While we are busy picking for our boxes of fruit and vegetables each week we do try to make time for repairs and improvements to the farm. Last week we had supplies for three projects delivered at one time.
1. Vegetable Oil Tank... As many of you know we collect used vegetable oil from a couple of restaurants in San Francisco. We use this oil to power one of our delivery trucks and an irrigation booster pump in the field. The oil is stored in 275 gallon pallet sized totes. We are replacing these with a potable water quality tank. This will make for a cleaner and better looking storage area as well as give us extra capacity. This tank will hold 2,500 gallons.
2. Pipe Repair... The concrete pipe that connects our well to the irrigation system has been developing a leak over the past year.It has a small crack that is now six feet long. We could make a temporary fix but it is safer to replace it. We will dig a trench and connect the well pump with 4" plastic pipe into the system. The concrete pipe will then be blocked off.
3.Water for the Strawberries and Lavender... The field that has these crops does not have any pressurized water. The lavender is furrow irrigated and for the Strawberries we have drip lines so we have to bring in a pump that is attached to the tractor to supply water at the right pressure. We now have bought enough 3" plastic pipe to feed water to this filed from our booster pump.
We still have to install all of the above but at least we have everything we need for the job here on the farm.