Equipment & Infrastructure
An important part of Jeff and Cindy’s philosophy is about keeping their farm "small scale." Nowhere is this philosophy more evident than in their intentional avoidance of large or expensive equipment. Of course, all farming operations depend on some kind of equipment and infrastructure, but in Jeff and Cindy’s case it is generally small, portable, and not highly mechanized. Their equipment list includes a small Port-O-Hut for sheltering hogs on pasture, a large Port-o-Hut for sheltering chick brooders, pens for pastured poultry, a lawn tractor with small trailer for daily deliveries of water and feed to pastured animals, their mobile poultry processing unit, freezers for poultry sales, an incubator for eggs, and a cider press for apples.
Cindy and Jeff’s infrastructure is also fairly simple. The house was already on the land when Cindy purchased it in 1996. The so-called “red house” and an attached Airstream trailer were also part of the land; the red house was eventually separated from the Airstream and moved to a different location. It contains intern housing, a small shop, storage areas, and freezers. The garage and hen house were purchased and moved to the farm from other properties, thanks to an acquaintance who moves buildings and gives them a good price.
The most significant investment that Jeff and Cindy have made to infrastructure involves the passive solar greenhouse that is attached to their home and which integrates household heating and water treatment with their herb-growing operation. Their “greywater” system, in turn, relates to their use of composting toilets. The components of the overall system are described on the next three web pages.
 |
 |