someone on fb marketplace that had more then 6 sticks. got like 140 sticks for $900. KILLER DEAL since they are $32-40 new.

450lb pulleys, a few 2000lb pulleys for the main line, ebay, amazon and tractor supply, a bracket or 2 from the marine supply.
1/8th nylon/ plastic coated metal wire off fb marketplace. 3500' spool for $65, lol. Very well built marine wire, what a score!

2klb rated hand crank for trailers or boats came from harbor freight, $35. Was gonna go for the electric ones for like $150-200 range. but i then decided i only move the lights 3-4 times throughout the grow, its not like im going up an down daily. Then i figured out i can put a socket on the handle shaft and attach to my impact screw drivers or drills.

in all i built 3 light movers. so photos may not be of the same system, some designs changed a little due to multiple things or room design or other equipment placement. overall the structure principle stayed the same. Uni-strut an pulley system as centered as possible. some plumb lean / offset due to not so straight floors and timbers.

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9 light & a 6 light

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12 & 8 bucket system. 3.5 gal bucket in bucket. 2 netafim 2gph drippers per site. raised bucket on 2"x4"timber a 2x3 or 1x3 as the center of the " H "to allow drains and feed lines to flow underneath. gravity drains. jacks recipes, microbe & nutrient teas

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Some MAC1

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Happy 4th of July !!
 
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gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
Some MAC1 again.

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So The 2nd flower room is a 12x11 canopy / light array. But this time i implanted my 2nd idea, adding vertical 315 cmh lighting in between the leds.

The led lights are KingBrite cs660 or cs650 watt, meanwell ballasts samsung diodes and lg or ushio uv and far red. 3 separate channel controls.

The 9 Phillips 315w 4200k vertical bulbs where setup with 2 circuits, a 5 light and a 4 light. the 5 light lantern pattern looks like the dots of a number 5 dice. the 4 light circuit is setup like a square, turned 90degrees to form a 4 pointed diamond. Or run them all together.

Leds are on low, and i just fired the bulbs so they are not to temp or full strength. My first photo of the room was far to bright for the iphone camera so i took a photo at startup. Room width gets a bit thinner towards the back, so i had to increase the light bar overlap on the last row,
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the inner room led bars are 16" apart, with the cmh placed in the middle.

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this photo is few days after room was loaded with prevegged plants. i have not run the cmh during lights on yet. the 2nd layer of trellis is to close to bulbs right now, and i didnt have the co2 burner and plumbing completed yet. i was already getting major co2 drops lights on and the light/ energy would have been wasted and or plants would have shutdown. TopDawg Fam95

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One of the temp preveg spots. no ac, no dehumidifier, no co2, no exhaust, yet. just lights and fans and a reservoir.

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gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
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Last years Weed On Wheels!! Was very late to transplant

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250gal spreader. So fast it needs a street bike seat.
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Geotea brewer

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1lb apples

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12lb cabbage heads

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Not so small mini bok choy
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my absolute favorite garlic , Persian star. thanks to buddle for introducing me to this variety. this year i have about 40 out of 500 in the ground.

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Myanmar purple sweet potatoes. still working on the loosening the soil density

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gmanwho

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Start of 2023 outdoor.

Plan is 15-25 100gal fabric pots on pallets. If i have my shit together and or time i will put a hoop house around them by late august. i have a 25'x65' hoop and a 30'x100' gothic greenhouse waiting to be built.

Most likely will use part of the 25x65 hoops for this project

make shift screener. peat, local top soil, and 2yr compost. pile is almost twice this size now.
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8'x8' tent with 3 gavita leds prepping outdoor for time difference

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gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
Thanks everyone!! I keep busy, i do have a problem sometimes taking on more then i should. But then again hardwork is where im the happiest i guess.

thou i maynot agree at that moment, question my existence, an mudder outloud some disgruntle shit. but i dont feel good unless daily i can make a list and then remove a step off that list.

The lists are often longer then the days are long. Having a motivated helping hand on a regular basis would help. Hopefully soon i can find someone full time. Still searching and plugging away
 

gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
this is a first year photo, i planted 86 fruit trees in a day and a half. (skid steer with 30" tree auger, and 2 helpers) Amended the holes with dry nutrients and planted.

50 apple, 5 rows of 10 apple, each row a different variety. 20 pear, 2 rows of 3 different pears. The a row of 10 pears, then another 6 plum trees, 2 different variety.

Plan is to espalier / train them all. Creating one wall of tree branches from left to right , each row 10 trees wide.

If i knew how bad the Japanese beetles really where i probably would have not planted.

The first year planting beetles wiped all the leaves out. Luckily trees sprouted a 2nd set. the 2nd year, i wrapped them in a fine mesh bug netting. but then in order to treat them i couldn't spray correctly because of the net. Growth curled up in the netting, and aphids had a field day. We also have coastal fog, so keeping up with fungal sprays is a must. The netting made tree care difficult.

The 2nd winter the Deer ran into the fence, i had not realized the zip ties holding the mesh fence to the posts became fragile from the sunlight & UV exposure. The fence dropped and deer munched almost a year of growth off.

Next time use uv resistant zip ties.

they got hand watered from a hose 3 times a week. weekly nutrient & microbe teas from the brewer. top dressed amendments. I had the University AG extension over and he had expressed that he could not believe the growth for only being 2nd year plantings!! Then the fence incident happened.

This photo was a later summer photo of the first year.

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