Hay! Ewe! Root for the Farmers!: Business planning and Raising the first "bents" of the timber frame

This morning we discussed further the elegance and frustration of writing a business plan. Again, we used Nate and Jen's farm plan as the starting point for our questions, going through their proposals and financial documents. This got me thinking about the nature of farming as a business. It is one thing when a new gadget maker runs into trouble and his business folds--no job for him and no gadget for us. Farmers, however, are supplying our food and it was good to know there is support for them: reduced costs in vehicle insurance, utilities, lower land taxes are just a few things we do to make farming work as a business. Wm offered us an article on the "the food movement" which I have read most of and highly recommend to you, too. There is a little blurb about the farm crisis in the 1980's which I remember but had no idea it was related to the federal government focusing its price supports to corn and soy.

Here's the article: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/food-movement-rising/

Our afternoon was also elegance and frustration--and some progress. We set about raising the first section of our timber frame sawmill shed. See it and cheer!

Sophia trims the brace tenon while Brian hangs on

Kiyoshi and Emma check the brace

Josh helps us see the whole picture before heading out

We began by hearing the "big picture" from Josh. We had our two "bents" which are upright posts and their top plates. We also had two tie beams that join the bents from front to back and the braces needed to fit together. We checked the fittings to make sure that the mortices and tenons were matched. Once the pieces were ready, we loaded up the horse cart and set off for the mill site.