We just got home after spending the day working at a nursery owned by one of the Bissen family. Barbara and I have just been sitting here in the dark looking out the front of motor home at a most fantastic firefly display. I remember fireflies as a kid, but nothing like this. There are hundreds of them arching around and above the grape vines and an adjacent soybean field. It is like looking at a very clear star filled sky. What an absolutely terrific way to end a day.
The nursery owners are hosting a Model T gathering next week and expect about 250 Model T’s. That ought to be a sight to see, but we will be well on our way by then. Tours of the nursery will be offered so we were enlisted to help get the place spruced up. It was very interesting to learn how they operate.
In the greenhouse they use a method of watering called “ebb and flow”. Young plants are raised in pots placed on large plastic trays that are flooded briefly to wet the bottom of the pots, and then the water is drained into tubs to be held for the next watering. All of the water is collected rainwater. Rainwater runoff is collected from the roof and stored in a 55,000-gallon cistern. This is an exceptionally efficient nursery. They have build a production area that converts grasses and other plant biomass byproducts into pellets that are used to fire the boilers that heat the greenhouse through the winter. Most of the byproducts used come from their own farm fields, but they also incorporate other farmer’s waste products like the sawdust litter used at a nearby turkey farm. It is an ingenious system. The family also operates an organic pig farm, hence the business name of Pork and Plants, Inc.
The tractor show was washed out by heavy rains that lasted all day, so rather than going to the tractor pull event this evening we hung out for dinner with the Bissen family and came home to our firefly show. We are pretty tired from a day of labor and will cash in early.
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