Aquaponics

Mark had a good day working on his aquaponic project in the basement. The tanks are now installed, the piping done and some of the lights up. The yellow light is over the tank (grow bed) on the left that will grow the vegetables and herbs such as tomatoes, and peppers. The white light over the tank (grow bed) on the right will grow things like lettuce.

 The picture below shows the set up, the big tank in the front is where the fish will be, the tank below the garden tanks is where the pump is. That is used to pump fish water up into the grow beds. It also recirculates the grow bed water.

This was a good day to work on inside stuff, outside we are dealing with ice. All morning each time Mark would need to go to the back garage behind the barn he was slipping and sliding. Everything  here is sheer ice. Valiant needed a new bale but this morning it was so icy Mark didn't want to try taking the skid steer out on it. We moved Valiant very carefully over to Piper's paddock now that she is gone. Horses just don't do well on ice and even though he only had to take a couple of steps to get off the drive he still almost fell. Later this afternoon the sun came out and some of the ice turned slushy enough to move bales. We put one in the middle paddock and one in Valiant's paddock but left him where he was. We are suppose to get warmer weather with sunshine tomorrow so will move him then.
Mom spent the morning in Roanoke playing with Rebekah and Brian's brand new baby Jordan Peter. This evening was the Bible class pancake supper.

Rachel took the picture below:

As a baby gift she gives of her time and talent and a CD by taking the newborn pictures for the family. I'd say lately she is getting quite a work out. It seems like babies are popping out all over the place.
This evening we were going to bring down the whelping bed but couldn't find it. The girls must have put it behind the round bales. This will be for Emma and we will need to get it set up in the kitchen, yes the kitchen. There is no other place it will fit and it needs to be close to our bed. English Mastiffs are a bit like sows, sometimes without meaning to they can crush a puppy. Luckily the puppies know how to scream which hurls me out of bed in time to save them. When they get a little older we will move them to the stall barn. I still need to find some way to heat it. Anyone have any ideas? The puppies are due the Jan 19th, or 20th.