With the good weather we are now having Manuel has to help move sprinkler pipe for most of the day leaving only Fernando working on the farm house.
In the field the beds are still too wet to cultivate deeply so we are limited to light cultivation of crops already planted. Hopefully in the next few days we can prepare more beds to plant.

Last Friday our loan officer from the Farm Service Agency of the USDA came out to see the house. Apparently our house design and construction is being noticed in Washington DC by the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. Thank goodness that there is more focus on small family farmers and a keen interest in energy saving homes and farm buildings.  The reason for the visit was not just social, I have asked for additional funds to complete the house. We were hoping to build for $125 per square foot and it will turn out to be closer to $150. The money for the house construction is solely a loan from the Federal Government. As an active farmer I can borrow up to $300,000 at about 3% above the Federal funds rate, fixed for 30 years. No matter how large your farm is that is the limit. As many banks turn their nose up at farmers saying that we do not make enough money this is a big help.

We are now working on the internal walls within the house. The room to the left will be an office and to the right the laundry room/pantry. Above is a storage loft. You can see where we have removed the foam forms to show the concrete. The concrete has now passed its strength test, by a factor of two after only ten days!