Joseph's Doings...

[12540dumont]

It's only a chick magnet if you have nice legs....biking improves legs. What is that red squash?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

On the bike is Long-Necked Butternut... It will be deep orange when I cut it open. In my perfect world, all moschata squash would be that color.

The red/green squash a few posts up-thread is a random maxima squash. I don't know it's provenance.

I once won a "Best Legs" contest, and that was long before I took up biking...

[steev]

I think that red/green squash must be "Joseph's Tartan Kilt".

I know, Joseph isn't Scots and his kilt is denim, but c'mon; life is short; have some fun!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I'm feeling claustrophobic, grumpy, and I want to go to bed... Can't though until I clean the beans off the bed... Yesterday I finished the bush bean harvest. Loose beans, and sacks of beans are drying on the bed. Curing squash, or drying beans and corn are cluttering all but a narrow walkway in my room. Nice to have an abundant seed harvest... It's just a lot of work, and winter is coming.

[steev]

Yeah, yeah, grump, grump; you got any idea what it's like when you're a packrat living in an 8'x10' sleeping porch? My 10'x12' pump-house is spacious in comparison. The mice do tend to be hell on corn, grain, and melon seeds in the PH, though.

[mcool61]

I think there is a song about Joseph & his kilt. Something about too much alcohol & couple of girls & when he woke up he wasn't sure what happened but figured he had won first prize since they tied a blue ribbon to his err..mmm...moschata

[steev]

I vaguely remember that song; a classic of its genre.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Joseph – More Dedicated Than Ever

You've probably heard the saying: _"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration."_ This may be true. But sometimes despite all our hard work,
what we really need is a motivating spark to make incredible things
possible.

For Paradise, Utah farmer and seed grower Joseph Lofthouse, that
transformative event came when he attended RMSA's Seed School last fall.
Joseph has been diligently farming a two-acre plot of land for the past
seven years. During that time, he has selected and saved seed from over 70
different vegetable varieties, developing this diversity into locally
adapted landraces that thrive in their unique growing conditions and
reflect Joseph and his community's tastes and habits.

This is quite an impressive feat for one young farmer. But after a spark of
inspiration from Seed School, his efforts leapt to the next level.

"IT SEEMS TO ME ONE YEAR LATER THAT COMING TO SEED SCHOOL CHANGED MY LIFE
AND CONVERTED ME FROM A FARMER THAT GROWS HIS OWN SEEDS INTO A SEEDSMAN."
Joseph says. "My self-confidence soared. Today, my conviction is that what
I am doing is the key to my people's long-term survival. This is a core
belief I carry at the center of my being."

Joseph's story is powerful--but not unique. We've seen these
transformations time and again as our Seed School students step out into
the world empowered and changed by what they've learned. And with _upwards
of 700 graduates and counting_, that's a lot of inspiration to go around.
These seed leaders are setting up seed libraries, launching local seed
companies, and teaching their communities about seed saving.

Over the coming year, the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance will continue to
build on this momentum with our acclaimed educational programs. So far, we
have a specialized Grain School [2] planned in January and a second Seed
School Teacher Training [3] set for March. With your help, we can provide
hundreds more people like Joseph with that life-changing spark to transform
our food system--and our world--for the better.

Just like one seed can create thousands more, each Seed School graduate can
have an exponential impact. MAKE A YEAR-END GIFT TODAY TO SUPPORT RMSA'S
CRUCIAL WORK IN SEED EDUCATION AND STEWARDSHIP. [4] Thank you for helping
spark this inspiring movement!

Happy harvests,

Bill McDorman, Belle Starr, and John Caccia
Founders

JOSEPH LOFTHOUSE WRITES THE LANDRACE GARDENING BLOG FOR MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
KEEP UP WITH HIS SEED MUSINGS AND INSIGHTS HERE

[steev]

That's our Joseph, outstanding in his field!

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

That is probably the most inspiring post I've ever seen!

Plus there's a nice photo of what appears to be the other side of the Rockies

...Joseph if you ever decide to start your own seed business or breeding venture or buy land and you put your proposal on Kickstarter i'd support you and I bet lots of others would too!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I was faced with a decision between fixing my truck, or building a greenhouse. It wasn't really a decision at all, I know my priorities. It took me 22 hours to build this model last time. This time it took 14 hours.

Here's a time lapse of most of the build: Once per hour.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

That looks like a nice greenhouse. Was it a kit, or did you build it from scratch?

I'm curious how your tps project is going? What colors and shapes do you currently have?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

The greenhouse is the Harbor Freight 10' X 12' kit. It's my second one of this model. It doesn't stand up well to wind, so requires strengthening, and screwing the panels to the frame.

I currently only have red skinned potatoes with white/ivory flesh. The others petered out, or got lost. I also have tubers from an all purple potato from one of my neighbors. It didn't produce seed this year, because I let it get overtaken by weeds. I suppose that it's time for me to introduce some more variety.

[oldmobie]

Nov 26, 2015 11:04:00 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

The greenhouse is the Harbor Freight 10' X 12' kit. It's my second one of this model. It doesn't stand up well to wind, so requires strengthening, and screwing the panels to the frame.

I'm hoping to put up a greenhouse, and am torn between the model you're using or having one built from scratch. What did you do to strengthen yours? Where did you put the screws on the panels? All the way around? How far apart? What kind of screws?

If I were to decide to join it to a second one later, (side by side with the roof peaks parallel) how difficult does it look like that would be?

[philagardener]

oldmobie , If you join them side to side you might trap snow between the units. Can you go end to end and extend the peak and have a walk-through? Also the more wall you have in common, the less heat loss.