Keep on Going!

Sorry I have not posted for a little while. As I have said many times, life sometimes gets in the way of doing what you want to do and makes you focus on what you need to do. To be honest between life and work I have just not felt like writing another post. That is not to say I haven’t been working on the home system though!

In my last post I indicated I would be providing more details on my building plans. As I started to build I have decided to hold off. I have been making changes to my original design on the fly, in hopes to build a more stable and easy to operate stand/system. Some of the changes actually occurring by mistake and end up being happy accidents.

Actually building the system has taken much longer than I anticipated. One of the tricks for me is balancing time with the family and working on this hobby. What I have been trying to do is work on this while my kids are sleeping. This sounds like a great idea; however, my littlest will not sleep through the saw running. The work around has been measuring and cutting a stack of boards and assembling them at night.

One of my “brilliant” ideas was to overhang the 1”x4” decking enough over the edge of the frame to trim it out at a later date. I thought this would be fine as it is not a weight bearing part of the structure. In practice this turned into a huge pain in the neck. Notching out of the planks was just not worth the potential end benefit. So as you scroll through the photos below you will see a change in the decking for the fish tank decking vs the decking for the grow bed.

One of the other reasons I do not want to provide a supply list or final design, is I do not have a full inventory of what I will use. A perfect example of this, is I have already used all of the 2”x4” I originally planned for. Although you will see I have the bulk of the system framed up, I still want to put in some additional supports for the grow bed, essentially putting in king studs from the bed frame to the lower frame and something to hang the grow light on.

Christmas occurred over my break from blogging and I was fortunate to receive some additional books on aquaponics and sustainable foods production. I am currently reading a book on commercial aquaponics called “The Aquaponics Farmer: A Complete Guide to Building And Operating A Commercial Aquaponic System” by Adrian Southern & Whelm King. My intention is not to turn this blog into a book review outlet, but I will make sure to always provide my thoughts on related books, so far this one is not disappointing

Typically I only post two pictures per post, but I think the fun part is actually showing what is being built here. I am hoping the next few posts contain extra pictures and come a little more regularly. Thanks for sticking with me!

Johnny’s Words of Wisdom – Don’t Be Afraid: I think we all get to a point in our lives, careers, hobbies, etc. where we need to take that next step. Whether is it taking your relationship to the next level, volunteering for that special project, or just bringing an idea to reality. Aquaponics to me started that way, seeing it work at Disney was so inspiring! Committing the time to reading books and making the decision to building a home system was a huge step for me, but as Walt Disney said “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”