fallingtofly-deactivated2012011 asked: Any plans for the barn? I imagine it would be an awesome place to have an aquaponics setup.
Right now we’re still trying to decide if it is going to be cost effective to do the repairs. That is going to involve jacking up the barn, digging out the old walls, pouring new foundations, etc. 20 or more years of freeze/thaw cycles because there were no animals in the barn to keep the temperature stable has taken its toll. What it does have going for it is a solid roof and good timber frame structure. Now that we’re getting the building cleaned out finally, we can take a close look at the foundations and run some calculations and contact some contractors and get some prices.
Aquaponics is something I haven’t looked into in many years. It certainly can be a viable option for some, but at this point in time we’re basically experimenting, looking for a way to develop a viable business with as little financial outlay as possible. So for the time being we’re going to concentrate on vegetable and fruit production on a small scale, start to develop markets as we procede and see what happens.
If it works, great! Then we can continue to expand, perhaps adding small animals in the future. If it doesn’t work, we’ll at least have gotten a lot of yummy vegetables out of the project and we’ll have lost little except the time we’ve spent working at it.
